
As Americans continue to
debate what to do about the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, this
analysis attempts to estimate the costs of resettling refugees from that region
in the United States.
Although we do not consider all costs, our best estimate
is that in their first five years in the United States each refugee from the
Middle East costs taxpayers $64,370 — 12 times what the UN estimates it costs
to care for one refugee in neighboring Middle Eastern countries. The cost of
resettlement includes heavy welfare use by Middle Eastern refugees; 91 percent
receive food stamps and 68 percent receive cash assistance. Costs also include
processing refugees, assistance given to new refugees, and aid to
refugee-receiving communities. Given the high costs of resettling refugees in
the United States, providing for them in neighboring countries in the Middle
East may be a more cost-effective way to help them.
Among
the findings of this analysis:
- On average,
each Middle Eastern refugee resettled in the United States costs an
estimated $64,370 in the first five years, or $257,481 per household.
- The UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has requested $1,057 to care for each
Syrian refugee annually in most countries neighboring Syria.
- For what it
costs to resettle one Middle Eastern refugee in the United States for five
years, about 12 refugees can be helped in the Middle East for five years,
or 61 refugees can be helped for one year.
- UNHCR
reports a gap of $2.5 billion in funding that it needs to care for
approximately four million Syrians in neighboring countries.
- The
five-year cost of resettling about 39,000 Syrian refugees in the United
States is enough to erase the current UNHCR funding gap.
- The
five-year costs of resettlement in the United States include $9,230 spent
by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within HHS and the Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) within the State Department in
the first year, as well as $55,139 in expenditures on welfare and
education.
- Very heavy
use of welfare programs by Middle Eastern refugees, and the fact that they
have only 10.5 years of education on average, makes it likely that it will
be many years, if ever, before this population will cease to be a net
fiscal drain on public coffers — using more in public services than they
pay in taxes.
- It is worth
adding that ORR often reports that most refugees are self-sufficient
within five years. However, ORR defines "self-sufficiency" as
not receiving cash welfare. A household is still considered
"self-sufficient" even if it is using any number of non-cash
programs such as food stamps, public housing, or Medicaid.
- Refugees are
admitted for humanitarian reasons, not because they are supposed to be
self-sufficient, so the drain on public coffers that Middle Eastern
refugees create is expected. However, given limited resources, the high
cost of resettlement in the United States means careful consideration
should be given to alternatives to resettlement if the goal is the help as
many people possible.
- Introduction
The U.S. government
publishes some information on welfare use and money spent to resettle refugees
in the United States. Based on that information, this analysis finds that the
costs of resettling refugees in the United States are quite high, even without considering
all of the costs refugees create. We conservatively estimate that the costs
total $64,370 in the first five years for each Middle Eastern refugee. This is
61 times what it costs to care for one Syrian refugee in a neighboring country
for a single year or about 12 times the cost of providing for a refugee for
five years. It must be kept in mind that refugees are admitted for humanitarian
reasons, so the high cost of refugee resettlement is to be expected.