"What a difference a think tank makes"
Congressman Bob Schaffer praises Tocqueville research
on America's acceptance of African refugees
House of Representatives
October 29, 2002
Washington, D.C. -- Congressman Robert Schaffer praised the Alexis
de Tocqueville Institution for its five-year effort to draw attention
to America's historically low rate of acceptance of refugees from
Africa, crediting the Washington-based foundation for "not only
drawing attention to a problem, but by so doing, helping to turn the
tide."
Noting that annual U.S. levels of refugee acceptance more than doubled
from 1998 to 2001, Schaffer added that "AdTI's periodic reminders
of the fate of African refugees
"It isn't just the case that Tocqueville led this effort,"
Schaffer said. "Tocqueville was the only public-policy think
tank I'm aware of that even commented on this.
"What a difference a think tank makes." (A Lexis-Nexis news
search on the terms "African refugee" turned up no mentions
from other leading research institutions, against a number of references
to AdTI. )
Schaffer noted a 1998 op-ed by Tocqueville Chairman Gregory Fossedal
in The New York Times, and subsequent AdTI press and releases, has
having generated discussion in Congress on the need to raise America's
ceiling on African refugees, a ceiling that was doubled in subsequent
reviews by a congressional-executive body that oversees refugee and
immigration levels. ("What we can do for Africa," March
25, 1998, The New York Times.)
"The only unfortuante news," Schaffer noted, "is that
acceptance of African refugees and all refugees declined significantly
this year," folllwing concerns about homeland security after
the 9/11 attacks on America. "Hopefully, policy-makers will note
AdTI's other research on the impact of immigrants and refugees and
realize there is no necessary trade-off between having a safe border,
and keeping an open door."
(Note: An August 15 research paper by AdTI John Glenn intern Shivane
Patel notes the slow decline in overall U.S. refugee admissions as
a share of the immigration pie, a trend exacerbated since September,
2001.)
