US President Donald Trump only wants refugees to enter the country who have a chance of “successful assimilation,” a move that one relief organisation said sets up “arbitrary obstacles” for those fleeing violence.
Persecution for race, religion, political affiliation, or nationality could no longer be enough for entry into the US according to a proposal to Congress, obtained by Vice News.
The report, leaked by a Capitol Hill staff member to the news outlet, stated that one more criterion to consider granting refugee status be “a refugee’s likelihood of successful assimilation and contribution in the US”.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has said the proposal places “arbitrary obstacles designed to make safety and stability unattainable for the most vulnerable.”
While the US has traditionally helped refugees learn or improve English language skills and provides job training and placement programmes, demonstrating the ability to assimilate into American life on an application has never been required, according to the member of the Capitol Hill staff.
“This is a significant change,” the staffer, not authorised to speak on the record about the matter, said.
The White House has not responded to The Independent’s request for comment as yet.
The proposal does not define what “criteria” for “successful assimilation” could be demonstrated on a successful application.
Instead the Trump administration cited the US Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Annual Survey of Refugees which states "noticeable gains in English language proficiency and workforce participation, and decreased reliance on public benefits” as signs of assimilation.
However, the study is conducted after refugees fleeing persecution and violence have entered the US and been resettled here not during the application process or before services are provided by the government.
The 70-page proposal also indicates the administration wants authorities to conduct “social media checks” on applicants, but does not indicate if that could be a way to demonstrate the ability to successfully assimilate or a way to reject applications for security concerns.
“Aside from lacking a moral justification, the Administration does not offer any evidence for the need of an assimilation test,” the IRC said in a statement.
The IRC said refugees actually have a “fast” rate of integration into their new American communities.
“The US was home to more than 180,000 refugee entrepreneurs, 13 per cent of the refugee population in 2015.”
Only nine per cent of the US born population are entrepreneurs.
Refugees also “begin to learn English right away: 54 per cent of refugees speak English “very well or exclusively” within 5 to 16 years of arrival,” according to IRC-cited research.
The US also just decreased the number of refugees it would accept to its lowest since 1980. A maximum of 45,000 refugees will be taken in during the coming fiscal year.
The Obama administration wanted 110,000 refugees to be allowed to enter the US in 2017.
The drastically lower cap was announced to media even before Congress had seen the proposal, a move heavily criticised by both Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Chuck Grassley.
It also comes during what the United Nations has called the most dire refugee crisis the world has ever seen.
The UN has said approximately 65.6m people around the world have been displaced. Today, the number of Rohingya displaced from Burma to Bangladesh alone reached above 500,000.
Syrians comprise a high proportion of those displaced and forced to become refugees due to conflict, but Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen all have ongoing humanitarian crises forcing people to flee as well.
No Congressional vote on the proposal bill has been scheduled as yet.
