Russel Sage Foundation

In the U.S. and other receiving countries, refugee and asylum policy, like immigration policy, is a divisive issue. Some politicians frame refugees and asylum seekers as dangerous, a drain on public resources, and exploit anxieties about racial, cultural, and religious threats to the native-born. However, policies and public debate on these issues is rarely informed by research. The National Academy of Sciences will convene a committee that will review and assess the current state of knowledge and knowledge gaps on refugee and asylee migrant resettlement and integration in the United States. The committee has two co-chairs, sociologists Mary Waters (Harvard University) and David Fitzgerald (University of California, San Diego) and will include twelve experts from the disciplines of sociology, economics, political science, public policy, and public health. Results will be published by the National Academies Press and available for download at no cost. The project will be led by public policy scholar Malay Majmundar, sociologist Iliya Gutin, and social demographer Anne R. Pebley.