About Refugees

According to the State of Texas Refugee Resettlement Program, over 5,100 refugees from 50 countries were resettled in Harris County from 2004 through 2006; 1,400 of them were of school age. These refugees have been given asylum by the United States government after fleeing their homelands due to war, political change, or social, religious, and ethnic persecution. They come to the United States often with only the clothes they are wearing; they come to build a new life. Although the refugees are resilient and strong individuals who have survived many hardships, the transition to life here is often very difficult. Most face a language barrier: the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement found that nearly half of the refugees surveyed reported that they did not speak English well or that they spoke no English at all. This challenge compounds the difficulties of achieving economic self-sufficiency and social integration. Refugee resettlement agencies do much to assist newly arrived refugees to become fully productive members of our community, but their services are limited in scope and duration. PAIR works to fill some of the gaps in available services.

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