Episcopal Press and News
Episcopal Migration Ministries Rated Best in Refugee Resettlement
Episcopal News Service. April 15, 1999 [99-042]
(ENS) The Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) program has again been designated by the U.S. State Department as the best at providing the complicated and compassionate services needed to resettle refugees in the United States.
The announcement was made in early March by the Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, which strictly monitors the nine agencies with which it contracts to do the resettlement work. The bureau issues ratings annually, after compiling a "resettlement score" of statistics measuring the effectiveness of each agency's efforts.
"This is extraordinary," said Richard Parkins, director of EMM, "because we're among the smallest of the resettlement agencies." EMM last year placed 2,750 refugees; by contrast, the U.S. Catholic Conference placed about 21,000.
This is the second time in three years that EMM has been ranked Number 1, he said. Last year it was ranked Number 2.
"More than any of the scores can adequately reflect," wrote Theresa Rusch, the bureau's director of admissions, in a letter to Parkins, "the resettlement staff at EMM has consistently demonstrated a commitment to high quality refugee resettlement and willingness to cooperate with the bureau on a variety of resettlement issues."
"I take particular pride in what we and our diocesan affiliates have accomplished," Parkins said of his program's work, "because we are minimally staffed. Such an achievement doesn't come easily to a staff as strapped as we are or to local programs that are constantly seeking resources."
With a handful of assistants, Parkins oversees a complicated network of diocesan affiliates, including many volunteers, who reach out to a huge array of sponsors, employers and others willing to provide support. Together they all work efficiently and compassionately to make new homes for people whose lives have been torn by war or political upheaval.
All of the people helped by the Migration Ministries office fall under criteria established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Parkins explained. The definition is very specific and applies only to persons who have left their home countries without a practical hope of returning to resume their lives. People who have been displaced from their homes but who are still within their home countries' borders are not eligible for resettlement in the U.S.
Declaring that bringing refugees to the U.S. "is a team effort in every sense of the word," Parkins said a refugee's journey to resettlement typically begins with applications and interviews while she is still in a refugee camp overseas. About 80 percent of the refugees are women and their dependents, Parkins said.
Migration Ministries does the paperwork to get the refugee to the U.S., he said. Once here, the refugee is placed in the care of a sponsor, and is given a job and a place to live as well as other support.
"It's all a very structured system with many requirements," Parkins said, but he stressed that an agency is judged not simply by its ability to follow the rules but to "do good placement." That means, he said, "finding a good fit" for a refugee with a sponsor who is sensitive to her needs, an employer who will help her keep her job and a community where she can find help from a range of people, including some from the refugee's home country.
About half of EMM's caseload involves reuniting family members, he said. The other half involves people who are on their own. All refugees are helped, regardless of their religious beliefs -- and, Parkins added, the resettlement effort is both ecumenical and interfaith.
The Episcopal Migration Ministries operation is funded primarily by the U.S. State Department, which pays EMM $740 per refugee to cover costs.
"Obviously, that doesn't begin to cover the actual costs," Parkins said. "We depend heavily on donations, dedicated volunteer help and diocesan and parish support." Most of the money received by the EMM office is passed on to its diocesan affiliates who carry out the actual resettlement process.
Migration Ministries and its affiliates currently are working to get more churches involved in sponsoring refugees. At this point, there are 14 to 15 million refugees worldwide, he said, "but we're working with them one at a time, just like Jesus did most of his ministry.
"What refugees need most are friends," Parkins said. "They've been uprooted, often they've languished in awful refugee camps. They are victims of unimaginable violence and tragedy, and of their own despair. We have to restore each refugee's confidence in himself or herself; help them believe again in the possibility of compassion."
