The U.S. is trying to privatize the refugee crisis by asking citizens to sponsor refugees. The program is called Welcome Corps.
U.S. citizens can request to be matched with refugees who have been approved for resettlement in phase one. In phase two, the private sponsors “will be able to identify refugees to refer to the [program] for resettlement and support the refugees they have identified.” Meanwhile, these refugees will be able to apply for permanent status. This is a much better deal for Ukrainians who are currently offered two years of residency through Uniting for Ukraine.
Refugee centers in the U.S. are packed, even though the U.S. has resettled the lowest number of refugees since 1980. So can this program improve through privatization? The State Department calls this “the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades.”
