wfn.org | Episcopalians: CORRECTED Episcopal Migration Ministries blasts refugee ceiling

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

October 23, 2002 (CORRECTED)

2002-244

Episcopalians: CORRECTED Episcopal Migration Ministries 
blasts refugee ceiling

by Jan Nunley

(ENS) Calling it "the beginning of the end to US hospitality to 
refugees," C. Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration 
Ministries, strongly criticized the Bush administration's 
imposition of a 70,000-person ceiling on refugee admissions for 
fiscal 2003.

In a statement released October 23, Parkins said the ceiling 
"sends the unfortunate message that the United States is 
retreating from its commitment to rescue a significant number of 
the world's persecuted persons."

"The US Government has over the past ten years backed away 
from the more generous admissions ceilings of past years," said 
Parkins. "This is occurring against a background of an 
increasing number of refugees worldwide--now 15,000,000--with 
more countries forcing refugees to find safety in countries 
whose own political and economic systems are fragile. In short, 
the world refugee crisis provides no basis for a scaled back 
resettlement program by the nation which once provided 
leadership in this program of humanitarian rescue."

Parkins also pointed out that the ceiling "is also a 
questionable target," since some 20,000 are 
"unallocated"--meaning unassigned to any region of the world. 
"This implies that the Government has determined that 50,000 is 
the realistic target," Parkins said, representing the lowest 
number of projected refugee arrivals in many years. Since fiscal 
year 1992, there has been a gradual decline in the number of 
refugees admitted. 

The new ceiling allows 20,000 refugees from Africa; 14,000 
from the former Soviet Union; 7,000 from the Near East and South 
Asia; 2,500 from Latin America and the Caribbean; and 2,500 from 
Eastern Europe. 

According to Parkins, concerns about national security and 
the "war on terrorism" are not valid reasons for reducing 
refugee admissions. "We reject the notion that advancing 
national security and honoring our national tradition of 
hospitality to persecuted persons are incompatible goals," he 
stated. In fact, he said, reduced US willingness to accept 
refugees for resettlement can further destabilize volatile 
regional situations, as neighboring nations become less willing 
to serve as countries of first asylum.

In his statement, Parkins raised the possibility that the 
admissions ceiling is not a reaction to the events of September 
11, 2001, but "a serious attempt to permanently downsize the US 
resettlement program."

"As Christians, we are called to welcome the stranger and to 
serve the most vulnerable and marginalized among us. Refugees 
fit the definition," he concluded. "We must, therefore, not 
permit a modest number of refugee arrivals to our shore to 
suffice as our response to a burgeoning humanitarian crisis."

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President Bush's memo: 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021016-18.html

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News 
Service.