The amendment would add an additional transition year before the beginning of the 4. that is fiscal year 1981 as well as fiscal year 1980. Mr. Chairman. what we are therefore talking about is a refugee coming into the United States during the next year will have 5 years of full funding. I think the question that has not yet been addressed by any of the speakers on this issue is. what should our refugee policy be. what is our concept of what you want to happen to this individual to become a sustaining member of our society? Mr. Chairman. this gets you away from the issue of who is responsible for paying it. to what should your program be. I suggest that the goal of resettlement policy should be to get a refugee out of a temporarily unemployed situation as quickly as possible. ] 1530 Therefore. it becomes the responsibility of the State in which the refugee finds himself to try to move him from the temporarily unemployed situation. which is how I categorize his arrival in the United States. to that of a selfsupporting contributing member of society. Now. there are certain responsibilities that we do have as a government to meet the needs of these people. It so happens that health needs are of vital importance and a matter of great concern to refugees. In most cases the language barrier is an obstacle that must be overcome. Furthermore. I think we have an obligation to develop their skills. Contrary to what has been said on this floor. they do come here with skills. In fact. the unemployment rate among refugees coming the the United States is lower than that of the national average. The skills that they had in the countries that they came from have to be developed to be applicable to our society. Now. this involves the Federal Government.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees