EXECUTIVE BRANCH INITIATIVES Acceptance of Refugees

In response to the increasingly critical nature of the refugee situation in Southeast Asia, the President decided in 1979 to increase the number of Indochinese refugees being accepted by the United States. Following consultation with the Congress, a targeted refugee-flow rate of 7,000 persons per month, or 84,000 on an annual basis, was adopted.

In succeeding months, the number of refugees fleeing from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos increased rapidly. In June, the President announced his intention to double the monthly U.S. acceptance rate from 7,000 to 14,000.

Intensive efforts were initiated by the Department of State and the national voluntary refugee resettlement agencies, which arrange for the sponsorship of refugees throughout the United States, to increase the flow as rapidly as possible in order to reach a regular monthly rate of approximately 14,000 by October. This rate was reached in September, when slightly more than 14,000 refugees were resettled in the U.S. (Table 2.)

Appointment of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs

With the growing seriousness of the refugee situation overseas and the increasing numbers of refugees expected to be admitted to the United States, it became apparent that the modest government organizations responsible for refugee operations and the relatively informal coordination that had existed among various government agencies since 1976 would be inadequate to the new task.

Accordingly, on February 28, 1979, the President created the post of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, with the rank of Ambassador-at-Large. The Coordinator, who reports directly both to the President and to the Secretary of State, is responsible for the coordination of U.S. refugee policy, both international and domestic.

At the same time, the President directed all Departments with major refugee concerns to designate high-level representatives to a new Interagency Coordinating Committee chaired by the U.S. Coordinator.

HEW Actions to Give Priority to Refugee Program

Within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which has the principal domestic responsibility for refugees in the United States, the Secretary placed the leadership role for refugee matters in the Office of the Under Secretary and created a new Office of Refugee Affairs to develop and carry out program activities. The new office reflects the

high priority being given by the Secretary to the refugee program, as does the placement of lead responsibility with the Under Secretary. Prior to creation of the Office of Refuge Affairs, refugee activities were carried out at a lower organizational level by the Special Program Staff, located within the Office of Family Assistance in the Social Security Administration.

As the fiscal year ended, additional staff were being hired by and detailed to the Office of Refugee Affairs, again reflecting the Department's increased effort.

During 1979, HEW also took other steps to identify the extent to which refugee needs were being effectively met and to prepare for increased responsibilities. These included:

• An assessment of the degree to which services needed by refugees, to help them adapt to the United States and become self-supporting, were being provided in various locations.

• A review of IRAP operations and management controls to determine areas of necessary improve

ment.

• Audits of programs and projects funded by Federal refugee program appropriations.

Most of these actions were expected to be completed and reviewed soon after the end of the fiscal year.

In addition, HEW initiated several actions to assess the health needs of newly arriving refugees, to improve overseas health screening, and to help assure access to health services and followup treatment, when needed, in the United States.

Department of State Consolidation of
Refugee Operations

On July 30, 1979, the Department of State created a new Office of Refugee Affairs to provide unified direction and management of the Department's refugee operations. The new office consolidated functions which had previously been handled by various Bureaus of the Department. The director of the office is a career Foreign Service Officer with rank equivalent to an Assistant Secretary. REFUGEE APPROPRIATIONS

HEW received an initial appropriation of $96,487,000 for FY 1979 for the Indochinese Refugee Assistance Program activities; a supplemental appropriation of $51,464,000 was approved by Congress in July, reflecting the growing numbers of refugees being admitted.

Of the total of $147,951,00, $137,420,000 was used to reimburse States for cash and medical assistance to needy refugees, social services, and related State/ local administrative costs, and nearly $7,500,000,

which had been appropriated specifically for special projects, was used to provide English language and employment services projects and mental health projects. An additional $2,877,000 was used to fund federally administered State supplementary payments for refugees receiving supplemental security income (SSI)-a cost which would otherwise have been borne by the States. (Table 15).

