Refugee Resettlement Resources

Understanding Refugee Resettlement

Looking for a deeper understanding of refugees’ experiences and backgrounds? Learn more about the populations served at CMC and the many types of immigration statuses below, or visit our Take Action page to get involved.

Immigration Statuses

“Migrant” or “immigrant” are generic terms for anyone moving to another country with the intention of staying for a minimum period of time. This includes both permanent and temporary migrants, with a valid residence permit or visa, asylum-seekers, and undocumented migrants.

There are many types of immigrants and several statuses that fit into that category. Each status has different requirements, rights, and restrictions.

Immigrant: Someone who makes a decision to leave their home country and move to a foreign country with the intention of staying there, often for economic reasons.
Refugee: Someone granted international protection who has been forced to flee their home country due to war, violence, or persecution, and is unable to return safely as a result of well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
Internally Displace Person (IDP): Someone who has been forced to flee their home, but has not crossed an international border. IDPs include people displaced by internal conflict and natural disasters.
Asylum Seeker: Someone who is seeking international protection from persecution but whose claim has not yet been processed. International law grants the right to seek safety in another country, but until asylum is granted, asylum seekers cannot access federal benefits.
Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Holders: A Special Immigrant Visa grants refugee resettlement services to Afghan or Iraqi nationals who assisted or were employed by the U.S. military or government in Iraq or Afghanistan. SIVs face persistent danger for their collaboration with the United States.
Humanitarian Parole: Someone who has been granted temporary emergency entrance into the United States due to instability in their home country, such as Ukraine or Afghanistan.

Refugee Resettlement

The federal grant that guides resettlement work outlines the many services that must be provided within the first 90 days after a refugee arrives in the local community. For CMC to provide quality services requires us to know our clients well – to understand their strengths, the barriers they will face, and their personal and family goals.

Service Plan

While basic information like number of family members, names, ages, and genders are available prior to arrival, more descriptive information about refugee newcomers isn’t available until case managers meet them when they arrive. As such, one of the first tasks CMC Case Managers undertake is creating a service plan alongside clients. A service plan identifies:

The family or individual’s work history and employment goals.
Needed services and referrals throughout the community.
The family’s goals and expectations, such as whether both parents will work or one will stay home.
Basic household budget to establish needs as they work to become economically self-sufficient.

Once this plan is created, CMC is able to coordinate services with our many partners across the community.

Afghan Resettlement

2021-2022 marked a period of unprecedented need as resettlement agencies like CMC had to quickly rebuild capacity for one of the largest and most expedited U.S. resettlements to date. Following years of record-low refugee admissions, the Biden administration announced the rapid evacuation of 76,000 Afghans after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, and the U.S. military withdrew its troops in August 2021.

In just a few short months between October 2021 and February 2022, CMC resettled 249 Afghans, in addition to 163 refugees from Burma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. While refugee arrivals are normally paced out throughout the year, Afghans’ arrivals were expedited due to the high risk of danger facing those who supported the U.S. military and its missions in Afghanistan

Afghans were evacuated with Humanitarian Parole status, which does not normally follow the traditional resettlement process or come with federal benefits, however Congress passed legislation providing funding for “refugee resettlement-like benefits.”