IRC’s Miliband says refugee resettlement is “opportunity for U.S. to seize”

Rebuilding the refugee resettlement program in the U.S. “is not a problem for Biden to solve. It is an opportunity for the U.S. to seize,” writes David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Time Magazine.

“For that to happen, the country needs more than a signature of a Presidential Determination. Successful social change depends on public engagement as well as policy smarts. There are lessons here for other parts of the immigration debate,” writes Miliband.

He argues that the U.S. should expand the use of community, family, and co-sponsorship models of resettlement. “By building on the existing public-private partnership model, community sponsorship will expand the number of refugee families that can safely resettle, build community buy-in towards the program, and improve the welcome and integration offered to these families when they arrive in their new communities.”