The Department of State's obligations for its Indochinese refugee programs for FY 1979 totaled $66,836,176. The principal components were $38,300,000 for the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, which handles refugee transportation to the United States and certain other functions, and $26,912,132 for the voluntary agencies which handle refugee resettlement. (Table 16.) REFUGEE FLOW

A total of 80,616 new Indochinese refugees were admitted to the United States during FY 1979, slightly less than four times the 20,397 who arrived in FY 1978, bringing the total number admitted from the spring of 1975 through September 30, 1979, to 248,436. (Table 1.)

The geographic distribution of the 1979 arrivals followed a pattern similar to that of the 1978 arrivals, reflecting the fact that many of the new refugees were joining family members already in the United States. (Table 3.) Eight States and the District of Columbia received more than 2,000 new refugees in FY 1979 and accounted for nearly 64 percent of the total number of new refugees:

in 1979 as a proportion of the total flow) showed relative decreases in 1979. Between 1978 and 1979, the proportion of new refugees setting initially in Louisiana decreased from 3.5 percent to 1.7 percent; in Colorado, from 2.9 percent to 2.1 percent; and in Florida, from 2.9 percent to 2.3 percent.

With respect to the two leading States, the proportion of new refugees setting initially in California was greater in 1979 than in 1978 (30.4 percent as compared with 24.2 percent) and in Texas was smaller in 1979 than in 1978 (7.6 percent as compared with 9.8 percent).

A full listing of the 1978 and 1979 arrivals, by State of initial resettlement, appears in Table 3. REFUGEE POPULATION

Alien Registration Data: January 1979

New information on the geographic distribution of the total Indochinese refugee population in the United States became available as of January 31, 1979, based on registrations with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). These data, adjusted for underregistration and ranked according to the 1979 population, showed 11 States as having more than 4,000 refugees on January 31, 1979, compared with 8 such States a year earlier (See table page 4).

These States were the 11 leading States during both years, with minor changes in ranking. Four states showed increases in their proportion of the total refugee population (California, Texas, Illinois, and Oregon), five showed decreases (Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Virginia, Florida and New York), and two remained approximately the same (Washington and Minnesota). Among the first 11 States, only one-Florida-showed an actual decrease in the number of refugees. (Nationally. 15 States experienced decreases in their Indochinese refugee population between January 31, 1978 and 1979, as shown in Table 4.)

Secondary Migration

The availability of three sets of data permits estimates to be made of the net secondary migration of refugees-that is, of the net interstate movement of refugees after their intial resettlement. These data are: The January 31, 1978 and 1979, INS registrations, by State, and, for the first time since the Indochinese refugee flow began in 1975, the number of new arrivals, by State of initial resettlement, during the intervening 12-month period. By comparing (a) what the refugee population of a given State would have been in January 1979 if no secondary migration had occurred (January 1978 alien registrations plus new arrivals) with (b) what the State's

"Figures do not add to total due to rounding.

refugee population actually was in January 1979 (January 1979 alien registrations), it is possible to derive an estimate of the net flow into or out of the State during the one-year period. This provides a measure of only the net secondary flow, rather than of the total movement of individual persons since, for example, the movement of one person into a State and of another person out of that State would cancel each other out and not be reflected in the net-flow figure.

The data for the 12-month period from February 1, 1978, through January 31, 1979, show a net secondary migration of 10,234 refugees. Forty-one States experienced a net outflow, and nine States a net inflow. (Table 5.)

The States experiencing a net secondary inflow of 100 or more persons were:

States during the period August 1977-January 1979. (Table 7.)

Compared with the refugee population as of January 31, 1976, the newer arrivals show a higher proportion of males (57.6 percent compared with 50.7 percent).

With respect to age, the data show a slightly higher proportion of children among the newer arrivals (44.5 percent age 0-17 years compared with 42.6 percent) and a lower proportion of older persons (7.9 percent age 45 and over compared with 11.6 percent). The population of principal working age was slightly higher among the new arrivals (47.7 percent age 18-44 compared with 45.8 percent).

