The United States’ refugee resettlement program has fallen to its lowest point in more than 30 years, according to new research from the Washington-based Pew Research Center.

And the number of refugees resettled in the US decreased more than in any other country in 2017, according to an analysis by the Pew Center of new data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The numbers show that for the first time since the US adopted the US Refugee Act in 1980, it has settled fewer refugees than the rest of the world.

Historically, the US has led the world in refugee resettlement. Since 1980, it has taken in three million of the more than four million refugees resettled worldwide

But in 2017, the U.S. resettled just 33,000 refugees, the country’s lowest total since the years following the September 11 terrorist attacks and a steep drop from 2016, when it resettled about 97,000.

Other countries resettled more than twice as many refugees as the US in 2017 – 69,000 – even though refugee resettlement in these nations was down from 92,000 in 2016, the Pew Center research said.

Previously, the closest the rest of the world had come to surpassing the US on this measure was 2003, when the US resettled about 28,000 refugees and the rest of the world resettled about 27,000.

Despite a sharp single-year decline in refugee resettlement, the US still resettled more refugees – 33,000 – than any other one country.

Following the US were Canada (27,000), Australia (15,000) and the United Kingdom (6,000).

Sweden, Germany, Norway and France each resettled about 3,000 refugees. Per capita, Canada led the world by resettling 725 refugees per 1 million residents, followed by Australia (618) and Norway (528). The US resettled 102 refugees per 1 million US residents.

Overall, the world resettled 103,000 refugees in 2017, down from 189,000 in 2016.

The broad-based decline included decreases in other leading countries in refugee resettlement, such as Canada and Australia, though the drops in these countries were more modest than those in the US, according to the Pew Center.

Refugee resettlement involves a different group of migrants than those seeking asylum by entering Europe via the Mediterranean or coming into Canada via the US or crossing into the US at its southern border.

Asylum seekers migrate and cross a border without having received prior legal permission to enter their destination country, and then apply for asylum.

Resettled refugees enter their destination country after they have legal permission to do so, because they apply for refugee status while in another country.

The refugee approval process can take several months or years while destination countries complete security checks on prospective refugees.

The decline in refugee resettlement comes as the global refugee population increased by 2.75 million, and reached a record 19.9 million in 2017, according to UNHCR.

This exceeds the high in 1990, following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But refugees represent only a third of the world’s displaced population – people forced to leave their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.

There are currently about 40 million internally displaced people – those displaced within their home country.

The total number of displaced people is now 68.5 million – the highest it has ever been.

More than half (56 per cent) of refugees resettled worldwide were citizens of countries in the Middle East-North Africa region, mostly from Syria. Another 23 per cent were from sub-Saharan African countries, while 15 per cent came from Asian countries.

The Pew Center research says US refugee resettlement is on pace to remain at historically low levels in 2018.

It says the Trump administration lowered the refugee ceiling for the 2018 fiscal year to 45,000 – the lowest cap since the Refugee Act was adopted by Congress.

The US has admitted more than 16,000 refugees with about three months remaining in the current fiscal year, according to US State Department data.

The number of Muslim refugees admitted to the US has dropped more than other religious groups, the Pew Center research says.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist