How Public Opinion Shaped Refugee Policy in Kosovo
Abstract
Why did the United States offer permanent resettlement to Kosovar refugees during Operation Allied Force? Neither the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) nor the Government of Macedonia (GOM) requested U.S. resettlement assistance. Even the three federal agencies with principal responsibility for refugee admissions--State, Justice, and Health and Human Services--balked at the idea. Most importantly, the refugees themselves strongly resisted being moved from the close proximity to home of the camps in Macedonia to safer, more pleasant quarters elsewhere. Nevertheless, during a speech at Ellis Island on April 21, 1999, Vice President Gore announced that the United States would immediately begin processing for American residency up to 20,000 ethnic Albanians who had fled Serb persecution in Kosovo. His decision caught the bureaucracy off-guard. The U.S. Coordinator for Refugees, Assistant Secretary of State Julia Taft, learned of it only an hour before the speech was carried live on national news. The next day, an interagency team, led by the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and including representatives from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the International Organization for Migration, and the International Rescue Committee, flew to Skopje. Its mission was twofold: first, to convince the UNHCR, the GOM, and the refugees that U.S. resettlement was a preferred option; and second, to build an in-country processing program from scratch. The team succeeded, but the question remains. Why did the White House insist on this particular course of action?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA432218
Entities
People
- David M. Robinson
Organizations
- National War College