Assimilation of Refugees

Report Outline
Size and Scope of the Refugee Problem
Agencies and Programs for Refugee Aid
Permanent Resettlement of Refugees
Special Focus

Size and Scope of the Refugee Problem

Hopes for final solution of the difficult problems posed by Europe's so-called hard core of 350,000 unassimilated refugees were raised perceptibly, the first week in October, when the United States threw its support behind a five-year, $36 million assimilation and resettlement program advanced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ade M. Johnson, member of the U. S. delegation to the General Assembly, told the Social and Humanitarian Committee on Oct. 4 that this country had contributed more than $3 billion, directly or through international agencies, to assist refugees. However, the United States has not been a contributor to earlier refugee-aid programs of the U.N. High Commissioner. Johnson's announcement that the administration would seek an appropriation from Congress for the new program improved the chances for its adoption and successful operation.

The refugee problem is not limited to the hard core of still unassimilated World War II displaced persons. It encompasses a much larger number of other refugees who have fled, and who continue to flee, from political persecution in Eastern Europe or who have been dislodged by new wars in the Middle and Far East. Hundreds of escapees from behind the Iron Curtain still arrive daily in Germany and in southern European countries, where they join earlier refugees in already crowded camps.

Some of the hard-core refugees have lived in congested, makeshift quarters for nearly a decade; their younger children remember no other life. Hunger, disease, and despair are prevalent in many refugee centers. Conditions in some countries of asylum are so poor that there are neither jobs nor public assistance for refugees; the national authorities are hard pressed to give aid even to needy citizens.