Immigrant

Definition

To come to settle in a country (which is not one's own); to pass into a new habitat or place of residence (literal and figurative); one who enters into a country for the purpose of settling there.¹¹

According to migrationpolicy.org, “Foreign born” and “immigrant” are often used interchangeably and refer to persons with no U.S. citizenship at birth. This population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees, persons or certain temporary visas, and the unauthorized.¹²

Types of Immigrants

There are different classifications of immigrants in the United States:

• United States Citizen. To become a US citizen, a green card must be held for a minimum of 5 years or for at least 3 years if filing as a spouse of a US citizen. Certain eligibility requirements must be met, including being at least 18 years old at the time of filing, being able to read, write, and speak basic English, and be in good standing legally. There is also a ten step naturalization process.
• Lawful Permanent Residents are also known as green card holders and are legal residents who are able to accept employment offers without restrictions, own property, receive financial aid at public colleges and universities, and join the Armed Forces. LPRs may join the Armed Forces and apply for citizenship if they meet eligibility requirements.
• Temporary Visitor US Legal defines a temporary visitor as an alien who seeks temporary entry to the United States for a specific purpose. Such alien should have a permanent residence abroad (for most classes of admission) and qualify for the nonimmigrant classification sought.¹³
• Undocumented Immigrant is a foreign national who is living without official authorization in a country of which they are not a citizen.

Reasons for Immigration

The most common reasons for immigration are¹⁴:

• Work and economic job opportunities
• To be with family members
• Education
• Safety
• Temporary Visitors for Business or Pleasure

Immigrants in the United States

As of 2017, according to migrationpolicy.org, more than 44.5 million immigrants reside in the United States. This demographic makes up about 13.7% of the US population. 1890 holds the historical record for the greatest percentage of immigrant U.S. residents–14.8%¹²

Legal Statures & Policy for Immigrants

DACA

“The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was launched in 2012 and it offered a two-year grant of deportation relief and work authorization to eligible young unauthorized immigrants. There were specified requirements for eligibility which included:

• being at least 15 years old;
• having entered the United States before the age of 16;
• having continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007;
• being enrolled in school, having earned a high school diploma or its equivalent, or being an honorably discharged veteran; and
• having not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more misdemeanors; or otherwise posing a threat to public safety or national security."¹⁵

On September 5, 2017 the Trump Administration announced a rescission of DACA that would also have a a six-month wind-down period. Federal courts have challenged the Trump Administration decision and a nationwide ruling has kept the DACA program in place, only for people who currently have or in the past have had DACA benefits.¹⁵

Additional Resources

• Podcast: Immigrants in America, what does it mean to be an immigrant in America today?

• How the US Immigration System Works

• Data and Analysis Related to Trump Administration Actions on Immigrant and Refugee Policy

• U.S. Immigration Policy under Trump: Deep Changes and Lasting Impacts

• Trump Travel Ban and How it Works Major US Immigration Laws 1970-2013

Refugee

Definition 

According to Britannica Encyclopedia, a refugee is “any uprooted, homeless, involuntary migrant who has crossed a frontier and no longer possesses the protection of [their] former government.”¹⁶ The UN Refugee Agency defines a refugee as “someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence,” and states that “a refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so.”¹⁷ 

History of Refugees and Causes

Prior to the 19th century, the movement between countries did not require passports or visas, and the right to asylum (the protection granted by a state to a foreign citizen against his own state) was commonly recognized and honored. There have been multiple waves of refugees throughout history, but only when fixed and closed state frontiers came to exist did the topic of refugees became a problem. By the late 1920s and 1930s, the tradition of political asylum had decreased considerably because of increasing insensitivity to human suffering as well as a historically high number of refugees.¹⁶

For many centuries, refugee movements were because of religious and racial intolerance; entire groups were uprooted by secular or religious authorities to create conformity. Examples include:¹⁶

• Expulsion of Jews from Spain in the late 15th century
• Exodus of Huguenots from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685
• Expulsion of Jews from Germany, Austria, and Sudetenland in the 1930s

Refugee movements have also been the result of political motivations since the development of governments powerful enough to oust nonconforming minorities. Examples include:¹⁶

• Exodus of 1.5 million anti-communists during the Russian Revolution (1917) and the post-revolutionary civil war (1917-1921)
• Departure of 1 million Armenians from Turkish Asia Minor between 1915 and 1923
• Fleeing of several hundred thousand Spanish loyalists to France during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
• Fleeing of over 2 million Chinese to Taiwan and to Hong Kong when the People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949
• The Korean War (1950-1953), Hungarian Revolution (1956), Cuban revolution (1959), and Chinese take-over of Tibet (1959) were all sources of refugees in the 1950s
• Fleeing of over 3.7 million refugees from East Germany to West Germany between 1945 and 1961 when the communist regime erected the Berlin Wall 

Refugee movements have been caused by territorial partition as well. Examples include:¹⁶

• After Germany was defeated in World War II, the Potsdam Conference of 1945 authorized the movement of German minorities from several European countries, and 12 million Germans were shifted to the truncated territory of Germany, which was split into east and west regions
• The greatest population transfer in history was a result of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, when 18 million Hindus from Pakistan and Muslims from India became refugees
• 8-10 million people were temporarily made refugees when Bangladesh was created in 1971
• Palestine’s partition in 1948 caused an exodus of Palestinian Arabs because of a military confrontation between the new state of Israel and surrounding Arab countries