Statistical data are not available on the education, occupation, and knowledge of English among the newer arrivals. Observers report finding much less capability in English among the new refugees than among those who reached the United States in 1975.

Nationality Data

California

Number 82,382

Country

Vietnam

Laos

Cambodia Total

The vast majority of Indochinese refugees in the United States are Vietnamese. Alien registration data for January 31, 1979, showed the following breakdown of the refugees by nationality:

During the 20-month period from January 31, 1978, through September 30, 1979, the first 11 States listed in the above table have continued to have the largest numbers of refugees, although there were slight changes in the rank order among these States. Only 4 of the 11 States showed a change of one percentage point or more in terms of proportion of the total refugee population during this period:

• California's percentage of the total U.S. refugee population increased by 5.4 points, from 27.8 percent to 33.2 percent.

• Florida, Louisiana, and Virginia decreased by between 1.0 and 1.2 percentage points.

Except for the growing percentage of refugees in California, data for the leading States do not indicate increasing proportions of refugees concentrating in a few States. As of January 31, 1978, the 2nd through 11th States, ranked in terms of refugee population, accounted for 39.4 percent of the total refugee population; as of January 31, 1979, these 10 States accounted for 38.6 percent; and as of September 30, 1979, they accounted for 37.4 percent. Age and Sex Data

Data are available on the age and sex of 33,360 Indochinese refugees who arrived in the United

California has the highest number of each of the three refugee groups. Texas ranks second with respect to refugees from Vietnam and Laos and third (slightly lower than Oregon) with respect to refugees from Cambodia.

Table 8 presents a State-by-State distribution of refugees by nationality as of January 31, 1979.

A comparison of the total refugee population, by nationality, as of January 31, 1978 and 1979, shows an increase of nearly four percentage points in the proportion of the population from Laos and a corresponding decrease in the proportion from Vietnam, with the proportion from Cambodia remaining unchanged. (Table 9.)

EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME

Indochinese refugees in the United States continued to show gains in employment and income in 1979.

A national sample survey, conducted in AprilJune 1979, of Cambodian, Lao, and Vietnamese refugees who arrived in this country during 19751977 showed that refugees who are in the labor force

a single pay check in a given year; thus this test of labor market involvement is not as rigorous as periodic survey findings. It does, however, provide comparable data on the U.S. population and on the Indochinese refugees who entered the U.S. in 1975 (whose social security numbers were issued in a block and are identifiable by the Social Security Administration). The following table indicates the increasing extent to which the refugees who arrived in 1975 received earnings in employment covered by social security during each of their first 3 years in this country:

1975

1976

1977

U.S. population: 1977.

Male

Female

Data for 1975 are from Harold A. Grossman, "OASDHI-Covered Earnings of Indochina Refugees, 1975," Social Security Bulletin, June 1978, p. 27; for 1976, a followup article in the Bulletin, March 1979, p. 29; and for 1977, unpublished Social Security Administration tabulations.

U.S. workers

*Refugee data from sample survey conducted by Opportunity Systems, Inc.

Labor force participation rates of the Indochinese refugees have been rising over time and, if the patterns of other refugee groups persist, will continue to do so. Although the refugee labor force participation rates are not yet at the U.S. levels, they show a direct relationship to the length of time the refugees have been in this country. The April-June 1979 survey found the following rates among refugees aged 16 and older:

Labor Force Participation Rate

The labor market participation rates shown by the Social Security Index for refugees aged 20-59 are closer to those of the U.S. population than are the labor force participation rates found by the survey of refugees aged 16 and older.

This difference may result from the fact that the 16-19 age group is excluded from the Social Security Index. A high proportion of refugees aged 16-19 are attending school, reflecting the refugees' strong commitment to education.

The incomes of refugees who arrived in 1975 continued generally to rise in 1979, as indicated by the two most recent refugee surveys: