Greater than Muslim Refugees

Christian refugees have outpaced Muslim ones during the last 15 years even though the numbers of both of them crossing the United States border have increased. This was made more pronounced by the travel ban directly affecting citizens of six predominantly Muslim countries imposed by the Trump administration. A report published by Pew Research Center found that the year 2017 saw 43 percent of refugees clambering into the US were Muslim. Christians were significantly more-at 47 percent. The previous year-2016- was different with 44 percent Christians and 46 percent Muslims entering America.

The UNHCR showed that after a steady period from 2012 to 2015, the yearly refugee count resettled in the United States went significantly north to touch 97,000 in 2016. The increased uptake was due to the then President Barack Obama led administration’s response to a sudden increase in the number of refugees across the world due to wars in Iraq, sub-Saharan Africa, and Syria. Even if the 2016 jump is taken into the calculations, the refugee numbers taken in during the Obama era was much fewer compared to high refugee intake periods in the history of the United States. To match the entry of refugee numbers in the 1990s, the number of refugees must surpass 100,000. In 2017, much fewer number of total refugees were settled compared to 2016, as per data provided by US Department of State. This is due to the Trump administration’s refugee policy.

Pew Research found that a greater number of Christian refugees have been admitted entry into the United States compared to Muslims since the fiscal year 2002. Phillip Connor, a Pew senior researcher, analyzed the refugee statistics. He discovered that nearly 425,000 Christians have crossed America’s borders during the 15 year period. This number made up 46 percent of the total refugee arrivals. The number of arriving Muslims were 302,000 or about 33 percent. When it came to other religions, about 170,000 refugees came to the United States. These include 55,000 Hindus, 50,000 Buddhists, and 20,000 with no religious affiliation crossed the border. Most of the latter came from Cuba and Vietnam, These figures are valid for the United States between the 2002 and 2017 fiscal years.

Christian arrivals within those 15 years included almost 24 religious variations of Christianity, like Ukrainian Orthodox and the Armenian Christians. The list of sub-faiths other than Muslim and Christian variations include Zoroastrians and Hare Krishnas.

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