October 10, 2008

NEW YORK – Global humanitarian agency Church World Service resettled 4,892 refugees to the United States from October 2007 through September 2008 (FY 2008), or just over 8 percent of the total of 60,192 refugees who began new lives in the U.S. during the year.

Church World Service is one of 10 agencies that work with the U.S. Department of State to meet the needs of refugees upon their arrival to the United States and assist them as they work to attain self-sufficiency.

The new CWS arrivals – from the Near East (1,821), East Asia (1,724), Africa (730), Former Soviet Union (231) and Latin America (56) – are resettling in cities across the United States with help from participating denominations, local resettlement agencies, and volunteers.

The agency's community-based program helps newcomers make the transition to American life. Many refugee families resettled by CWS are co-sponsored by local congregations, who act as welcoming communities and assist the new arrivals with material needs like renting and furnishing apartments, job searches, school enrollment, and accessing social services.

Church World Service has helped more than 450,000 refugees begin new lives in the United States since the agency was founded in 1946.

In FY 2008, top nationalities resettled through CWS were: Karen Burmese, 1,164; Iraqi, 978 (including 37 Iraqis with Special Immigrant Visas); Iranian, 442; Chin Burmese, 434; Bhutanese, 401; Somali, 338; Cuban, 330; Burundian, 149; and Ukrainian, 131.

CWS also resettled 112 Vietnamese, 80 Liberians, 37 Congolese, 34 Moldovans, 32 Sudanese, 27 Ethiopians and 27 Russians, with smaller numbers (from 1 to 19) of each of another 19 nationalities.

In addition to assisting refugees through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, CWS provided cultural orientation and referral services to another 1,848 Cuban newcomers in FY 2008 through the U.S. Cuban-Haitian Program.

The latter included 1,745 "parolees" joining family members in the United States and 107 physicians and their families admitted as Cuban Medical Parolees.

It also included 227 Cuban Lottery arrivals and 1,501 Border Patrol/Crosser arrivals. Of these two groups, 379 were "free cases" without family already living in the United States and were resettled to seven CWS Cuban-Haitian Program sites across the United States.

The cities receiving the most refugees for resettlement under CWS auspices in FY 2008 were Los Angeles, California, 449; Phoenix, Arizona, 329; Atlanta, Georgia, 293; Chicago, Illinois is 231; Columbus, Ohio, 204; and Raleigh, North Carolina, 202.

Others receiving more than 100 refugees for resettlement through CWS were Syracuse, New York, 197; Indianapolis, Indiana, 193; Denver, Colorado, 192; Miami, Florida, 188; Louisville, Kentucky, 181; Grand Rapids, Michigan, 178; Rochester, New York, 162; 2; Houston, Texas, 170; Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 156; Greensboro, o, North Carolina, 141; Dallas, Texas, 127; Omaha, Nebraska, 123; Minneapolis, Minnesota, 116; Richmond, Virginia, 114; and Harrisonburg, Virginia, 112.

Some 40 million people around the world are uprooted from their homes and communities because of persecution and armed conflict. There are three internationally recognized "durable solutions" to their plight: safe return home when conditions allow, integration into the life of the country to which refugees first fled, and permanent resettlement to a third country such as the United States.

Church World Service