Settling in

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August, more than 70,000 Afghans have fled to the United States. For weeks, many refugees stayed at temporary resettlement camps located on military bases across the country, as they waited for their immigration processing to be completed. But over the past two months, the federal government has […]

Refugee crisis hits home: Local agency braces for more cuts to U.S. resettlement programs

The 2020 federal fiscal year begins October 1, marking the deadline for Donald Trump’s presidential determination on the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States for resettlement. Virginia has already taken a hit from previous reductions by Trump, with Richmond’s Church World Service—one of nine State Department-designated resettlement agencies in the U.S.—announcing that […]

‘Capital of the resistance’ supports its immigrants

Since 1998, the International Rescue Committee has welcomed nearly 4,000 refugees to Charlottesville from more than 32 countries. Ola Mansour is one of them. “Charlottesville is safe,” says Mansour, who in June 2016 relocated to Charlottesville from Jordan with her husband and three children. Three years prior, they had fled to the Middle Eastern country […]