Kids, seniors and veterans; those who were born in America and those who emigrated here legally, go hungry and without shelter every day. There simply are not enough funds to go around and many of these citizens are unbanked, homeless and unable to produce the proper documentation required for aid, even when funds are available.
This is not the case for another group of individuals; the thousands of foreign refugees who are admitted to the country each year. Who are these refugees, why is so much being spent on welfare and housing for them, and why is it so difficult to care for citizens already living here?
A recent study reveals some answers about the money allocated to refugees, who these individuals are and where they come from.
The FAIR Study
The plight of the hungry, homeless and impoverished in America reveals just how badly our efforts are focused right now. A recently released study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, reveals that over $1.8 billion is spent on foreign refugees instead of on American citizens in crisis.
According to FAIR, $870 million annually is spent on welfare for these new arrivals. Over the course of the next five years, the tax paying public will have spent almost $9 million on this sole agenda.
Massive amounts of funding are being allocated for foreign refugees to give them a fresh start — but who are these individuals? While they are often portrayed as babies, mothers and the elderly, the actual statistics tell a different tale.
Who are The Refugees?
In 2016, more than 40,000 Muslim refugees were resettled to the United States – the highest amount of refugees in history, according to a PEW Research study. This is also the first year that the number of Muslim refugees outstripped Christian and any other religion as well.
While the United States has admitted more than three million refugees since 1980, the demographic and cost of caring for the new arrivals has risen to all time high levels. Refugees from countries like Syria are largely young and male; according to PEW, males in the 18-34-year age range are far more likely to become refugees than women, despite the way arrivals are portrayed in the main stream media.
Surprising Findings from the FAIR Study
Each new arrival to the refugee program costs taxpayers a little under $80,000 ($79,600) per year during each of their first five years in the United States. This sum, which is about $20,000 more than the median household income for a family already living in the US, adds up to about half a million dollars per foreign refugee over that five-year settlement period.
Of the annual 1.8 billion spend on resettlement of foreign refugees, $867 billion goes directly to those new arrivals in the form of welfare benefits. As refugees, these newly minted arrivals do not face the same barriers to help as veterans, children and the disabled do as American citizens.
In the last year measured, 2016, the US State Department spent over $500 million to resettle refugees – about a third of that was on transportation and related costs. Another $71 million is earmarked for education and job training.
The refugees generally end up employed at a rate of 54%; the half that are employed will make less than $11 per hour in most cases.
Slowing the Flow of Refugees
President Obama was a proponent of mass resettling of refugees, but the number of admitted refugees has been reduced by two thirds since the election of President Trump. In his last year in office, President Obama admitted almost 100,000 refugees; in President Trump’s first year, that number has dropped to 28,875. Reducing the arrival cap could free up more funds for those in desperate need right here at home, though it will do nothing for the bureaucracy the poverty stricken at risk Americans have to deal with to get assistance.
~ Liberty Planet
