To ensure email delivery directly to your inbox, please add @migrationpolicy.org to your address book.

June 16, 2021

Dear John,

Asylum seekers often arrive with little more than the possessions they are carrying. Those who are granted asylum in the United States may be eligible for crucial services that can help support their integration, including health care, child care, and employment assistance through both the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and mainstream public benefits programs.

Yet, unlike for refugees, there is no system in place to inform asylees that they are eligible for these services and to help connect them to resources. In fact, according to Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates, it appears that fewer than 20 percent of those granted asylum between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 received any ORR-funded services in the first year after their grant of asylum.

In a new commentary, Essey Workie, Mark Greenberg, and Lillie Hinkle of MPI's Human Services Initiative outline the divergent integration infrastructures for refugees and asylees, and offer workable solutions that the Biden administration could undertake to improve access to benefits for asylees. The recommendations include leveraging the newly convened interagency Task Force on New Americans to coordinate efforts among federal asylum adjudication and service provision agencies, and restarting a national hotline for asylee queries.

"These actions, taken together, could substantially improve access to benefits and services for children and adults granted asylum," the commentary concludes.

You can read it here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/improving-asylee-access-benefits.

And for other work from the Human Services Initiative, please visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/human-services-initiative.

Sincerely,

Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications and Public Affairs,
Migration Policy Institute

### 

The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national, and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org. 
_________________________________________

Migration Policy Institute
Stay up to date on MPI's events and newest publications: [link removed].

Migration Data Hub
Find the latest immigration statistics, maps, and numbers for the United States and other countries: www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub.

Migration Information Source
Read a unique, online journal that provides fresh thought and global analysis of international migration and refugee trends: www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/migration-information-source.

Click here to unsubscribe: [link removed].