About

Project Description:

This project has worked to develop a model for evaluating the effects of migration on officially resettled refugees in the US as well as on the non-traditional sites in which they have been increasingly relocated in recent years. In particular, it focuses on the resettlement experiences of refugees in small cities in the US through case studies on Vermont cities such as Burlington, Winooski, Rutland, Bennington and Brattleboro. As with many other small and mid-sized towns, rural areas and regions without the immigration histories and infrastructure of established gateway cities, these cities have witnessed a significant influx of refugees and immigrants over the past several decades (in the case of Burlington and Winooski, with more recent arrivals in other parts of Vermont). Why have refugees increasingly been placed in smaller sized cities? What has been the impact of this migration flow, not only on the refugees themselves but also on the communities into which they have been settled? How have refugees and their new homes been altered through this process? Such questions emphasize the need to look simultaneously at both refugees and placement sites in order to understand how each affects the other through this set of interactions. This model for understanding resettlement in new destinations, therefore, integrates expert knowledge with refugee, native-born, and host-community perceptions of the process.

Methods:

The research plan of work in our first project involved the following steps: (1) interviews with key stakeholders involved with resettlement in Vermont; (2) the design, implementation, and analysis of an annual survey on refugee expectations regarding their placement; (3) the design, implementation and analysis of a survey of outcomes regarding refugee assessments of their resettlement; (4) the design, implementation, and analysis of mapping two local Vermont resettlement sites; (5) four workshops held annually using participatory mapping techniques in order to understand landscape change due to immigrant influx; (6) interviews with key stakeholders involved with refugee placements at the national level in Washington, D.C.; and (7) interviews with key stakeholders involved with resettlement in three comparable sites to assess the viability of the model developed through this research in other regions.

One of the major challenges to our study has been with defining certain key elements of spatiality, especially as it relates to defining small cities. In quantifying a “small city” for our research, population statistics as determined by a city, urbanized area, and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) all offer their own advantages and disadvantages and which is most effective varies on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, the primary resettlement data used for this project comes from the WRAPS Annual Dataset, which gives the number of refugees approved by the individual offices of US resettlement agencies across the country, and not necessarily the exact city and towns where the majority of refugees in the area are initially placed. Due to the ambiguous nature of defining spatial concepts and the availability of accurate resettlement data, our analysis of certain resettlement trends throughout the project is at times constrained. It should also be noted that this study and any data used throughout the project does not account for secondary migration among resettled refugees.

More recently the landscape for resettlement has changed significantly, with halts, restarts, expansions and contractions of the US Refugee Admissions Program. The first Trump Administration resulted in significant reductions in the program, followed by a renewed emphasis on expansion and indeed new pathways during the Biden Administration, and finally an existential crisis in the second Trump Administration. The USRAP faces significant questions regarding its longterm viability. At the same time, the influx of new refugees, asylum seekers, temporary protected status and humanitarian parole individuals between 2021-2024 has meant newcomers arriving to parts of Vermont (and the US) that had rarely if ever seen new arrivals. The second phase of this project has focused on research with partners in Southern Vermont to document and analyze experiences within this region.

Research Team:

Principal Investigator

  • Dr. Pablo Bose: Ph.D., York University (2006). Professor of Geography and Geosciences at the University of Vermont, Director of Global Studies and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Research Coordinators

  • Thomas Huddleston, PhD
  • Lucas Grigri: B.A., University of Vermont (2016) 

Research Assistants

  • Ayden Carpenter, Community Development and Applied Economics
  • Mia Brown, Public Health
  • Callia Gilligan, Political Science
  • Emma Adams, Geography
  • Ainsley McKay, Geography
  • Muriel Celia, Global Studies
  • Ash Manousos, Global Studies
  • Eden McGinn, Environmental Studies
  • Alia Liebowitz, Global Studies
  • Owen Pickel, Geography
  • Billy Watkins, Geography
  • Meghan Atwood, Geography
  • Eliza Gebb, Global Studies
  • Cate MacDonald, Global Studies
  • Brenna Foley, Geography
  • Tilden Remerleitch, Geography
  • Sameera Ibrahim, Global Studies
  • Alexandra Crosby, Global Studies
  • Sophia Knappertz, Global Studies

Funding:

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation––NSF Award#1359895 between 2013-2019 and by the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships between 2024-2025.