Where Refugees in California are Arriving From

Ibrahim Erikan/Anadolu Agency for Getty Images via Stacker

Where refugees in California are arriving from

Within the first five months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early February 2022, the U.S. admitted more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Most of these refugees were admitted through a special program called humanitarian parole, which falls outside the scope of the data tracking carried out by the Refugee Processing Center. Humanitarian parole allows refugees who meet certain criteria to gain temporary legal status in the U.S. and applications are processed differently than traditional refugee resettlement applications.

In November 2022, the greatest number of refugees admitted by the U.S. came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, and Ukraine. Each nation struggles with a unique set of circumstances that can make their citizens unsafe if they stay in their home country.

For the last three decades, the DRC has been struggling with a vast humanitarian crisis that has left millions of people displaced, both internally and externally, with many people fleeing to neighboring countries. Myanmar’s sitting government is currently engaged in a war against its people, and the country is expected to have approximately 1.2 million refugees seeking asylum by the end of 2022.

Stacker referenced data from The Refugee Processing Center to compile statistics on the number of refugees and their countries of origin resettled in California in November 2022.

November refugee statistics
Countries where refugees arrived from in November
California
#1. Ukraine: 40
#2. Afghanistan: 25
#3. Armenia: 14
#4. Syria: 12
#5. Guatemala: 10
#6. Iran: 9
#6. Sudan: 9
#8. Democratic Republic of the Congo: 6
#8. Uzbekistan: 6
#10. Burma: 5
#10. El Salvador: 5
#12. Colombia: 2
#13. Ethiopia: 1
#13. Iraq: 1

National
#1. Democratic Republic of the Congo: 414
#2. Burma: 366
#3. Ukraine: 227
#4. Syria: 199
#5. Afghanistan: 169

States that accepted the most refugees in November
#1. California: 145
#2. New York: 136
#3. Texas: 132
#4. Pennsylvania: 131
#5. Washington: 123

Read on to see the countries that California has accepted the most refugees from since November 2022

Canva

#1. Afghanistan

Refugees that arrived from Afghanistan since November 2022
California: 128

National: 540
Top states
#1. California: 128
#2. Texas: 72
#3. Washington: 44
#4. New York: 43
#5. Virginia: 41

Ruslan Lytvyn // Shutterstock

#2. Ukraine

Refugees that arrived from Ukraine since November 2022
California: 58

National: 299
Top states
#1. Washington: 102
#2. California: 58
#3. Pennsylvania: 25
#4. South Carolina: 24
#5. Ohio: 14

Lauren Squire // Shutterstock

#3. Guatemala

Refugees that arrived from Guatemala since November 2022
California: 34

National: 267
Top states
#1. California: 34
#2. New York: 26
#3. Florida: 23
#4. Georgia: 18
#4. North Carolina: 18

hanohiki // Shutterstock

#4. Syria

Refugees that arrived from Syria since November 2022
California: 26

National: 469
Top states
#1. Michigan: 64
#2. Washington: 35
#3. Ohio: 28
#3. Illinois: 28
#3. Kentucky: 28

Kellys Portillo/APHOTOGRAFIA //Getty Images

#5. El Salvador

Refugees that arrived from El Salvador since November 2022
California: 14

National: 194
Top states
#1. North Carolina: 27
#2. Texas: 24
#3. Florida: 20
#4. Maryland: 19
#5. California: 14

Sebastian Castelier // Shutterstock

#5. Armenia

Refugees that arrived from Armenia since November 2022
California: 14

National: 19
Top states
#1. California: 14
#2. South Carolina: 5

amnat30 // Shutterstock

#7. Honduras

Refugees that arrived from Honduras since November 2022
California: 10

National: 95
Top states
#1. Texas: 15
#1. Washington: 15
#3. California: 10
#4. Maryland: 9
#5. North Carolina: 8

Andrew V Marcus // Shutterstock

#7. Iran

Refugees that arrived from Iran since November 2022
California: 10

National: 30
Top states
#1. California: 10
#2. Illinois: 5
#3. New Jersey: 4
#4. Virginia: 3
#5. Colorado: 2

Matyas Rehak // Shutterstock

#9. Sudan

Refugees that arrived from Sudan since November 2022
California: 9

National: 115
Top states
#1. Idaho: 25
#2. Utah: 15
#3. Kansas: 11
#3. New York: 11
#5. California: 9

JackKPhoto // Shutterstock

#10. Moldova

Refugees that arrived from Moldova since November 2022
California: 7

National: 9
Top states
#1. California: 7
#2. New York: 2

Matyas Rehak // Shutterstock

#11. Colombia

Refugees that arrived from Colombia since November 2022
California: 6

National: 95
Top states
#1. Pennsylvania: 15
#2. Texas: 13
#2. South Carolina: 13
#2. North Carolina: 13
#5. Kentucky: 9

Katja Tsvetkova // Shutterstock

#11. Democratic Republic of the Congo

Refugees that arrived from Democratic Republic of the Congo since November 2022
California: 6

National: 1,032
Top states
#1. Kentucky: 93
#2. Ohio: 89
#3. Wisconsin: 60
#4. Pennsylvania: 54
#5. Michigan: 53

Ibrahim Erikan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

#11. Uzbekistan

Refugees that arrived from Uzbekistan since November 2022
California: 6

National: 29
Top states
#1. Washington: 10
#2. Ohio: 8
#3. California: 6
#4. New York: 5

Chantal de Bruijne // Shutterstock

#14. Burma

Refugees that arrived from Burma since November 2022
California: 5

National: 582
Top states
#1. Wisconsin: 133
#2. Texas: 66
#3. Indiana: 56
#4. Georgia: 48
#5. New York: 42

Focus and Blur // Shutterstock

#15. Iraq

Refugees that arrived from Iraq since November 2022
California: 4

National: 73
Top states
#1. Michigan: 19
#2. Ohio: 9
#3. Texas: 8
#4. North Dakota: 6
#4. Massachusetts: 6

A. Aleksandravicius // Shutterstock

#16. China

Refugees that arrived from China since November 2022
California: 2

National: 2
Top states
#1. California: 2

Artush // Shutterstock

#17. Ethiopia

Refugees that arrived from Ethiopia since November 2022
California: 1

National: 64
Top states
#1. Minnesota: 28
#2. lowa: 11
#3. Georgia: 7
#4. Illinois: 6
#5. Ohio: 5

This article originally appeared on Stacker. It has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.