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the United States unaccompanied and provides home studies to ensure that these children are released to safe environments and that sponsors are prepared to meet their needs. USCRI also provides post release services to ensure the child’s safety and successful integration into the community. This includes assisting with school enrollment and connecting families and sponsors with legal, medical, mental health services and other community resources.
192:
statistics, and analyses of root causes and potential solutions. The World
Refugee Survey also included a country ranking based on an analysis of compliance under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Countries were graded on: 1) Refoulement/Physical Protection; 2) Freedom of Movement and Residence; 3) Detention/Access to Courts; 4) Right to Earn a Livelihood; and 5) Public Relief and Education. This survey continued until 2008.
313:, USCRI makes sure that all refugees are referred to a primary care provider, understand how to access medical care in the U.S., are screened for medical and mental health issues, and are seeking necessary medical care. USCRI takes a holistic approach which includes initial medical screening and surveillance, ongoing health care, health education, and partnerships and outreach in the community.
142:. This institute provided social and legal services to immigrant girls and women and laid the foundation of what was to become the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), providing immigrants and refugees many of the same services USCRI and its partner affiliates offer today—employment assistance, social services, and information about immigration law.
289:). TVAP participants are provided with comprehensive case management services, including ensuring they have housing, food, and clothing, health care, mental health services, legal services, and employment assistance to help them stabilize and live independently. As of 2019, USCRI has served over 4,200 foreign national survivors of human trafficking through TVAP.
161:
immigration legislation, regulations, legal opinions, cases, and agency memoranda. FLIS also published The
Bulletin, which spread information about the naturalization process, immigration law, income tax regulations, employment opportunities, education, health and child welfare. This publication was succeeded by the
466:
On June 19, 2008, the U.S. Committee for
Refugees and Immigrants and its research partners released the World Refugee Survey 2008 with events around the world. Within the annual publication, USCRI released a list of the Ten Worst Places for Refugees. Countries and regions were graded based on their
413:
Since 2010, USCRI has offered free or low-cost professional legal representation to low-income refugees and immigrants with humanitarian and family-based immigration matters. Legal assistance includes asylum petitions, family reunification claims, and classes and processing support for naturalization
262:
In
January 2019 USCRI opened its residential care facility, Rinconcito del Sol, “a little corner of sunshine,” to provide a safe temporary home for girls, the majority of whom have crossed the border from countries in the Northern Triangle in Central America. At the shelter, the girls attend school,
160:
as part of the movement to counter these anti-immigrant attitudes by providing immigrants information about
American life and those born in the U.S. information about New Americans. In the following year, FLIS began publishing Interpreter Releases, a weekly newsletter containing news and analysis of
257:
USCRI provides shelter, legal, mental health services, and case management to recently arrived
Unaccompanied Children. Once in the United States, UC are often placed in federal custody until they can be united with a family member or sponsor. USCRI has a temporary home for girls who have arrived in
252:
Since 2004, USCRI has been providing vital social services to unaccompanied migrant children (UC), who have fled violence, abuse, and/or persecution in their home country and arrived in the United States without parents or immigration status. These children face challenges no child should ever have
118:
The early 1900s was a time of incredible growth for the immigrant population of the United States, by 1910, three-quarters of New York City’s population was either an immigrant or a first generation
American. This increase in the immigrant population, as well as increased diversity of new arrivals,
450:
is an annual USCRI report presenting information on refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers. The country-by-country analysis is based on information collected from governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations and field visits. Each country profiled in
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topic-specific issue papers, drafts comments on government regulations, conducts briefings, communicates with the U.S. Government and international organizations, analyzes legal decisions and international instruments, and serves as experts on refugee and immigration issues, concepts, and trends.
