Abstract
This chapter discusses the United States’ system of refugee reception and placement programs in the context of humanitarian governance. Betts (Forced Migration and Global Politics. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) and Barnett (Humanitarian Governance. Annual Review of Political Science, 16, 379–398, 2013) draw attention to the roles and responsibilities of state and non-state actors in humanitarian governance. This chapter also underlines the place of the US in relation to the following issues: First, it is a country that admits and hosts a significant number of refugees from the Middle East and other regions. Second, it works with the nonprofit sector under a cooperative agreement to provide assistance programs for the refugees it admits into the system. Finally, this system is based on a policy of self-sufficiency within a neoliberal rationality through the operation of the nonprofit sector with the characteristics of faith, paternalism, and philanthropy. On this basis, I discuss the framework of humanitarian governance in the light of the results of my interviews with state officials, resettlement agencies, non-governmental organizations, and voluntary organizations working with refugees in Arizona. I argue that the U.S. refugee reception and admission system, with its specialized assistance programs, is essentially based on neoliberal, paternalistic, philanthropic, and faith-based premises, and that the system first subordinates refugees as clients, then determines what is best for refugees without their consent, and promptly encourages refugees to take responsibility for their own lives. The key tool is to place them in entry-level jobs that set the stage for the post-resettlement period. In this context, humanitarianism is re-evaluated in terms of paternalism and responsibilization in order to analyze how the U.S. non-profit sector operates in the pre- and post-resettlement process (Barnett, International paternalism and humanitarian governance. Global Constitutionalism, 1(3), 485–521, November, 2012b; Rose, Government, authority and expertise in advanced liberalism. Economy and Society, 22(3), 283–299, 1993; Rose, Government and Control. British Journal of Criminology, 40(2), 321–339, 2000).
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Notes
- 1.
“The Department of State has cooperative agreements with nine domestic resettlement agencies to resettle refugees. While some of the agencies have religious affiliations, they are not allowed to proselytize. The standard cooperative agreement between the Department of State and each of the domestic resettlement agencies specifies the services that the agency must provide to each refugee. Altogether, the nine domestic resettlement agencies place refugees in about 190 communities throughout the United States. Each agency headquarters maintains contact with its local affiliated agencies to monitor the resources (e.g., interpreters who speak various languages, the size and special features of available housing, the availability of schools with special services, medical care, English classes, employment services, etc.) that each affiliate’s community can offer” (Department of State, 2017).
- 2.
For example, when we look at an audit report prepared by the US Department of State, the Office of Inspector General promulgates to review the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s Reception and Placement Program in general if they comply with the federal laws and regulations concerning the terms and conditions of the agreements and the Office of Inspector General opens a separate chapter called accountability (OIG, 2005).
- 3.
General Educational Development is a test for adults who do not have a high school diploma in the United States.
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Interviews
U/32m, volunteer for resettlement agencies in Tucson, 2015.
JM/50/m, one of the founders of Iraqi American Society for Peace and Friendship in Phoenix, 2015.
Public officials from Arizona Department of Economic Security in Phoenix, 2015.
Director, Catholic Charities Community Services in Tucson, 2015a.
Program Coordinator, Catholic Charities Community Services in Phoenix, 2015a.
Program Supervisor, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest with refugee focus program in Tucson, 2015.
Director, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest with refugee focus program in Phoenix, 2015b.
Program Coordinator of the International Rescue Committee in Phoenix, 2015b.
Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee in Phoenix, 2015.
Representative of Noor Women’s Association in Tucson, 2015.
Representative of Tucson Refugee Ministry in Tucson, 2015.
Founder of Iskashitaa Refugee Network in Tucson, 2015.
Supervisor for La Frontera Arizona in Phoenix, 2015.
Program Director for Iraqi American Society for Peace and Friendship in Phoenix, 2015.
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Deli, V. (2023). Forced Migration, Resettlement and Responsibilization in the Functioning of Humanitarian Governance. In: Iraqi Refugees in the United States. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38793-7_2
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