On Aug. 14, 2021, the world looked on with sorrow and horror as the US began its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Television screens lit up nightly with thousands of people — largely men and boys — desperately trying to push their way on to overcrowded flights at the airport in Kabul.
There are now 76,000 refugees from Afghanistan who have resettled in the US, mostly in Northern California, Washington DC, Texas, and Washington state. Many have left their wives and children in Afghanistan, with slim prospects of being able to reunite in the future.
“The resettlement process has been a challenge,” said Migration Policy Institute Senior Policy Analyst Julia Gelatt, in an Aug. 10 interview with EMS. Gelatt has closely followed the situation in Afghanistan.
Here are slightly edited excerpts from the interview:
EMS: Was there a tangible plan in place for refugees when the US initially announced that it was planning to withdraw from Afghanistan?
Julia Gelatt: Initially, there was no announced plan for refugees or other people in Afghanistan, or how the US would be helping those who had worked with the US and Afghanistan and were in danger because of that work. The US, of course, has had the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) channel for Afghans who have worked with the US government. But SIV processing was moving slowly all along.
Before the US announced its withdrawal, the backlog was estimated at about 18,000 Afghan allies of the US and 53,000 of their family members. And after the evacuation of refugees, the backlog has significantly grown.
The Biden administration has taken some steps to speed the processing of Special Immigrant Visas (which give holders lawful permanent resident status). The most recent change was to take the role of US Citizenship and Immigration Services out of the processing so that it’s processed purely by the State Department. That should hopefully speed it up, but the backlog does remain quite long.
EMS: At the local level, are there sufficient resources to deal with the influx of refugees?
JG: The resettlement process has really been a challenge. At the time when the evacuation happened, refugee resettlement in the United States had been very low for several years. The Trump administration greatly lowered the number of refugees that were let in.
As a result, a lot of the local resettlement agencies laid off staff or closed operations. So when the Afghans arrived, there was funding that came for their resettlement, but the local resettlement agencies had to suddenly staff up and regrow their capacity to help.
Layered on top of that, the US has a housing shortage: housing is very expensive, even for people with middle class jobs, much less for people who have just arrived to the country without anything. And so housing was a major, major challenge.
Airbnb stepped up and offered some free temporary housing. A lot of Afghans were temporarily placed in hotels after they got off of the domestic military bases. But even now, a year later, some Afghans have not found their way to their permanent housing, though many have.
EMS: How easy has it been for Afghan refugees to reestablish some sort of semblance of life here in the US?
JG: Just like for refugees from all around the world, it’s really difficult to rebuild one’s life in the United States. All of us are looking at the high prices in grocery stores, at the gas pump, and trying to figure out how to pay for basic necessities.
Refugees often arrive without access to any money they might have had in their home country and haven’t been able to bring over valuable items with them. So they’re really economically starting from scratch. In many cases, it’s difficult to find a job.
It’s also difficult for those who have professional skills or higher education to translate that into the US labor market. US employers don’t really know how to look at foreign credentials and for jobs that require certain licenses, often the foreign license doesn’t translate to the United States. So often refugees and Afghans who have just come are working in lower wage jobs, trying to support their families.
But we’ve seen such an outpouring of support by Americans. So many individuals and work groups and church groups have gotten together to set up homes and provide a warm welcome to the many Afghans who have come to the United States.
At the same time, the invasion of Ukraine and the new flows of Ukrainians coming to the United States has in some ways competed for the attention of Americans and their generosity.
EMS: On Aug. 9, a bi-partisan group of senators introduced the Afghan Adjustment Act to improve SIV for Afghans who served alongside U.S. service members. What does the measure do?
JG: The measure would do three things. One would be to expand the SIV program. There are particular groups named in the legislation that worked with the US government. They would be covered by being newly included in the Special Immigrant Visa program.
A second thing that it would do is allow Afghans who have come to the United States on parole (allowing them to stay in the country without an immigrant or non-immigrant visa) to adjust to permanent residency or apply for asylum status. Probably many would qualify for the latter. And so this bill would provide a much more straightforward path to adjust status, which would be more efficient for the government and be easier for the Afghans themselves.
And then the third thing that the bill would do is create a task force to study the need for ongoing evacuation from Afghanistan for those who worked with the US, supported the US, but are still in Afghanistan. The task force would explore what pathways are needed to bring more Afghans to safety.
EMS: At what point will Afghan refugees be allowed to bring their wives and children over, if at all?
JG: That’s certainly a very pressing concern of many Afghans: their family and loved ones left behind. There are various pathways, but they all have challenges.
Afghans who can make their way out of the country can join the refugee resettlement process and sign up to apply to be resettled in the United States. Right now, it’s taking two or more years for the US to resettle refugees in general.
And so that is a possible pathway, but very slow. And it requires people getting outside of Afghanistan and finding somewhere to live and a way to live while they wait. Through that process, some of the family members left behind might be eligible for Special Immigrant Visas.
But there are a lot of requirements. And one of the requirements, which sounds so simple, but it’s not, is getting a passport. Afghanistan is still issuing passports, but they run out of paper, they run out of printers. There are logistical challenges. So there are a lot of barriers in the way.
