Why this conservative Senate leader wants to learn from Canada's refugee policy
In the past year, the Republican presidential field has demonized refugees, with some candidates vowing to oppose even five-year-old orphans from Syria. Meanwhile, dozens of Republican governors have declared their states off-limits to Syrian refugees.
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the conservative Republican chair of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security committee, has a very different proposal: the U.S. could learn about refugee resettlement from Canada.
Johnson is holding a hearing on Wednesday about Canada’s refugee policies. Part of that hearing, he told me in a phone interview today, is focused on a Canadian program that allows nonprofits and other private sector groups to sponsor refugees, paying money to help them resettle in Canada.
“To me that seems like a common sense program,” Johnson said. “I think it would work a whole lot better, whether it’s a religious organization or relatives who are sponsoring them.”
In the U.S., refugees are screened by the State Department and then resettled by one of nine nonprofits which contract with the government. The whole process is funded by the federal government—either directly or through subsidies—and some resettlement officials say they’re stretched thin for funds.
Our neighbor to the north has a reputation for being more welcoming to refugees. In Canada, any group of at least five people—a family, a neighborhood, a church, a book club—can commit $27,000 to bring a refugee family of four to the country. Their donation means that the resettlement doesn’t use taxpayer funds. The group then helps find lodging and resources for the new refugees and support them in their transition.
For example, a group at Ryerson University in Toronto has organized to raise money for Syrian refugees across the last few months. Since July, they’ve raised more than $1 million and brought almost 60 refugees to the Toronto area so far. Students who raised money are now helping organize housing, translation, and English classes for the refugees they sponsored, creating closer personal ties.
“Privately-sponsored refugees do better than government-sponsored refugees,” said Wendy Cukier, an administrator at Ryerson. “I think it’s partly the buy-in in the community. The personal engagement is much higher if you’re actually getting to meet the people who you’re helping.”
A similar program could work in the U.S., advocates say. At its simplest, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement could create an account for donations from Americans who want to support refugees. Any time the donated funds passed a certain threshold, a new refugee would be allowed to enter, either immediately or in the following fiscal year.