What exactly is the difference between refugees and immigrants?
What exactly is the difference between refugees and immigrants?
Looking at what the order does, it’s easy to tell that a difference exists. Immigrants from certain countries are banned for 90 days, while refugees are barred for 120. We get that politics can get complicated and confusing, so we’re here to answer that question. Below, a breakdown of the differences between refugees and immigrants—and an explainer on how each community is impacted by this recent legislation.
A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their country—without the option to return.
Refugees are either unable or unwilling to return to their home country out of fear. They may leave for a variety of reasons, but they’re often afraid they’ll be persecuted due to their race, religion, nationality, political beliefs, or membership in a social group. Physicist Albert Einstein moved to the U.S. from Germany in 1933 to escape the Nazi party. Model Alex Wek’s family fled Sudan after a civil war broke out there when she was just nine years old. And singer Gloria Estefan left Cuba with her family after Fidel Castro’s Communist revolution in 1959. None of these people necessarily wanted to leave their homes, but they felt they’d needed to for the sake of safety.
In order to come to the U.S. as a refugee, you must be considered and approved by the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). (Learn more about that process here.) You can often bring a spouse or child (under the age of 21) with you. And in limited circumstances, you can bring other family members, as well. Once you’ve lived in the U.S. for a year, you must apply for a green card, which will grant you permanent residency.