About Refugees

Each year, the President determines how many refugees the United States will accept into the country. In FY2006, the United States resettled 41,277 refugees, well under the President's ceiling of 70,000, and only a small fraction of the estimated 12-13 million refugees in the world today. Nevertheless, the United States is the largest resettlement country in the world. Read the President's Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2007.

All refugees resettled under this program:

• are authorized to work in the United States
• have received security clearance by the FBI and State Department
• are medically screened by healthcare professionals before arriving in the United States and again upon arrival to Buffalo

Visit our national organization, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, to find out more about

• how refugees come to America
• the problem of refugee warehousing
• The National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children
• refugee success stories

The International Instiute of Buffalo is a member of the Western New York Refugee and Asylee Consortium (WNYRAC). Other resettlement agencies in WNYRAC include:

• Catholic Charities
• Jewish Family Service
• Journey's End Refugee Services

Other useful links to national and international organizations 

• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• Office of Refugee Resettlement (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
• Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (U.S. Department of State)