The United States has led the world in refugee resettlement every year since the Refugee Act of 1980, but now Canada is leading the pack.
Canada resettled more refugees than the U.S. and all other countries in 2018, according Pew Research Center. Last year, the U.S. resettled 23,000 refugees, taking the second spot to Canada, which brought in 28,000. Australia rounded out the top three, resettling 13,000.
The data marks a precipitous drop from 2016, when the U.S. resettled 97,000 refugees. Up until 2017, the U.S. resettled more refugees than all of the countries in the rest of the world combined. Part of the reason behind the drop are new guidelines from President Trump’s administration, which has lowered the cap on the number of refugees the U.S. can admit in a single year.
Until 2017, the U.S. resettled more refugees each year than the rest of the world’s countries combined. Now, Canada has moved ahead , having settled 28,000 refugees in 2017 compared to 23,000 for the U.S. https://t.co/laDdY1P0m8 pic.twitter.com/oAeh0592Sn
— Pew Research Fact Tank (@FactTank) June 19, 2019
Last year, 47% of the world’s refugees came from the Middle East region, although the U.S. took in less than 1% of those from that region. The second largest point of origin was Africa, with 32% of refugees worldwide coming from there. From the Africa region, the U.S. brought in the most refugees of any other country.
