jmdrake
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Wow! This was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Interesting. So I guess Trump should be deported for wanting to allow foreigners to come to the United States.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immi...926dd6-2e43-11ea-bcb3-ac6482c4a92f_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immi...926dd6-2e43-11ea-bcb3-ac6482c4a92f_story.html
Ukrainians are now one of the top groups resettled as refugees in the U.S. under Trump administratio
An attendee signs in at a government-required cultural orientation class in Kent, Wash. Many newly arrived Ukrainians have ended up in Washington state. (Jovelle Tamayo/for The Washington Post)
By Abigail Hauslohner
January 30, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EST
EVERETT, Wash. — As President Trump has significantly reduced the number of refugees allowed to settle in the country and specifically pushed to keep Muslims out, an unlikely nationality has come to represent a disproportionate share of the refugees who have been entering the United States in recent years: Ukrainians.
The United States last year resettled more nationals from Ukraine, a country that barely registers in the United Nations’ assessments of the global refu*gee crisis, than it did almost any other nationality. Only people fleeing widespread violence and unrest in Congo and Myanmar outnumber the flow of Ukrainian refugees to the United States.
There is no indication that Trump’s relationship with Ukraine — which is at the center of his impeachment saga and an alleged quid pro quo involving military aid in exchange for pressure on a domestic political foe — has played a role in the rise in Ukrainian refugees admitted into the United States. But the demographic shift does appear to be the byproduct of Trump administration policies that have restricted access to the U.S. refu*gee program, experts said.
Trump has repeatedly stated his desire to block Muslim refugees and to prioritize persecuted Christians from around the world. And his administration has successfully implemented a travel ban and expanded vetting scrutiny for the nationals of several predominantly Muslim nationalities — a program that officials said could expand to bar people from additional countries this year.
The impact is clear: Though Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia drive more than two-thirds of the international refu*gee crisis, now numbering more than 26 million according to the United Nations, Ukrainians in 2019 outnumbered Syrian refu*gee arrivals in the United States 8 to 1. They outnumbered Afghans nearly 4 to 1, Sudanese 12 to 1 and Somalis 19 to 1.
“This is unprecedented, and it represents a shift away from the refu*gee program’s historical foundation, which is a needs-based, vulnerability-based program,” said Nazanin Ash, vice president of public policy and advocacy for the International Rescue Committee. “There has been a reordering of the nationalities, and not on the basis of need. The administration’s policies lock out many of the most vulnerable refu*gee populations.”
The 4,451 Ukrainians who arrived in the United States during fiscal 2019 made up 15 percent of the 30,000 total refugees who resettled in the country. In 2016, Ukrainians accounted for just 3 percent.
Ukraine has been engaged in a simmering conflict with Russia and Russian-backed proxies in a limited part of the country’s eastern region since 2014, but most Ukrainian refugees to the United States are not fleeing violence. Instead, they are coming to the United States for the opportunities it provides, taking advantage of a decades-old program that created a special pathway for nationals of the former Soviet Union.
Many of the newly arrived Ukrainians have ended up here in Washington state, near Seattle along Puget Sound. The area already is home to one of the largest Ukrainian immigrant communities in the country.
Ukrainian and Russian-speaking churches, grocery stores, construction companies and real estate agents have proliferated as the refugees have streamed here, sometimes arriving as 20-member extended families all at once. The Ukrainian Association of Washington has seen membership in its youth dance troupe swell to 30, and the University of Washington is offering Ukrainian language courses for its third year in a row.
Many decry the endemic corruption and lingering Communist-era bureaucracy back home. The poor pay, the shady politicians, the inertia. Their reasons for coming to the United States sound a lot like the reasons most people want to immigrate: Opportunity. But few say they experienced severe oppression or needed to flee death and devastation, as refugees from other countries often do.
“The Soviet Union has not existed for a long time, but the influence of the Soviet Union is still there, especially when we talk about free will for the people and opportunity for everybody,” explained Valentyna Ostapets, 36, who worked as a prosecutor in Ukraine and arrived in Washington as a refu*gee three years ago.
Vitaliy Tsinkevich, 51, who left behind a business in Ukraine to move to Washington with his family in 2003, said it plainly: “I wanted a better life for my kids.”
Now Tsinkevich owns a senior care home for elderly Ukrainians, is active in a Ukrainian church, and runs an outlet called the Diaspora Slavic Center that provides resources to new arrivals. The center is in an office block of other Ukrainian-owned businesses, including a free newspaper that supplies an ever-expanding index of Ukrainian and Russian-language medical assistance, lawyers and other services. A recent article explained the concept of the American Dream.
