Editorial
We need to realize that America does not exist without refugees
On Jan. 20, our new U.S. President ended refugee admissions into the United States effective Jan. 27. The possibility exists to resume them at his sole discretion after a 90-day "review." I have a few thoughts as someone who has worked directly with refugees in Spokane for the past nine years:
1) More than 3,000,000 refugees have come through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program since 1980 and have successfully become hard-working, tax-paying permanent residents and eventually U.S. citizens.
They commit crimes at lower rates than those of us born here, start businesses at twice the rate of those of us born here, and are the most thoroughly vetted category of immigrants in the entire nation. There is no practical reason for this policy. It's foolishness born of xenophobia.
2) This is a denial of one of the most foundational values of America: we are a land of liberty for the oppressed and persecuted of the world. If this is how we are going to treat refugees, we might as well shove the Statue of Liberty off its pedestal and into the sea.
So many of us are descendants of pilgrims from other lands who came here to work hard, raise their children with freedom and make a better world that it's unconscionable for us to slam the door shut on those who come for the same reasons our ancestors did.
3) This is bad foreign policy. Many of our relationships with other nations include U.S. participation in alleviating humanitarian disasters and those displaced by war. Allies like Turkey, Jordan and Uganda agree to house millions of refugees annually, as well as support U.S. interests in a myriad other ways in part because America has helped resettle less than one percent of the most vulnerable refugees living in camps in their countries.
4) This is bad economics. From the last time this president was in office, a report from his own staff showed that over a 10-year period refugees generated more than $10 billion more in tax revenue than they cost in initial government-sourced support.
More recently, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that strong immigration in general is one of the reasons our economy did not go into recession in 2023 when high inflation threatened to send us into a downward spiral. Immigrants come and fill labor vacancies that American-born workers won't fill—in healthcare, hotels, restaurants, agriculture and manufacturing—and their increased spending grows the economy for everyone.
America as we know it does not exist without refugees. I am committed to standing together with refugees and other vulnerable immigrants until this country wakes up and remembers who we are. I hope you are too.
Thrive's mission is to Empower Multicultural Communities to THRIVE.
Thrive International is innovating how local communities respond to the refugee crisis in America. We have two transitional housing centers in Washington State—Spokane and Seattle—that serve refugee families while providing on-site programming and education tailored to their needs.
Mark Finney
