WhoWe Help &WhyWe Help
Who are displaced people? The simple answer is, anyone who has been forced to flee their home for fear of their lives. Below is a list of misunderstood definitions outlining where Safe Haven Foundation assists those displaced people groups.
All people are worthy of dignity, respect and care. Safe Haven Foundation supports this effort through safe & affordable housing, education & employment, and compassion services.
Refugees
Since 1951, the globally established definition of a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. This is a highly misused and misunderstood term. You can read more at https;//UNHCRrefugees.org
Defined by UNHCR, "The process of refugee resettlement to the U.S. is a lengthy and thorough process that takes approximately two years and involves numerous U.S. governmental agencies.
Refugees do not choose the country in which they would like to live. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, identifies the most vulnerable refugees for resettlement and then makes recommendations to select countries." Of the millions who are displaced, only 1% will ever be resettled in a new home.
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Once a refugee is recommended to the U.S. for resettlement, the U.S. government conducts a thorough vetting of each applicant. This process takes between 12 and 24 months and includes:
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Screening by eight federal agencies including the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and the FBI
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Six security database checks and biometric security checks screened against U.S. federal databases
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Medical screening
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Three in-person interviews with Department of Homeland Security officers​
When a refugee arrives in the US, they are assigned a case worker who assists with CORE services for 90 days, including locating housing, employment, applying for social security cards, State ID, medical appointments, and education about US laws. ​
Most refugees are not self-sufficient in 90 days, especially single women and mothers of small children. This is the gap in care that Safe Haven Foundation has stepped into, and our mission is still expanding into other spaces where help and services are limited. Here's how you can get involved or donate.
Quick Facts
1. If a refugee is placed in a refugee camp, the average time spent waiting for permission to travel to a new home country is 17 years. https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/camps
2. 73% of the world's refugees originate from Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, Sudan and Afghanistan. https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/statistics/
3. A host country allows asylum seekers and refugees to stay within its borders while they wait to either return to their home country or resettle in a new one. 32% of the world's refugees are hosted by Iran, Turkey, Colombia, Germany, and Uganda.
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4. Only 1% of refugees will be granted the permission to resettle in a new home country and leave their secondary host country. Since 1980, the US has led the world in receiving people from this 1%, followed by Canada.​
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5. Last year, much of the news coverage focused on refugee resettlement to developed countries. However, figures showed that, worldwide, most refugees – 84 per cent – were in developing or middle-income countries at the end of 2016, with one in every three (4.9 million people) being hosted by the world’s least developed countries. https://www.unrefugees.org/news/forced-displacement-worldwide-at-its-highest-in-decades/
6. Refugees arriving in the US are granted I-94 Visas which give them permission to live and work in the country, get a social security card and have access to healthcare. After 1 year they must apply for a green card and after 5 years they may apply for citizenship.
7. As of 1/20/2025, refugee resettlement has been suspended. bbhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/realigning-the-united-states-refugee-admissions-program/
8. Delaware has been one of the least welcoming states in the US, ranking 46th, and on average resettling about 120 refugees per year. This has led to a lack or infrastructure and resources in our state which SHF desires to help fill. https://immresearch.org/publications/refugee-resettlement-per-capita-which-states-do-the-most/
9. Despite narratives that immigrants increase crime, studies have shown that immigrants (including both asylum seekers and refugees) are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than their native born counterparts.
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10. Statistics are constantly changing on this issue. For up to date facts, go straight to the source at UNHCR.org
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Asylum Seeker
An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Tragically, 75,000 asylum claims were received from children traveling alone or separated from their parents.
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Safe Haven can provide ESL services to any non-English speaking person and assist with Green Cards after an asylee is granted refugee status and approval for citizenship track.
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Migrant Workers
A migrant worker is a person who moves to another country or area in order to find employment, in particular seasonal or temporary work. The United States has several migrant worker visa programs, including the H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B programs. These allow employers to hire foreign workers either temporarily or permanently for work that is difficult to find Americans to do.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/programs/h-2a
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Migrant workers do not qualify for the long term gap services provided at Safe Haven Foundation because of their temporary status and work arrangements.
Parolee
A parolee is a person who has been granted humanitarian parole. At this point in history, two of the people groups in the news who have been granted humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status in the US are Ukrainian and Haitian people. Humanitarian Parole means that these people groups have been granted legal permission to be present and work for a limited time in the United States.
Safe Haven Foundation can provide ESL services and job assistance to people who are living in the US through humanitarian parole with the proper documentation and permissions to work.
SIV stands for Special Immigration Visa. The Afghan nationals who assisted US troops in the war in Afghanistan were promised or granted SIV refugee status after serving with our military. As of 2024, nearly 3,000 interpreters and their families are still living on the run, hiding from the Taliban in multiple countries in the Middle East. They exist under constant threat of life.
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Safe Haven Foundation is able to provide services for SIV families who have made it to the US.
S.I.V.
Trafficking
Labor and sex trafficking are of primary concern for women, children and unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, working as migrants or who are placed in insecure communities as parolees and refugees.
Safe Haven Foundation works to keep at-risk women and children from becoming victims of trafficking in Delaware. We are also looking for ways to expand our services to those who are being rescued from trafficking.
Undocumented
Immigrant
​A person who either remains in the U.S. beyond the limits of their authorized period of stay, or who has entered the U.S. without permission, is an undocumented immigrant. This graph from Pew Research demonstrates the fluctuation of undocumented immigrants over the past 22 years. It does not show asylum seekers or refugee resettlement because they are documented forms of immigration.
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The U.S. is estimated to have over six million undocumented workers across various industries. California, Texas, and Florida are home to 47% of the nation’s undocumented immigrants.
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In the US, people can be temporarily displaced because of natural disaster or other devastating events. The Census Bureau estimates that nearly 2.5 million Americans had to leave their homes because of disasters in 2023, whether for a short period or much longer.
Safe Haven is looking into ways to provide limited services for Americans who do not need long term services, but who are temporarily displaced through no fault of their own.
The History of Policy in the US:
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Displaced Persons Act of 1948: The first US law to address refugees, this act allowed displaced people from World War II to enter the US. Before this, there was no pathway to receive asylum seekers, and Jewish people who showed up on our shores at the start of the Holocaust were turned away.
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1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees: This UN agreement established an international standard for who is considered a refugee.
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1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees: This protocol further defined the status of refugees.
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Refugee Act of 1980: This law established the current statutory basis for asylum in the US. It also guaranteed family reunification rights and a path to permanent residency for asylees.
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Real ID Act of 2005: This act eliminated the annual cap on asylee green cards.
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Many of the issues surrounding immigration and asylum could have long lasting resolution through policy reform rather than executive orders, which cause a constant cycle of infrastructure collapse and rebuilding between administrations. This leads to burn out and a high turnover rate in social work for refugee resettlement, but it also leads to insecurity for arriving families.