An attendee signs in at a government-required cultural orientation class in Kent, Wash. Many newly arrived Ukrainians have ended up in Washington state. (Jovelle Tamayo/for The Washington Post)
By Abigail Hauslohner
January 30, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EST
EVERETT, Wash. — As President Trump has significantly reduced the number of refugees allowed to settle in the country and specifically pushed to keep Muslims out, an unlikely nationality has come to represent a disproportionate share of the refugees who have been entering the United States in recent years: Ukrainians.
The United States last year resettled more nationals from Ukraine, a country that barely registers in the United Nations’ assessments of the global refu*gee crisis, than it did almost any other nationality. Only people fleeing widespread violence and unrest in Congo and Myanmar outnumber the flow of Ukrainian refugees to the United States.
There is no indication that Trump’s relationship with Ukraine — which is at the center of his impeachment saga and an alleged quid pro quo involving military aid in exchange for pressure on a domestic political foe — has played a role in the rise in Ukrainian refugees admitted into the United States. But the demographic shift does appear to be the byproduct of Trump administration policies that have restricted access to the U.S. refu*gee program, experts said.
Trump has repeatedly stated his desire to block Muslim refugees and to prioritize persecuted Christians from around the world. And his administration has successfully implemented a travel ban and expanded vetting scrutiny for the nationals of several predominantly Muslim nationalities — a program that officials said could expand to bar people from additional countries this year.
The impact is clear: Though Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia drive more than two-thirds of the international refu*gee crisis, now numbering more than 26 million according to the United Nations, Ukrainians in 2019 outnumbered Syrian refu*gee arrivals in the United States 8 to 1. They outnumbered Afghans nearly 4 to 1, Sudanese 12 to 1 and Somalis 19 to 1.
“This is unprecedented, and it represents a shift away from the refu*gee program’s historical foundation, which is a needs-based, vulnerability-based program,” said Nazanin Ash, vice president of public policy and advocacy for the International Rescue Committee. “There has been a reordering of the nationalities, and not on the basis of need. The administration’s policies lock out many of the most vulnerable refu*gee populations.”
The 4,451 Ukrainians who arrived in the United States during fiscal 2019 made up 15 percent of the 30,000 total refugees who resettled in the country. In 2016, Ukrainians accounted for just 3 percent.
Ukraine has been engaged in a simmering conflict with Russia and Russian-backed proxies in a limited part of the country’s eastern region since 2014, but most Ukrainian refugees to the United States are not fleeing violence. Instead, they are coming to the United States for the opportunities it provides, taking advantage of a decades-old program that created a special pathway for nationals of the former Soviet Union.
Many of the newly arrived Ukrainians have ended up here in Washington state, near Seattle along Puget Sound. The area already is home to one of the largest Ukrainian immigrant communities in the country.
Ukrainian and Russian-speaking churches, grocery stores, construction companies and real estate agents have proliferated as the refugees have streamed here, sometimes arriving as 20-member extended families all at once. The Ukrainian Association of Washington has seen membership in its youth dance troupe swell to 30, and the University of Washington is offering Ukrainian language courses for its third year in a row.
Many decry the endemic corruption and lingering Communist-era bureaucracy back home. The poor pay, the shady politicians, the inertia. Their reasons for coming to the United States sound a lot like the reasons most people want to immigrate: Opportunity. But few say they experienced severe oppression or needed to flee death and devastation, as refugees from other countries often do.
“The Soviet Union has not existed for a long time, but the influence of the Soviet Union is still there, especially when we talk about free will for the people and opportunity for everybody,” explained Valentyna Ostapets, 36, who worked as a prosecutor in Ukraine and arrived in Washington as a refu*gee three years ago.
Vitaliy Tsinkevich, 51, who left behind a business in Ukraine to move to Washington with his family in 2003, said it plainly: “I wanted a better life for my kids.”
Now Tsinkevich owns a senior care home for elderly Ukrainians, is active in a Ukrainian church, and runs an outlet called the Diaspora Slavic Center that provides resources to new arrivals. The center is in an office block of other Ukrainian-owned businesses, including a free newspaper that supplies an ever-expanding index of Ukrainian and Russian-language medical assistance, lawyers and other services. A recent article explained the concept of the American Dream.
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The numbers don't lie. During the Trump presidency there was a massive increase in the number of Ukrainians and a dramatic decrease in Christians who were actually being persecuted.
