18.1 Introduction

The Refugee Act of 1980 An amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act which created the Office of Refugee Resettlement and outlined the federal Refugee Resettlement Program. created the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which provides funding to state and local programs for the resettlement of refugees.  Refugee(s) An individual who is outside the country of his or her nationality or, in the case of an individual having no nationality, is outside the country in which he or she last resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. are individuals who have had to leave their homeland and are unable to return because of a well-founded fear of persecution.  The goal of U.S. refugee resettlement is to help refugees achieve economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible after their arrival in the United States. Please note that in this chapter “refugee,” unless otherwise indicated, will include refugee(s) An individual who is outside the country of his or her nationality or, in the case of an individual having no nationality, is outside the country in which he or she last resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion., asylee(s) An individual who meets the definition of a refugee and has traveled to a new country on his or her own, applied for and received a grant of asylum., Cuban-Haitian entrant(s) An individual granted parole status as a Cuban/Haitian Entrant or granted any other special status subsequently established under the immigration laws for nationals of Cuba or Haiti., certain Amerasian(s) An individual born in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea or Thailand after December 31st, 1950 and before October 22, 1982 who was fathered by a United States citizen., victim(s) of trafficking An individual who has been subjected to a severe form of trafficking and, in the U.S., has been certified by the Department of Health and Human Services. and any other categories eligible for refugee benefits under federal law.  (See 18.2.4.1 for a complete list).

Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) are two programs available to recently arrived refugees.  In Wisconsin, RCA is modeled after Wisconsin Works (W-2) Wisconsin’s TANF program, which provides cash assistance to qualifying families. The program emphasizes personal responsibility and working to the best of one’s ability., the state’s Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) program, and RMA is part of the Medical Assistance Also known as Medicaid, Title 19 or MA, a state-federal program that provides health care coverage to low-income elderly, blind, and disabled individuals. In Wisconsin, low-income individuals who do not qualify for Medical Assistance may qualify for BadgerCare Plus. (MA) program.  RCA and RMA are available for refugees who meet the financial requirements of the W-2 and MA programs, but are otherwise ineligible- such as single individuals, childless couples, minor teen parents and two-parent families without children under 18 years of age. RCA and RMA eligibility is time-limited, with some refugees eligible for up to twelve months from their date of arrival in the United States.  

History: Release 22-08.