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The Most Effective, Least Used Tool for Disaster Relief: Limited Humanitarian Entry
June 24, 2011
This is a joint post with Tejaswi Velayudhan
A year and a half ago, an earthquake wrecked Haiti. So many Haitians were killed that if the same fraction of the U.S. population were cut down, the deaths would outnumber the entire population of Tennessee. Commendable relief efforts are ongoing, supported in large part by U.S. assistance, but economic and political disarray have led to widespread perception that those efforts are inadequate.
Unfortunately, as it proceeds with the hard work of disaster relief for Haiti, the U.S. government has chosen not to use its most powerful tool: migration policy. Migration out of Haiti has caused more poverty reduction for Haitians than all attempts at poverty reduction within Haiti combined. Remittances to Haiti have amounted to at least double foreign aid, for years. Remittances also—unlike foreign aid—go directly into the pockets of needy people, and they rise more quickly after disasters than aid does. While the U.S. government has recently and sensibly suspended the deportations of some Haitians who arrived in the U.S. after the earthquake, it has not systematically used migration policy to help even a small number of Haitians starting out in Haiti arrive in the U.S. as a humanitarian gesture. It could easily do so.
Ever since one of us (Michael) first discussed this idea in the Washington Post—alongside a related proposal by Elliott Abrams—we’ve seen three common reactions. The first common reaction is that we’re proposing replacing aid with migration policy. We do not propose anything of the kind; we simply argue that since migration is obviously such a powerful force for Haitian development, it makes little sense to entirely exclude it from the portfolio of different relief policies. That portfolio clearly must include aid. The second common reaction is that we’re proposing ‘opening the flood gates’ to all Haitians (as a white supremacist critic puts it, “Give them America”). We do not suggest anything close to that. Instead, we suggest creating a limited channel for humanitarian entry by small numbers of people fleeing natural disasters, analogous to our existing, limited, successful channel for admitting limited numbers of refugees who are fleeing wars and political persecution overseas.
The third common reaction is that it would be politically impossible to change the rules. But it turns out that there are several different ways that the U.S. could easily create a channel for limited humanitarian entry following natural disasters. We learned that from two experts on refugee law and humanitarian assistance—Royce Murray and Sarah Williamson—whom we commissioned to study the issue. They identified a range of small and sensible actions that the administration or Congress could take that would create exactly this type of humanitarian entry for limited numbers of Haitians. Their in-depth study is here, and a brief summary is here. They explain in detail each of several possible actions. We are now discussing these potential actions in meetings and workshops with several government officials and with the refugee policy community and disaster relief community here in Washington.
One of those actions would be the creation of a Family Reunification Parole Program similar to the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. At the end of 2010 there were about 105,000 relatives of U.S. nationals in Haiti whose green-card applications had already been approved but whose priority date is not yet current. A similar number remain on the waiting list today. The Secretary of Homeland Security could grant parole to some or all of these individuals who can then wait in the United States to gain lawful permanent resident status. There would be no need to review their eligibility to enter the U.S.; they are already approved. And there would be few concerns about their initial integration into society since essentially all of them, by definition, have family sponsoring them to come.
Several members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives wrote to President Obama earlier this year asking him to order the creation of such a program. He could easily do so. So far, he has not.
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7 Responses to “The Most Effective, Least Used Tool for Disaster Relief: Limited Humanitarian Entry”
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June 28th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
What a clearheaded and simple proposal. Given all the handwringing about how difficult it is to make progress against poverty, it is striking how often good proposals like this can be found. As in many other initiatives (like Advanced Market Commitments or 3ie), the dismissals come so quickly and are so overgeneralized. Yet a fairly small investment of time and research often dispels those objections. I’m glad you looked into it and that there are legislators pushing for it. Perhaps USAID is another avenue for action?
July 18th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Just a quick fact-check for you:
230,000 were people were killed in the earthquake in Haiti according to USAID
3 million were estimated to be affected in some way with 1.5 million displaced.
The population of Tennessee is 6,300,000.
July 19th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
@Barak: We appreciate your attention to detail. I just double-checked our statement in the blog, and wanted to clarify that we refer to the FRACTION of the U.S. population represented by Tennessee, not the absolute number. Tennessee represents about 2.1 % of the U.S. population. 230,000 deaths in a population of about 10 million in Haiti is approximately 2.3%.
Thanks for reading.
August 7th, 2011 at 3:36 am
I am genuinely confused, After reading this post the message I get is this migration policy is for the relatives of US Nationals in Haiti or for those Haiti Nationals who do not have say friends or anyone in the U.S.? I will appreciate if someone clarifies. And, considering the channel is \limited\, one has to set criteria for whom to allow in the U.S. and how many – hence is the criteria that the people choosing to migrate from Haiti have to be relatives of U.S Nationals?
August 8th, 2011 at 9:41 am
Thanks very much, Jamuna, for your question. The answer is contained in the study we’re discussing, linked above and available here. One option would be to parole in people on the green-card waiting list, which would be focused on people with family in the U.S. Another option would be to create a parole lottery modeled on the Cuban parole lottery, which would be much more available to those without family in the U.S. The study discusses the administrative and legislative steps needed for each option.
Yes, each of these options requires setting criteria for who can and cannot participate in the program, just as all modes of entry do (such as our existing refugee program, our green card lottery, our Cuban parole lottery, our work visas, and so on). The study discusses several options in that regard as well, any one of which is superior to the status quo.
August 8th, 2011 at 9:47 am
Thank you Michael.
I did realize there is a lot to read that will explain it in greater detail. I will certainly read up on this very intriguing option!
You mentioned the 3 responses this thought has been met with – thankfully mine was that I would certainly want to know more! I cannot write it off without reading through what has been proposed and the logic behind it
Thanks Again.
Jamuna
August 8th, 2011 at 10:04 am
Thanks Jamuna. On this subject, there’s this fascinating new piece in Rolling Stone magazine, describing the current disarray of efforts to “rebuild” Haiti via external assistance. I admire the efforts of everyone involved in that effort, but an honest look at what it has achieved suggests that complementary efforts are needed. Small changes to migration policy would be complementary, as well as powerful and inexpensive.