Structuring Refuge: U.S. Refugee Policy and Resettlement Practice

Undergraduate / Graduate

UNHCR estimates that one of every 67 people are forcibly displaced people around the world. Of these, over 42 million are refugees, less than .5% of whom accessed permanent resettlement. Over the last 45 years the US has resettled more refugees than any other nation. Yet even as the need for third country resettlement rises, the US has rescinded its welcome to this population: the Trump Admin is actively dismantling the refugee resettlement institution. We will keep up with the shifting terrain of policy and practice as we pursue our goal of understanding US resettlement. This course asks: How is refugee status politically constructed; how is it experienced by individuals; what are the interrelationships between institutions and refugee policies, and how do these interrelationships impact service delivery to refugees; what can research tell us about the resettlement outcomes of refugees in the US and what drives these outcomes; and, where are intervention points for social workers in the resettlement process? We will address these questions by 1) detangling the web of intl and domestic policies relating to the refugee political identity, focusing on the US system of resettlement, 2) analyzing the structure of US resettlement policy and exploring its implications for social work practice, and 3) holding the inherent tension that results from a dual focus on macro level issues of scale and policy alongside micro level issues related to the lived experiences of human beings.