Refugees in the US: where do they settle?

Alexander Fishkov, Ph.D. student Computer Science

The U.S. Refugee Processing Center publishes a lot of data about resettlements related to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. It collects data from the Refugee Processing Center, which is operated by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. This makes it the most reliable source of information on refugees coming from all over the world to the U.S.

Today we present the aggregated data on arrivals by destination state. Since the data from 2002 onward is more reliable, we have included the cumulative number of arrivals from 2002 to 2016, as well as single-year 2016 data.

Texas, California and New York received the highest number of resettlers in 2016: together, these states took in 24 percent of all incoming refugees. Michigan, Ohio and Arizona welcomed 5 percent each. If we look at the cumulative data beginning in 2002, the top three states do not change much. California changes places with Texas to take the top spot, providing a home for 11.5 percent of refugees. States that dropped in the rankings include Florida, Minnesota and Washington, which accepted about 5 percent each.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Washington, D.C. and states like Delaware and Hawaii. Historically, very few refugees went here. The least “popular” state is Wyoming — it has only three cases on record since 2002, with one of them being a single person who arrived in 2016.

To conclude, we present an interactive map showing the distribution of incoming refugees by their country of origin. You can select multiple states to see the top 10 countries as well as the total number of arrivals over time. You can also select a country name in the row chart to see arrivals from a particular country on the map. The time period can be adjusted to display a single year or an interval.

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About Alexander Fishkov

Alexander Fishkov, Ph.D. student Computer Science

Alexander is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science. He currently holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Applied Math. He has experience working for industry major companies performing research in the fields of machine learning, data mining and natural language processing. In his free time, Alexander enjoys hiking, Nordic skiing and traveling.

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