Refugees in America

Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program just released a report detailing the living where refugees are living in the US. In 1980 the Refugee Act was passed to, "provide for the effective resettlement of refugees and to assist them to achieve economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible after arrival in the United States."

According to the report over 2 million refugees have entered the US since then. They break down the regions of origin in their summary,

These flows were marked first by refugees primarily from Southeast Asia and theSoviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s during the Cold War period, followed by Europe in the 1990s during the Balkans period, and now a growing number from Africa in the 2000s during the civil conflict period.

So, Brookings asks, where are they all going. Even though refugees are only ~10% of total immigration, they are a fascinating demographic. Most refugees are living in cities that already have a high foreign born population, L.A., Chicago, and New York. Over the past few years, however, new gateways are emerging for refugees in Seattle, D.C., Atlanta, and Portland (Oregon). The report also mentions something regarding unusual concentrations of refugees from particular nations,

Nearly half of Iranian refugees were resettled in metropolitan Los Angeles, one in five Iraqi refugees arrived in Detroit, and nearly one-third of refugees from the former Soviet Union were resettled in New York. [emphasis added]

Read the summary or the full report(PDF) on the Brookings Institute webpage.