Paper integration: The structural constraints and consequences of the US refugee resettlement program

Abstract

The migration literature contends that, unlike other immigrants, refugees resettled in the US benefit from a federal program of integration. These claims do not consider the barriers that may complicate the implementation of resettlement policy. Based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork at a refugee resettlement agency in California, I argue that the organizational structure of the US Resettlement Program shapes how caseworkers provide resettlement services on a daily basis. The financial insecurity of Resettlement Agencies coupled with high stakes government oversight creates an organizational culture of vulnerability where caseworkers rely on discretion as they put resettlement policy into practice. Caseworkers develop coping mechanisms to get by as they simultaneously attend to the demands of their funders and their refugee clients. Given these structural constraints and limited resources, caseworkers instrumentalize paperwork as a discretionary tool. When files and documents are privileged over the quality and extent of resettlement services, caseworkers creatively utilize paperwork to separate policy from practice in order to protect themselves and appease their refugee clients. This policy of integration instead becomes a practice of paper integration, which problematizes prior theories and assumptions about US refugee resettlement. This practice of paper integration ultimately affects the services that arriving refugees receive and the degree to which they benefit from this ostensible program of integration.