During the past five decades, the U.S. has resettled over 3 million refugees, making it one of the leading countries for finding new homes for people fleeing violence, persecution, and war.

In 2021, then-President Donald Trump lowered the annual cap of refugees that could be admitted into the country to 15,000. Even as the Biden administration has raised the ceiling to 125,000, the annual number of refugees arriving in the U.S. didn't immediately bounce back to pre-Trump administration levels. The numbers are increasing though, with over 25,000 refugees arriving in the U.S. in the 2022 fiscal year, twice the 2021 total.

Refugee arrivals during the 2023 fiscal year dramatically outpaced the prior two years, reaching over 60,000 from October 2022 to September 2023.

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In April 2024, the greatest number of refugees admitted by the U.S. came from Congo, Afghanistan, and Myanmar. Each nation faces a unique set of circumstances that can make their citizens unsafe if they stay in their home country.

For the last three decades, Congo, also called the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been struggling with a series of civil wars and internal battles that have left millions of people displaced, both internally and externally, with many people fleeing to neighboring countries. Afghan refugees have been fleeing to neighboring countries for decades, especially to Pakistan and Iran, which combined host over 8 million Afghans. In Myanmar, state-sponsored violence against the Rohingya people has displaced nearly 2 million people internally. Another million are in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh.

Stacker referenced data from The Refugee Processing Center to compile statistics on the number of refugees and their countries of origin resettled in Texas in April 2024.

April refugee statistics
Countries where refugees arrived from in April
To Texas:
#1. Congo: 164
#2. Afghanistan: 103
#3. Myanmar: 76
#4. Venezuela: 60
#5. Eritrea: 32
#6. Guatemala: 30
#7. Republic of South Sudan: 20
#8. El Salvador: 19
#9. Central African Republic: 17
#10. Iraq: 16
#11. Rwanda: 13
#12. Ethiopia: 12
#12. Sudan: 12
#14. Somalia: 10
#15. Honduras: 9
#16. Pakistan: 8
#17. Syria: 6
#17. Burundi: 6
#19. Nicaragua: 4
#20. Republic of Congo: 1
#20. The Gambia: 1
#20. Vietnam: 1

To the U.S. as a whole:
#1. Congo: 1,548
#2. Afghanistan: 815
#3. Myanmar: 601
#4. Somalia: 548
#5. Venezuela: 449

States that accepted the most refugees in April:
#1. Texas: 620
#2. California: 414
#3. New York: 360
#4. Pennsylvania: 355
#5. lowa: 339

Read on to see the countries that Texas has accepted the most refugees from since the start of the fiscal year in October 2023.

Where refugees in Texas are arriving from

Stacker compiled countries where refugees are arriving from in Texas using data from the Refugee Processing Center.

Gallery Credit: Stacker

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