Task Force on the Future of Refugee Resettlement Statement of Purpose
September 2025
Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) is establishing a multi-stakeholder task force to inform the design of a future system for refugee resettlement. The Task Force is intended to contribute to an overall approach to humanitarian protection that is embedded within a coordinated nationwide system of welcoming and integrating newcomers and an international system for facilitating resettlement.
Aims. The Task Force will generate informed guidance for redesigning the U.S. architecture for refugee resettlement in both its overseas and domestic components. The project aims to ensure that the experience and institutional knowledge of refugees and resettlement practitioners are meaningfully represented in collective efforts to shape immigration and refugee policy plans.
A multi-stakeholder, multi-perspectival effort. The Task Force will bring together representatives from among local and national resettlement agencies, state refugee coordinators, elected and appointed officials from the state and local level, former federal officials, refugee-led organizations, academia, and the private sector. The task force will set an open-ended, inclusive table for organizing, promoting meaningful dialogue, and strengthening connections among the multiple, differentially situated stakeholders in the refugee welcoming arena. While firmly grounded in RCUSA’s commitments to humanitarian values and human rights, the Task Force will acknowledge a multiplicity of perspectives and normative frameworks.
Organization. The Task Force will have up to twenty core members, the majority of them from outside RCUSA’s member organizations. The leadership of the Task Force will include the Executive Director of RCUSA, a Rapporteur, two Co-Chairs, and a Steering Committee drawn from RCUSA’s membership.
Inputs. The Task Force will be consciously informed by earlier research, critiques of resettlement, reform proposals, and past and current program innovations. The findings and recommendations of RCUSA’s recently concluded Institutional Knowledge Project will feed directly into the Task Force’s deliberations. Each Task Force member will gather insights through discussions with the broader constituencies in which they are grounded, and the Task Force will maintain ongoing dialogue with other immigration and refugee policy planning efforts.
Outputs. The work products of the Task Force will include interim publications and will culminate in a public-facing report of analysis and recommendations, to be issued following the 2026 midterm elections and disseminated through a broad set of media platforms and events.
Impacts. From the outset, the Task Force will strengthen a sense of common purpose and shared goals among diverse sets of stakeholders. In the lead-up to the 2028 election, it will inform policy planning for the next administration. In the long term, it will help lay the foundation for a reimagined resettlement system that better serves refugees and welcoming communities.
For more information, contact John Slocum, Executive Director, RCUSA (jslocum@rcusa.org)