10000th Syrian reaches US this week in resettlement program

“This increase in Syrian refugee resettlement is not surprising as our state continues to be a welcoming home for refugees who go on to contribute to our economic comeback and Michigan’s overall quality of life”.

Most refugees resettled in the USA are first referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Last November, more than half of USA state governors said they would not allow refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict in Syria to be settled in their states.

State Department officials have stood by the rigor of their vetting process, however, insisting refugees are the most thoroughly screened group of travelers to the US.

“Today, I am pleased to announce that we will meet this goal more than a month ahead of schedule”.

Rice also said President Obama would use September’s UN General Assembly session to “convene a Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, highlighting the continued leadership of the United States on humanitarian issues and the significant contributions partner countries have made this year”. Kevin Drum at Mother Jones noted that this could rehash the narrative that Democrats are weak on national security.

Nearly 5 million Syrians have fled the Middle East since 2011. In fact, the overwhelming majority of refugees entering the USA (98.2%) are Sunni Muslim, CNSnews reports.

Frank-Juergen Weise, the head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, said in an interview in the German weekly Bild am Sonntag that he expects a sharp drop in numbers in 2016 compared with a year ago.

According to the U.S. State Department, more than 100 Syrian and other Middle Eastern refugees were previously slated to be housed by Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Mobile.

“Resettling refugees is right, practical and smart”, he said. Canada has resettled more than 30,000 Syrians since last November.

Some criticism focused on the miniscule proportion among the successful applicants who are Christians, Yazidis, or members of other minorities that have borne the brunt of atrocities carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) – atrocities which the administration has determined amount to genocide.

“I’ve been getting call after call and emails and more emails”, says Kuhr. Instead, donor countries are trying to invest more in job creation and education for refugees in regional host countries to encourage them to stay there instead of moving onward, including to Europe.

Two of the Syrian refugee families coming to the USA this week will live in San Diego through the International Rescue Committee, one of the agencies that handle resettlement.