Refugee resettlement in America has hit an all-time low. The IRC's exclusive report uncovers how and why it must change.

Sacramento is the largest resettlement location for refugees in the nation. Twelve teams made up of refugees from Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Syria, played soccer at World Refugee Day at Papa Murphy's Park on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.

Among the many challenges that 2020 brought to many around the world, the closing of international borders and travel restrictions as a result of the pandemic further limited the already dwindling number of refugees accepted by the Trump Administration. Prior to the pandemic, the Trump Administration had reduced the number of refugees the United States was committed to welcoming. At the onset of the pandemic, the arrivals of refugees to Tallahassee halted altogether, and it wasn’t until the end of 2020 that new families began to arrive across Big Bend communities. This time, the newly arrived families were coming from Latin America. This was a first for the IRC in Tallahassee’s short four-year history, which has historically welcomed families from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria.

In honor of this past month being designated Social Work Month by the National Association of Social Workers, we are proud to feature Shakira Gibson, a Master of Social Work intern from California State University Stanislaus. Shakira has been assisting the IRC in Turlock/Modesto since September with its Afghan Path Towards Wellness program, which focuses on the mental and physical well-being of Afghan women who have come to the United States as refugees or other special immigrants. (Interview by Perry Fishel)

Abdelgabar Mohamdian is a farmer at heart. He grew crops and raised livestock in Sudan. Now, 17 years after he came to the United States, he is growing vegetables and making them available to the community through the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Phoenix’s New Roots weekly produce box program.

On September 29th, the Biden administration announced the United States will admit 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024, from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. We welcome the current administration’s commitment to address the needs of the 110 million people currently displaced worldwide. The IRC in Silver Spring expects to resettle 600 refugees this year, a twenty percent increase from the 500 allocated to IRC in Silver Spring in fiscal year 2023.

Raffi Gostanian came to the United States from Syria 15 years ago on a student visa. A jazz musician who plays the saxophone and piano, he intended to study music but graduated with a political science degree from William Paterson University. As a front desk volunteer at IRC for the last 10 months, Raffi has diligently trekked twice a week from Paterson, home to a large Arab community, to IRC’s office in Elizabeth.

On 4/23/24 the Sie FilmCenter in Denver played host to an impactful event: the official UN Refugee Film Screening to honor the 75th declaration of human rights, and the IRC in Denver joined the powerful celebration.