Giving Compass' Take:

• Kemal Kirişci and Sam Denney, at Brookings, explain how COVID-19 has created a critical opportunity for revising US refugee policy.

• How have refugees experienced the brunt of COVID-19's economic and health disparities? What are you doing to help counteract those effects? Why is revising US refugee policy an important step in doing so?

• Find resources to support those who have been upended from their homes during the crisis.

Today, vibrant refugee communities can be found in cities like Los Angeles, California, Nashville, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, which host the largest number of Vietnamese, Kurds, and Bosnians in the United States, respectively. A compelling argument can be made that America needs refugees and owes part of its economic success to those who came to its shores seeking shelter from persecution and violence. The arrival of refugees helped to uphold America’s identity as a multicultural nation that accepts all victims of persecution who would come to its shores.

The pandemic has forced refugees, who often live in densely populated areas with little access to healthcare and whose economic condition is fragile at best, into a “double emergency.” Given that the vast majority of refugees are hosted by economically and socially precarious developing countries, COVID-19 is likely to push these countries to a breaking point. Already weak countries like Lebanon have seen their economies and currencies collapse under the weight of refugees, the pandemic, and bad governance.

With a definitive end to the COVID-19 pandemic nowhere in sight, the threat facing refugees and the political stability of their host countries calls for the next administration to go beyond simply restoring the traditional U.S. leadership role on refugees. To address the challenge of rebuilding after COVID-19, the United States should endorse the Global Compact on Refugees.

Adopted in December 2018, the GCR recognizes that traditional durable solutions are under challenge and protracted refugee situations are likely to persist. Against this reality, it advocates that the international community work to improve the self-reliance of refugees and the resilience of their host communities to transform refugees from being a humanitarian burden to a developmental and economic opportunity.

Read the full article about revising US refugee policy by Kemal Kirişci and Sam Denney at Brookings.