The influx of Indochinese refugees into the United States since 1975 has forced policy development in various resettlement areas. Considerable emphasis has been placed on employment and employment barriers. This article investigates the refugee employment process. A multivariate model is used to distinguish employed from unemployed refugees. Early arrivals, recent arrivals, and each of the four major ethnic groups is investigated separately.
The large-scale international migrations of the past decade are of increasing relevance to the formulation of foreign policy. The nature of such migrations has undergone dramatic transformations from those of the quite recent past, and the last five years have seen a series of migration "crises" with powerful foreign-policy implications. Foreign policies have had dramatic effects upon international migration trends. Usually these effects have been unintended and unanticipated, though mass migration has sometimes been employed as a tool of foreign policy. At the same time, international migration has had significant impact upon the formulation and content of foreign policy, especially in the United States. These relationships now present complex policy choices, involving deeply entwined concerns of foreign, domestic, and humanitarian complexion. There are important lessons to be learned from recent experiences, lessons that challenge longstanding perspectives. Indeed, real peril now attends the failure to deal coherently and humanely with international migrations as they relate to foreign policy.
I should like to thank you most sincerely for giving the International Committee of the Red Cross an opportunity to speak at the important debate which marks the beginning of the annual session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's programme and to express our satisfaction at the harmonious collaboration which has been established with the UNHCR, where we are always sure of finding understanding, support and determination to reach a solution for the problems confronting our two institutions.