RefugeesNew algorithm to help resettle refugees, improve their integration
In recent years, a record number of people have been displaced as a result of war, persecution, and other human rights violations, surpassing the numbers seen after the Second World War. In 2016 alone, about 65.6 million people were forced to flee their homes. Researchers have developed a new machine learning algorithm which could help governments and resettlement agencies find the best places for refugees to relocate, depending on their particular skills and backgrounds.
As the world faces its largest crisis of displaced people since the Second World War, a new algorithm developed by Stanford researchers could help countries resettle refugees in a way that boosts their employment success and overall integration.
The group, headed by Stanford’s Immigration Policy Lab, used a machine learning algorithm to analyze historical data on refugee resettlement in the United States and Switzerland. They found that the refugees’ eventual economic self-sufficiency depended on a combination of their individual characteristics, such as education level and knowledge of English, and where they were resettled within the country. It turned out that refugees with particular backgrounds or skills achieved better outcomes in some locations than others.
The algorithm assigned placements for refugees that they project would increase their chances of finding employment by roughly 40 to 70 percent compared with how the refugees actually fared, according to the new study, published Jan. 18 in Science.
“As one looks at the refugee crisis globally, it’s clear that it’s not going away any time soon and that we need research-based policies to navigate through it,” said Jeremy Weinstein, a professor of political science at Stanford and a co-author of the study. “Our hope is to generate a policy conversation about the processes governing the resettlement of refugees, not just on the national level in the United States but internationally as well.”
The group said the algorithm, which could be implemented at virtually no cost, could help resource-constrained governments and resettlement agencies find the best places for refugees to relocate, researchers said.