430:
USCRI’s Policy and
Advocacy Team leads the development of the organization’s position on legislation, U.S. and international policies, and the root causes and conditions of crisis, movement, and resettlement for refugees and other displaced populations. The team conducts research, writes in-depth,
421:
program, which provides
Eligible Afghan Arrivals (EAAs) across the country with free legal services to help them navigate the U.S. legal immigration system, this includes support for family reunification and adjustment of status. ILSAA also provides trainings to build the capacity of Legal Service
342:
through the
Livelihoods Programs. This program provides vocational training, job opportunities, employer engagement, and microenterprise development, leading to new opportunities for Salvadoran youth and their families while strengthening the economic development of the country. The program offers
191:
In 1979, ACNS joined with the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) to publish the World Refugee Survey, an annual publication that provided a comprehensive review of global trends related to refugees and feature articles on national and global issues, specific countries, global aggregate and country
434:
While USCRI no longer publishes the World Refugee Survey, the Policy and Advocacy Team continues to provide updates on country conditions, national and global issues, and analyses of root causes and potential solutions through bi-weekly reports on pressing issues and larger reports based on field
292:
In 2022, this program expanded to include the Aspire: Child Trafficking Victims Assistance Program, which provides comprehensive case management services to foreign national minor survivors of trafficking. This split was motivated by a desire to provide age-appropriate comprehensive care to minor
316:
In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, many resettled Afghans struggle with stress, acculturation, trauma, loss, and grief. To help support these new arrivals, USCRI established the Behavioral Health Support Program, with funding from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The
221:
USCRI provides resettlement services in Albany, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, Colchester, Vermont, Des Moines, Iowa, Dearborn, Michigan, Erie, Pennsylvania, and Raleigh, North Carolina. The goal of USCRI’s refugee programs is to help refugees and other newcomers achieve self-sufficiency and become
329:
As of 2024, USCRI operates seven offices across El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, and Kenya. These offices provide educational, vocational, and legal support for refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, and other populations experiencing displacement to support their transition to a dignified life.
305:
USCRI helps refugees and other individuals lay a solid foundation for a healthy start in the U.S. through the Refugee Medical Assistance and Refugee Medical Screening Programs. All refugees receive a health screening before arriving in the United States. USCRI’s Refugee Health Services program
301:
Due to experiences in their home country, on their journey, and after arriving in the U.S., refugees are at increased risk of certain medical and mental health conditions. Prior to arriving in the U.S., they may have experienced nutritional deprivation, water contamination, inadequate living
380:. For over five decades, USCRI has advocated on behalf of refugees warehoused in camps indefinitely, particularly in East Africa. Kenya is home to some of the largest and oldest refugee camps in the world- generations have been born and had children of their own in these camps.
149:
grew to 55 institutes nationally, concentrated in industrialized cities with large populations of immigrants. These agencies celebrated ethnic diversity and encouraged New Americans to maintain their languages and cultures while participating in all aspects of American life.
400:
to provide menstrual hygiene supplies to refugees in these camps. In just a few months, Keep Girls Dreaming raised enough funds to purchase, deliver, and distribute over half a million sanitary pads to Dadaab, Kakuma, and Kalobeyei. This initiative is in collaboration with
364:, which provides scholarships, complementary pathways, and educational and migration support for refugees from across the world. In 2024, USCRI Mexico welcomed four refugee students from Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya to being their higher education studies in Mexico.
282:, there were 27.6 million people in forced labor on any given day in 2021, an increase from 24.9 million in 2016. An estimated 6.3 million individuals were in situations of forced commercial sex, with children accounting for more than a quarter of these cases.
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to provide reception upon arrival. This includes support acquiring housing, food, and clothing, community orientations, English lessons, employment counseling and job placement, enrollment in various benefits program, and referrals to social service providers.
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131:, the ideas that the U.S. is stronger because of the contributions of immigrants and the acceptance of cultural diversity. While there is still much to be done to realize this vision, the 1910s saw these sentiments growing in ways they had not previously.
99:
For over a hundred years, the U.S. Committee for Refugee and Immigrants (USCRI) has fought for a future where "migrants, refugees, and uprooted people will live dignified lives with their rights respected and protected in communities of opportunity."
96:) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with locations in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Kenya, and a national network of nearly 200 partner agencies that provide support for those experiencing forced and voluntary displacement.
241:, USCRI provides newcomers with job training, job placement, one-on-one case management, a short-term cash allowance, and additional employment services—including English classes, driving lessons, and lessons on culture in the American workplace.
123:
ideal, which emphasized the assimilation of new arrivals into mainstream American culture. This understanding led to a narrow definition of American culture that that did not allow for cultural, racial, linguistic, or religious diversity.
177:, changed FLIS’ name to the Common Council for American Unity (CCAU), and launched a new publication, Common Ground. This journal published fiction and non-fiction works stressing cultural pluralism and ethnic harmony and included works by
206:
USCRI works in all 50 U.S. states, MĂ©xico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Kenya to provide support for those experiencing forced and voluntary displacement, including unaccompanied children and adult and minor survivors of trafficking.
375:
In 2024, USCRI opened an office in Nairobi, Kenya to provides social services to improve the health and education of young refugees, as well as advocate for stronger refugee protections and policies, including durable solutions to
351:
Similarly, USCRI operates the Livelihoods program at its office in Honduras, providing training and employment opportunities to youth returnees and giving them the tools to re-establish their lives in their home country.
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Its work currently focuses on refugee resettlement, home study and post-release services for unaccompanied children, anti-trafficking, refugee health, immigration legal services, and policy and advocacy.
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and citizenship requests. USCRI also provides direct legal representation for unaccompanied children who arrive in the U.S. without parents or resources and to survivors of trafficking.
321:
and offers culturally and linguistically tailored and trauma-informed mental health and psychosocial care and crisis support through telehealth services, field teams, and a 24/7 hotline.
198:
USCRI has acted under this name since 2004 and has continued to expand its programing, opening offices throughout the United States, as well as El Salvador, Honduras, MĂ©xico, and Kenya.
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provides newly arrived refugees with health insurance coverage for up to one year after arrival. USCRI operates this program in Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.
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receive medical and mental health care, and participate in therapeutic activities, such as gardening, swimming, art, music lessons, and equine and canine therapy.
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ACNS later became the Immigration and Refugee Services of America in 1994, and in 2004 changed its name to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).
468:
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463:/Physical Protection 2) Freedom of Movement and Residence 3) Detention/Access to Courts 4) Right to Earn a Livelihood and 5) Public Relief and Education.
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USCRI’s Tijuana office also provides “Know Your Rights” presentations and legal assistance for those seeking safety in the United States and Mexico.
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The current President and CEO is Eskinder Negash, who previously served as the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) from 2009-2015.
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507:. Sixty countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees were profiled in the 2008 survey. In 2009, the 'Worst Places for Refugees' were
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Since 2012, USCRI has worked with foreign national survivors of trafficking through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’
253:
to face and often experience trauma in their country of origin, on the journey to the United States, and once in the United States.
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Following the evacuation of Afghanistan in August 2021, USCRI, with funding from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, operates the
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USCRI traces its history back to 1911 with the founding of the early International Institutes and Travelers’ Aid societies.
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Human trafficking—in both commercial sex and forced labor—is a significant and growing problem in the U.S. and worldwide.
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USCRI's programs include legal, refugee health, anti-trafficking, and children's services, as well as policy and advocacy.
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alternatives to repeat migration by providing hope and opportunity to those who see no other pathway to a better life.
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USCRI and its partners provide services to more than 25,000 children and their sponsors throughout the U.S. each year.
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This line of thinking led to the foundation of the International Institute Movement in 1910 under the sponsorship of the
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https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@ipec/documents/publication/wcms_918034.pdf
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https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@ipec/documents/publication/wcms_918034.pdf
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conditions, a lack of access to basic medical and dental care, as well as trauma, loss, and persecution.
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Unfortunately, attitudes towards immigrants took a turn in the 1920s with a rise in xenophobia.