Refugees in Our Time

War and ethnic, tribal, and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries. Two-thirds of all refugees worldwide come from just 5 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia.¹⁷ More than a third of the world’s displaced population — some 25.9 million people — have been forced to flee their own countries entirely, leaving familiar lands behind and becoming refugees.¹⁸ More than half of refugees are children.¹⁹

Here is a list of the top 7 countries of origin that account for the most refugees in the world today (as of July 2019):

1. Syria – 6.7 million refugees

   1. Since the Syrian civil war officially began on March 15, 2011, Syrians have been subject to brutal conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, torn the nation apart, and regressed the standard of living by decades. Healthcare centers and hospitals, schools, utilities, and water and sanitation systems are damaged or destroyed. The Syrian army and various militant groups are fighting to control territory in the northeast and northwest. The civil war has become a sectarian conflict, with religious groups fighting against each other.²⁰ Most of the 6.7 million Syrians who are refugees are still located in the Middle East. Turkey holds 3.6 million, which is the largest number of refugees hosted by any country. Syrian refugees have also fled to Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. In 2018, 1.4 million Syrian refugees returned home to Syria, but face lack of infrastructure and services and danger from explosive devices.¹⁹

2. Afghanistan – 2.7 million refugees

   1. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the first wave of refugees from Afghanistan to neighboring Pakistan. Now, Afghan refugees are the second-largest refugee population in the world.  Pakistan hosts nearly 1.4 million Afghan refugees, including those who are of the second and third generation and have never lived in their home country. Some have been forced to go back to Afghanistan from neighboring countries, but an increase in violence in Afghanistan since 2015 has created a new wave of refugees.¹⁹

3. South Sudan – 2.3 million refugees

   1. South Sudan was formed as a new country in 2011 after a violent civil war, but conflict broke out on two year later in 2013, leading to a complex and dangerous conflict, economic decline, disease, and hunger. This conflict has caused millions to flee and millions more to be displaced inside the country.²¹ 2.3 million people having fled to neighboring countries. About 80% of the refugees are women and children, and about 50,000 of those children are orphaned or unaccompanied.¹⁹

4. Myanmar – 1.1 million refugees

   1. Members of the Rohingya ethnic group have faced decades of discrimination, statlessness, and targeted violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. This persecution has forced Rohingya people into Bangladesh for many years, with significant increases following violence in 1978, 1991-1992, 2016, and 2017.²² About 1.1 million members of the Rohingya ethnic group have fled from Rakhine state, and as many as 700,000 relocated to Bangladesh since August 2017.¹⁹

5. Somalia – 900,000 refugees

   1. With no functioning government, clan wars have lasted for decades, and a deadly terrorist group commands large portions of the country; Somalia has been described as a failed state.²³ Most Somali refugees have fled to Kenya, Ethiopia, or Yemen. About 100,000 have returned to the country since June 2016 because of the Kenyan government’s intent to eventually close Dadaab, which at one time was the world’s largest refugee camp.¹⁹

6. Sudan – 725,000 refugees

   1. An economic crisis in Sudan that began in 2018 has been worsened by increasing violence and insecurity that continues following the overthrow of the Sudanese government in April 2019. 725,000 people have fled as refugees. At the end of 2018, Sudan was hosting more than 1 million refugees from other conflict-torn countries including South Sudan and Eritrea.¹⁹

7. Democratic Republic of the Congo – 720,300 refugees

   1. Conflict and food insecurity has forced people to flee, with more than 700,000 people from the DRC living in neighboring countries as refugees. Violence has also prevented containment of an Ebola outbreak that started in May 2018.¹⁹

Additional Resources

• Refugee Aid Organizations
• Refugee Crisis – International Rescue Committee
• YouTube channel: UN Refugee Agency

Asylum Seeker

Definition

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines asylum seeker as “someone who leaves their own country, often for political reasons or because of war, and who travels to another country hoping that the government will protect them and allow them to live there.”²⁴ However, this definition varies slightly from country to country depending on their asylum laws; in some places, an asylum seeker “is someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on."²⁵ 

Forms of Asylum in the United States

Individuals can claim asylum in the United States in two different ways. The types of asylum are:²⁶

• Affirmative Asylum: To apply for affirmative asylum, a person cannot be in removal proceedings. This is a form of proactive asylum application, and the application is reviewed by an officer of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). If the application is rejected, “the applicant is referred to removal proceedings, where he or she may renew the request for asylum through the defensive process and appear before an immigration judge.²⁶
• Defensive Asylum: To apply for defensive asylum, a person must be in removal (deportation) proceedings and must file their application for “a defense against removal from the U.S.” with the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).²⁶

Responses to Requests for Asylum

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services can respond to requests for asylum in five different ways:²⁷

• Grant of Asylum: Asylum is given to the applicant. With the grant, they are given the ability to apply for an Employment Authorization Document, a Social Security card, a Green Card, and “immigration benefits for [their] spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21.”²⁷ 
• Referral to an Immigration Court: If the applicant is found to be living in the United States illegally, they are referred to Immigration Court to have their case further reviewed.
• Recommended Approval: An applicant receives this response if USCIS has pending security checks for the individual.
• Notice of Intent to Deny: An applicant receives this response if they are not found eligible to be granted asylum. They are given 16 days to appeal their claim and/or provide new evidence. The applicant will then either receive a grant of asylum or a final denial. 
• Final Denial: Appeals for this application will not be heard, and the decision stands for any dependents of the applicant. The asylum seeker may reapply, but only after a “changed circumstances that affect [the] eligibility for asylum” can be shown.²⁷

Additional Resources

• Fact Sheet: U.S. Asylum Process
• LGBTQ+ Applications for Asylum
• Territorial Asylum
• Asylum & the Rights of Refugees