Introduction
Full Report (1MB) (PDF)
(PDF)The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) serves refugees, asylees, Cuban and Haitian entrants, Special Immigrant Visa holders, Amerasians, victims of human trafficking, repatriated Americans from abroad, and unaccompanied alien children. ORR promotes their economic and social well-being by providing these arrived populations with critical resources.
The Refugee Resettlement Program creates a path to self-sufficiency and integration for people displaced by war, persecution, and devastating loss. The first step on this path is helping refugees and other populations served by the program achieve economic self-sufficiency through ORR-funded employment services. Employment services equip ORR-served populations with skills, knowledge, and opportunities to succeed in the U.S. labor market. Social service programs build on the strengths of ORR-served populations as they continue on the path to becoming fully integrated members of their communities.
ORR also cares for unaccompanied alien children who are without lawful immigration status and without a parent or legal guardian. The Unaccompanied Alien Children Program provides unaccompanied alien children with a safe environment and client-focused care to better their opportunities for success both while in care and upon discharge from the program.
In FY 2016, ORR launched the ORR Monitoring Initiative to establish a comprehensive system of monitoring for all ORR-funded programs. The initiative focuses on identifying best practices, assessing compliance, developing protocols that facilitate overall efficiencies in service delivery, and enhancing internal and external coordination with ORR grantees and partners. The Monitoring Initiative furthers ORR’s effort to create a culture of data-driven decision making by creating uniform standards and mechanisms to track and analyze findings. Uniform standards and enhanced analysis help ORR staff and partners make better-informed decisions about the best use of resources, best practices, and training and technical assistance as part of the Monitoring Initiative.
ORR completed the Annual Survey of Refugees 2016 (ASR 2016) in winter 2017. The data from the ASR offer a window into refugees’ first five years in the United States and demonstrate the progress that responding refugee families made towards learning English, participating in the workforce, pursuing formal education, and establishing permanent residence. ORR is currently overseeing a multi-year review of the data collected through the ASR, including revisions that improved the design of the ASR 2016, to ensure the survey offers representative data on the refugee population. Because of these changes, estimates from the ASR 2016 are not directly comparable to prior years of the ASR. As a part of this effort, ORR has reformatted some of the ASR data provided in the Annual Report to ensure it is reported in the most accurate and accessible manner.
This report demonstrates how ORR continues to identify innovative service delivery methods, apply effective monitoring approaches, and track trends to make data-driven decisions to best support these populations.
Read the full report (1MB) (PDF)
View all of ORR’s Annual Reports to Congress (including archived versions)
ORR Quarterly February 2018 (PDF) | ORR Quarterly May 2018 (PDF)