Report Reveals Struggles of Iraqi Refugees
October 8, 2009
Few of the more than 30,000 Iraq refugees resettled in the United States find their new home lives up to its reputation as “the land of opportunity,” according to a new report by Georgetown law students.
A total of 17 students from the Law Center’s Human Rights Institute and the student group Human Rights Action surveyed refugees settled here since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. The report shows that the United States, while welcoming Iraqi refugees in greater numbers than the rest of the world, has failed in successfully integrating them into U.S. communities.
“This is the fourth student-initiated project that has been jointly sponsored by Georgetown’s Human Rights Institute and Human Rights Action,” says Rachel Taylor, HRI’s interim director. She and law professor Elizabeth Campbell, who also serves as director of Refugee Council USA, supervised the research project.
“For too long … there has been a myopic focus on the quantity of refugees admitted to the detriment of the quality of resettlement,” the report states. “Most are not securing sustainable employment, and many are not able to support themselves or their families on the public assistance they are receiving.”
