{
  "id": "R40117",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R40117",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 369980,
      "date": "2009-01-06",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T02:56:59.518657",
      "title": "Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Inflows in the United States and Other OECD Member States",
      "summary": "A refugee is a person fleeing his or her country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Asylum-seekers are individuals that claim to be refugees and apply for sanctuary from within a potential host country, but whose claim for refugee status has not yet been evaluated and determined. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) collects data on the millions of refugees and asylum-seekers worldwide and their inflows to the United States and other countries, including Member States of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The recent economic downturn could lead to an escalation in the worldwide supply of refugees and asylum-seekers. Thus, a potential issue for Congress is whether the United States should increase admissions of asylum-seekers and refugees during a worldwide economic downturn, maintain current admission levels, or whether the economic circumstances warrant diverting refugee resources to other concerns. \nIn terms of refugee populations, the United States is one of 13 OECD countries that participates in large-scale resettlement of refugees. Its leadership role in refugee resettlement is substantial. For every year since 1994, the total UNHCR-registered refugee resettlements to the United States have exceeded the cumulative total for all other OECD Member States. Resettlement levels relative to the rest of the OECD, however, have declined since the mid-1990s.\nBecause of security concerns and political sensitivities over immigration, numerous OECD countries have moved to restrict the inflows of asylum-seekers through unilateral measures or multilateral agreements, particularly in countries that are members of the European Union (EU). In the United States, numerous measures for inflow control have been implemented, some of which other OECD countries have mirrored. Efforts such as the safe third-country agreements and various cost control programs\u2014as well as forthcoming security-based efforts in the European Union\u2014have lowered asylum-seeker inflow rates in the major receiving OECD countries in recent years. The United States\u2019 proportion of asylum-seeker inflows in 2007 registered at 17% of the OECD cumulative total. Germany, France, Canada, and the United Kingdom each received approximately 6%-9% of the asylum-seeker inflows.\nThe data in this report show that there is no uniform inflow trend across OECD countries relating to refugees or asylum-seekers. One of the main observations is that several OECD countries with historically greater numbers of asylum-seekers (such as the United States) have had the levels of their asylum-seeker inflows converge with each other. Moreover, the level at which these asylum-seeker levels have converged is in most cases markedly lower than asylum-seeker inflows during the 1990s. Other OECD countries\u2014mainly those on the periphery of the EU\u2014have recently experienced an upward trend in asylum-seeker inflows. This pattern is likely due to safe third country provisions and their geographic proximity to non-European Union countries.\nOne set of comparative measures frequently employed is the relative burdens for countries hosting refugees. When placed in the context of national income, the United States, on average, took on a larger refugee hosting burden than almost every other OECD country from 2002 to 2006. Only Germany had a higher relative burden than the United States. The United States\u2019 average relative burden was lower than that of 14 other OECD countries between 2002 and 2006. This report will be updated as necessary.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
      "formats": [
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          "encoding": "utf-8",
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R40117",
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          "filename": "files/20090106_R40117_d44ff1f216804abf048864cc45c45b69de682dc3.html",
          "images": null
        },
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R40117",
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        }
      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Immigration Policy"
  ]
}