Pacific Gateway Center (PGC) is Hawaii’s refugee resettlement agency. Since its founding in 1973, our agency has successfully resettled thousands of refugees, mainly from Southeast Asia during our 43-year history. For the past 20 years, we have been the partner agency of our state to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), one of the national Voluntary Agencies throughout the United States.

PGC believes educating our community about the refugee resettlement process will contribute to our local dialogue. The Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement is part of Office of the Administration for Children and Families, and, along with the Department of Homeland Security and the state Health and Human Services, collaborates to champion America’s humanitarian response to refugees in the U.S.

Refugees apply for refugee status overseas with the United Nations’ High Commission for Refugees. Refugees undergo very stringent security/vetting processes that can take two to four years beginning at the United Nations level, and through several agency levels and against five interagency databases. Those who pass multi-level screenings are then interviewed and vetted again by USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and only those who clear all these processes can be assigned to a national refugee resettlement agency, such as USCRI for placement in the United States.

How do refugees get assigned to Hawaii? Hawaii has been presently designated as an impacted state; that is, USCRI refers refugees to Hawaii if they have a U.S. tie such as a relative, as the cost of living is so high in Hawaii. There was a large influx of Vietnamese refugees following the Vietnam War and we have continued to primarily resettle refugees from Asia.

However, within the past five years, the profile has been made up of a large number of refugees (who are victims of trafficking) and continued resettlement of Myanmar (Burmese) along with a few refugees and asylum cases from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America.

Personal refugee stories teach us who we are as a nation and about lives already interrupted by turmoil, uncertainty and anguish that U.S. refugee resettlement programs confront by giving hope, dignity and freedom. This hope and the rebuilding of dignified lives are captured by the inscription on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty by poet Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

PGC knows first-hand that refugee resettlement is about giving hope and opportunities to the uprooted. The father of one of our recent resettlement cases reminisces, “our financial situation back home was great … but this means nothing when you and your family are not safe.” His family was ambushed, lived through attacks, kidnapping, threats and moved multiple times in a few years seeking safety within their own country. After four years of thorough interviewing and security clearances, they were reunited with their son in Hawaii. The family quickly realized, “they were … starting all over from zero.”

They eventually moved to the mainland, their children now all have earned U.S. university degrees and started real estate and trucking enterprises. The father shares, “in less than four years we managed to resettle in the society being productive people. We love this country that provided us with a new chance of living in peace. … We will serve this country … the best way we can. God bless America.”

This is a story whose themes of opportunity, gratitude and love of America are echoed in refugee stories across the United States. America welcomed 85,000 refugees in 2016.

Tin Myaing Thein, Ph.D., is executive director of the Pacific Gateway Center.