Transatlantic Lessons in Refugee Policy: Comparing Refugee Law, Policy and Programs of the United States and Germany

Currently there are 65.3 million people around the world who have been displaced due to persecution, conflict, human rights violation and war. Of that number, 21.3 million were classified as refugees under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees mandate (UNHCR) and registered as a refugee by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The purpose of this paper is to question, compare and evaluate the current programs and policies in the US and Germany that guide the admission and resettlement of refugees. Since the end of World War II, Germany and the United States have been among the world’s largest recipients of migrants and refugees. The US is the largest single-state donor of humanitarian aid for crisis in Syria, and Germany has accepted the largest number of Syrian refugees among industrialized states outside of the regio