{"id":182146,"date":"2022-02-23T07:01:51","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T12:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=182146"},"modified":"2022-02-18T11:02:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T16:02:34","slug":"tens-of-thousands-of-afghan-evacuees-made-it-to-the-us-heres-how-the-resettlement-process-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/02\/tens-of-thousands-of-afghan-evacuees-made-it-to-the-us-heres-how-the-resettlement-process-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Tens of Thousands of Afghan Evacuees Made it to the US: Here’s How the Resettlement Process Works"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of February 2022,\u00a0some 65,000 Afghans<\/a>\u00a0evacuated during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan have settled in U.S. communities. Several hundred more remain on military bases in the U.S., while\u00a0nearly 2,800<\/a>\u00a0are still waiting on U.S. bases abroad.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration, which aims to have all Afghan evacuees off domestic military bases by the end of\u00a0February 2022<\/a>, has started the final push to place refugees with host communities.<\/p>\n

Operation Allies Welcome<\/a>, the official name for the American government\u2019s Afghan assistance program, is the most significant U.S. resettlement effort since 1975, when\u00a0more than 140,000<\/a>\u00a0people from Southeast Asia were resettled following the U.S. military withdrawal from Vietnam.<\/p>\n

But the media spotlight has moved on, and most Americans have limited understanding of what it means for Afghans to transition to life in the United States. Our work as educators and researchers is focused on\u00a0migration, human rights and social work<\/a>. We\u00a0have studied<\/a>\u00a0American\u00a0volunteers\u2019 role<\/a>\u00a0in helping refugees and see public support as crucial for Afghans\u2019 continued adjustment to the U.S.<\/p>\n

System Under Strain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evacuees brought to U.S. military bases go through rigorous security vetting and health checks. Once these are complete, evacuees await assignment to private groups that will assist in securing housing, work opportunities, education and health care.<\/p>\n

Nine domestic agencies\u00a0partner with the U.S. government<\/a>\u00a0to resettle refugees. Six of them are faith-based, reflecting\u00a0a long history<\/a>\u00a0of religious groups\u2019 involvement in immigration policies. These include Jewish, Catholic and Protestant groups, but all offer help regardless of refugees\u2019 religion.<\/p>\n

These resettlement agencies are given a one-time payment of US$2,275 in federal funding for each refugee they support. Of this assistance, $1,225 may be used for housing and other basic necessities. The remainder of the funds covers administrative costs.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u00a0severely limited refugee resettlement<\/a>, dropping admissions to a record low of 15,000 in 2021, compared with an average of 95,000 per year under previous administrations. Our current research examines the extraordinary strain this decrease put on the resettlement system.<\/p>\n

Innovations in Aid<\/strong><\/p>\n

To evacuate Afghans quickly, the State Department launched an initiative in September 2021 called the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program, which allows Afghans into the U.S. as parolees after security checks.\u00a0Humanitarian parole<\/a>\u00a0can be granted for \u201curgent humanitarian reasons\u201d or \u201csignificant public benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those paroled between July 31, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022, are\u00a0eligible for refugee assistance<\/a>\u00a0and other public benefits until March 31, 2023, or the end of their parole term. Afghan parolees who leave military bases before being assigned to a resettlement organization or placed with a community sponsorship group\u00a0have 90 days<\/a>\u00a0to request aid through the program.<\/p>\n

[Like what you\u2019ve read? Want more?<\/em>\u00a0Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s daily newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Yet the capacity of these organizations is not adequate to meet the large-scale rapid resettlement needs, as agencies struggle to build back from the previous administration\u2019s cuts. The housing shortage for rapid resettlement is so profound that resettlement agencies and\u00a0some states<\/a>\u00a0have partnered with Airbnb to provide emergency housing, following the company\u2019s commitment in August 2021 to support\u00a020,000 Afghan evacuees<\/a>\u00a0worldwide.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the Biden administration created a parallel program to allow community organizations or groups of five or more individual volunteers to directly sponsor Afghans. These sponsors, many of whom are part of a new initiative called\u00a0Sponsor Circles<\/a>,\u00a0must raise $2,275<\/a>\u00a0on their own for each evacuee and commit to providing at least 90 days\u2019 support, such as helping them secure housing and employment and building connections in their new community.<\/p>\n

As of\u00a0late January 2022<\/a>\u00a0approximately 30 Sponsor Circles had reportedly received approvals and another 100 were being certified.<\/p>\n

Here – For Now<\/strong><\/p>\n

While many Americans think of the arriving Afghans as \u201crefugees,\u201d most of these newcomers have a more tenuous legal status.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security reports<\/a>\u00a0that 70,192 have entered the country under\u00a0humanitarian parole<\/a>, which allows residence in the U.S. for two years without a visa.<\/p>\n

Nearly 40,000 Afghan evacuees\u00a0who entered under humanitarian parole<\/a>\u00a0have applied for refugee status or for\u00a0special immigrant visas<\/a>, which are for people who worked with the U.S. government or armed forces in Afghanistan. Another 36,433 Afghans have no clear pathway to permanent legal status, because of many factors such as not having worked at least one year for the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

U.S. agencies brought in Afghans under humanitarian parole, rather than standard refugee procedures, because of the urgency of the evacuation. But the consequences may be profound.<\/p>\n

Some parolees had to\u00a0wait weeks or months<\/a>\u00a0for the government or social service organizations to file paperwork granting them the right to work. Another\u00a0challenge for parolees<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0securing family members\u2019 admission to the U.S.<\/a>, which requires a high level of proof of threat to that particular individual.<\/p>\n

Many Afghan parolees should eventually qualify for asylum, but applying is a lengthy and complex process that generally requires significant legal assistance.\u00a0More than 400,000 asylum cases<\/a>\u00a0are pending in the\u00a0U.S. asylum system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Refugee resettlement organizations and voluntary groups that could normally help with filing asylum claims are already stretched thin. Evacuees\u2019 advocates have\u00a0called for approval<\/a>\u00a0of the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would allow Afghans to apply for lawful permanent resident status without waiting for the asylum system to rule on their cases or processing of special immigrant visa applications.<\/p>\n

Governors, businesses, celebrities, universities, military members, veterans and individuals across the U.S. have stepped in to\u00a0support recent Afghan evacuees<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 many in locales with no history of resettling refugees. The responsibilities of resettlement, however, extend beyond helping evacuees in their first few weeks, to helping them secure a stable future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Originally published in The Conversation.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While many Americans think of the arriving Afghans as ‘refugees,’ most have a more tenuous legal status<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":182147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2312,1870,2235,92],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-182146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hri","category-ssw","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-hartford"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 15:10:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182210,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182146\/revisions\/182210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/182147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182146"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=182146"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=182146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}