Refugee Resettlement and Integration

In Washington; Baltimore; Portland (Maine); Atlanta; and Seattle, seven European refugee experts explored best practices in processing, resettling and integrating refugees into the United States. Programming exposed participants to the role of public private partnerships, government at the local, state and federal levels, law enforcement, NGOs and the community in resettling and integrating refugees. They met with immigrant community members and leaders to hear their personal stories. Visits to multicultural schools with a large percentage of refugee and immigrant students engaged them in conversations with students and faculty on techniques for educating a diverse student population. In addition, they studied initiatives to broaden immigrants’ and minorities’ employment opportunities and civic participation. The participants returned home with an appreciation of how our system works and where there are differences and similarities between their own systems and ours. Most of the participants stated that they encountered methods and tools that they would like to replicate in their own countries.