Lack of National Framework to Support Asylees and Asylum Seekers Keeps Them Disconnected from Key Family, Work Supports for Which They Are Eligible

WASHINGTON — The labels assigned to humanitarian migrants are based on whether they seek protection from outside the United States (refugees) or from within the country or at its borders (asylum seekers). But even though refugees and asylum seekers are fleeing similar forms of harm and must meet the same persecution standards, the systems in place to support them once they gain protection in the United States are markedly different.