More Like this

1. Dynamic Placement in Refugee Resettlement

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3465456.3467534  

   Ahani, Narges ; Gölz, Paul ; Procaccia, Ariel D. ; Teytelboym, Alexander ; Trapp, Andrew C. ( January 2021 , 22nd ACM Conference on Economics and Computation Proceedings.)

   null (Ed.)

   Employment outcomes of resettled refugees depend strongly on where they are placed inside the host country. While the United States sets refugee capacities for communities on an annual basis, refugees arrive and must be placed over the course of the year. We introduce a dynamic allocation system based on two-stage stochastic programming to improve employment outcomes. Our algorithm is able to achieve over 98 percent of the hindsight-optimal employment compared to under 90 percent of current greedy-like approaches. This dramatic improvement persists even when we incorporate a vast array of practical features of the refugee resettlement process including indivisible families, batching, and uncertainty with respect to the number of future arrivals. Our algorithm is now part of the Annie™ MOORE optimization software used by a leading American refugee resettlement agency. The full version of this paper is available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.14388.pdf. 

   more » « less
2. Placement Optimization in Refugee Resettlement

   https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2020.2093  

   Ahani, Narges ; Andersson, Tommy ; Martinello, Alessandro ; Teytelboym, Alexander ; Trapp, Andrew C. ( March 2021 , Operations Research)

   null (Ed.)

   Every year, tens of thousands of refugees are resettled to dozens of host countries. Although there is growing evidence that the initial placement of refugee families profoundly affects their lifetime outcomes, there have been few attempts to optimize resettlement decisions. We integrate machine learning and integer optimization into an innovative software tool, Annie™ Matching and Outcome Optimization for Refugee Empowerment (Annie™ Moore), that assists a U.S. resettlement agency with matching refugees to their initial placements. Our software suggests optimal placements while giving substantial autonomy to the resettlement staff to fine-tune recommended matches, thereby streamlining their resettlement operations. Initial back testing indicates that Annie™ can improve short-run employment outcomes by 22%–38%. We conclude by discussing several directions for future work. 

   more » « less
3. The problem of the future in the spacetime of resettlement: Iraqi refugees in the U.S.

   https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758221088865  

   Secor, Anna_J ; Ehrkamp, Patricia ; Loyd, Jenna_M ( March 2022 , Environment and Planning D: Society and Space)

   How do the lost futures of forced displacement converge with the impasse of being resettled to a “post-future” society such as the U.S.? Based on interviews conducted between 2016 and 2019 with resettlement agents, service providers and Iraqis resettled in the U.S., we argue that the condemnation of “expectations” (that is, realistic hope) coupled with the demand for refugees’ gratitude means that Iraqis resettled to the U.S. are asked to sustain a “hope against hope” for the fullness of American futurity, even in the face of its collapse. We argue that this prescribed structure of feeling distorts the affective realities of those for whom resettlement has meant at once the loss of past futures (e.g. professional qualifications, career trajectories, social status, or intergenerational cycles of care) and the running aground of capacities for futurity – especially as these capacities are bound up with transnationally stretched and reconfigured familial relations. What is at stake is the recognition of the crisis of futurability in the spacetime of resettlement and the rightfulness of refugee expectations for a more humane and fulfilling resettlement.

    

   more » « less
4. Once arrived: A qualitative study of refugees and service providers in the first six months of resettlement

   https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017320929267  

   Dubus, Nicole ( June 2020 , Journal of Social Work)

   The world has been facing a chronic refugee crisis. Nations that accept refugees are expected to provide culturally effective services, often without benefit of an evidence-based approach to resettlement.

   This study examines refugee service providers in three municipalities in Iceland and the recipients in the first six months of resettlement. Through a purposeful sampling (N = 35) of social workers and program managers (N = 10) and adult Syrian refugees (N = 25) who had arrived in Iceland six months prior, interviews were conducted and analyzed for thematic content.

   Providers developed methods for providing services that varied depending on resources and their expectations for the recipients. Recipients’ expectations influenced which services were perceived helpful. Integration had different meanings among the participants, and those differences informed experiences of resettlement.

   Countries can benefit from creating a team among the service sectors. Providers were unable to anticipate needs of refugees despite careful planning. The perceived importance of language acquisition varied among the participants. Community involvement was seen as a critical factor in the resettlement process. The initial case management of the families consumed more time and energy than some of the providers expected.

    

   more » « less
5. Food demand displaced by global refugee migration influences water use in already water stressed countries

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38117-0  

   Bertassello, Leonardo ; Müller, Marc F. ; Wiechman, Adam ; Penny, Gopal ; Tuninetti, Marta ; Müller-Itten, Michèle C. ( May 2023 , Nature Communications)

   Millions of people displaced by conflicts have found refuge in water-scarce countries, where their perceived effect on water availability has shaped local water security discourses. Using an annual global data set, we explain the effects of refugee migrations on the host countries’ water stress through the food demand displaced by refugees and the water necessary to produce that food. The water footprint of refugee displacement increased by nearly 75% globally between 2005 and 2016. Although minimal in most countries, implications can be severe in countries already facing severe water stress. For example, refugees may have contributed up to 75 percentage points to water stress in Jordan. While water considerations should not, alone, determine trade and migration policy, we find that small changes to current international food supply flows and refugee resettlement procedures can potentially ease the effect of refugee displacement on water stress in water-vulnerable countries.

    

   more » « less