Refugees in Michigan and Grand Rapids

In the 2017 fiscal year, almost 54,000 refugees resettled in the United States of America.  All states take in some refugees, but a few states in particular take in the majority of the refugees seeking a new home.  

At the beginning of this year, Michigan was ranked seventh among the states who accept most refugees.  Previously Michigan’s resettlement numbers have been ranked as high as fourth out of all the states!

Grand Rapids particularly hosts many refugees, approximately 600 per year.  Those who resettle here come from varying countries and backgrounds.

The majority of refugees relocating to Michigan in 2017 came from Iraq.  In fact since 2007, refugees resettling in Michigan have mainly been Iraqi.  The only exception was in 2016. In that year, the number of Syrian refugees was greater than the number of Iraqi refugees.  

The PEW Research Center’s map shows the distribution across the states for 2017.  An interactive version shows the distributions since 2002.  
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The refugees who resettled in 2016 through Samaritas, a Christian ministry in Troy, came from over twenty countries.  They came from Afghanistan, Buthan, Burundi, Congo, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Uganda.

Out of those countries, 940 came from Syria and Iraq.  Samaritas helped almost 500 refugees start a life in Grand Rapids.  Almost half of them came from the Congo.

Over half of the refugees Samaritas assisted in 2016 were between the ages of 19 and 65.  Approximately thirty-eight percent of them were children between the ages of 5 and 18.

The best news:  three-fourths of the refugees were self-sufficient just half a year after reaching America!

Michigan, Grand Rapids, and Refutea are all so excited and proud to be a part of the new chapters in refugees’ stories!  To find out more about refugees in Michigan and across America, check out the articles below! If you’d like to assist local refugees and drink delicious tea, check out the tea available for sale on our website!  


Sources:
https://www.refuteashop.com/refugees.html
http://www.pewglobal.org/interactives/where-have-refugees-settled-in-the-u-s/
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2017/02/see_how_many_refugees_michigan.html
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/10-states-that-took-the-most-refugees-in-2017
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/06/just-10-states-resettled-more-than-half-of-recent-refugees-to-u-s/

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