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is given a grade. Countries are rated according to refugees' enjoyment of rights under the 1951
138:(YWCA). The first International Institute was opened that year in New York City by social worker
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588:"Eskinder Negash, Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Washington, DC | USCIS"
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In 1959, the CCAU merged with the American Federation of International Institutes to form the
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stated, "Malaysia strongly disagrees with the newly released World Refugee Survey 2008."
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Providers (LSPs) and participates in Afghan Support Centers (ASCs) across the country.
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program is led by qualified professionals from the Afghan diaspora, in partnership with
758:"The Behavioral Health Support Program - U.S. Committee for Refugees & Immigrants"
744:"The Behavioral Health Support Program - U.S. Committee for Refugees & Immigrants"
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173:, an immigrant from Slovenia, to its board. In 1934, Adamic secured funding from the
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https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/victim-assistance/child-eligibility-letters/resources
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Immigration History Research Center Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries
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Its international programs focus on supporting youth migrants and returnees.
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As of 2023 USCRI has resettled over 350,00 refugees from across the world.
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188:. In that same year, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) was formed.
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816:. U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. 2008-06-19. Archived from
800:"Legal Services for Immigrants - Refugees Immigration Center / Program"
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On June 20, 2008, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak of
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In 1921, The International Institute of New York was succeeded by the
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U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
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719:"Human Trafficking | Immigration Relief for Victims by USCRI"
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658:"Refugee Resettlement - Reception and Placement Program by USCRI"
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772:"USCRI El Salvador - U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants"
630:"USCRI El Salvador - U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants"
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471:. As determined by the committee, the 'Ten Worst Places' were:
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The Afghan Medical Professionals Association of America (AMPAA)
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USCRI’s office in El Salvador, opened in 2015, supports youth
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837:. U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Archived from
644:"USCRI Kenya - U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants"
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USCRI is one of non-profit organizations working with the
616:"Who We Are - U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants"
602:"Who We Are - U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants"
574:"Who We Are - U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants"
560:"Who We Are - U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants"
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and Kalobeyei Settlement in Kenya, USCRI established the
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Becoming the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
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In opposition to the melting pot, there was a rise in
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Immigrant Legal Services for Afghan Arrivals (ILSAA)
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683:"Children's Services | Unaccompanied Migrant"
186:American Council for Nationalities Services (ACNS)
222:contributing members of their new communities.
897:Refugee aid organizations in the United States
856:"Malaysia Disagrees With World Refugee Survey"
293:survivors, including unaccompanied children.
169:’s website. In 1934, FLIS welcomed journalist
469:Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
467:commitment to standards outlined in the 1951
457:Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
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235:U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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287:Trafficking Victim Assistance Program (TVAP
158:Foreign Language Information Service (FLIS)
90:U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
20:U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
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671:https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/programs/uc
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311:Department of Health and Human Services
119:led to a re-thinking of the prevailing
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388:In 2023, following a field visit to
136:Young Women’s Christian Association
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280:International Labour Organization
147:International Institute movement
16:American nonprofit organization
398:Keep Girls Dreaming Initiative
360:In Mexico, USCRI operates the
309:Following guidelines from the
239:Office of Refugee Resettlement
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786:"Keep Girls Dreaming. Period"
30:; 113 years ago
832:"World Refugee Survey 2009"
814:"World Refugee Survey 2008"
409:Immigration Legal Services.
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858:. Bernama.com. 2008-06-20.
271:Anti-Trafficking Services
297:Refugee Health Services.
167:U.S. Department of State
165:, now published on the
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459:and are graded on: 1)
325:International Programs
217:Refugee Resettlement.
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448:World Refugee Survey
442:World Refugee Survey
426:Policy and Advocacy.
403:Chandaria Industries
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175:Carnegie Corporation
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540:Malaysia
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517:Thailand
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347:Honduras
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73:Website
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390:Dadaab
356:Mexico
842:(PDF)
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529:Egypt
521:Kenya
501:Sudan
489:Kenya
477:China
371:Kenya
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604:.
576:.
562:.
92:(
37:)
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