President Obama has authorized up to 80,000 refugees to enter the United States during the 2010 fiscal year (FY), which begins today, October 1. In a presidential determination, he specified what is known as the “refugee ceiling” or the maximum number of refugees allowed from each world region. The figure includes an “unallocated reserve” designed to accommodate unforeseen crises, and specifies that immigrants from Cuba, the former Soviet Union, Iraq, and those identified by U.S. embassies as having “exceptional circumstances” will, “if otherwise qualified” to enter the U.S., also be considered refugees.

The president said his administration is “committed to maintaining a robust refugee admissions program,” which has been an important part of the overall U.S. effort in “support of vulnerable people around the world.” Citing the recent global economic downturn, Obama said an in-depth review of the program was done “with the goal of strengthening support to both the refugees and the communities in which they are being resettled.”

I decided to do a little review of my own, comparing the latest figures with those of a few previous years (FY 2007-FY2010). Not surprisingly, I found that presidents adjust the numbers and allocations for refugee admissions each year, perhaps to reflect the latest needs assessments from their advisers.

There were some interesting developments. For example, in FY 2008 then-President Bush increased the allowed number of refugees from 70,000 to the current 80,000 level, and much of that went towards allowing a dramatic increase in refugees (+22,500) from the Near East and South Asia. In FY 2009, an additional 9,000 were allowed from those regions and President Bush specified that those coming from Iraq would be considered refugees. But during both years, Bush made cuts to the numbers of refugees coming from Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

By comparison to the previous two years, President Obama’s adjustments today were fairly modest. He increased the number of those coming from Africa by 3,500, with the current level now at 15,500. The Latin America/Caribbean region was increased by 500 to 5,000. East Asia and the Near East/South Asia were both decreased by 2,000 for a total of 17,000 and 35,000, respectively, and the numbers for Europe/Central Asia and the unallocated reserve were unchanged at 2,500 and 5,000 respectively.

Marking World Refugee Day on June 20, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States is the world’s largest donor for refugee relief, contributing $1.4 billion in 2008, and “nearly 3 million refugees have made new homes in the United States, more than any other nation in the world.”

What are your thoughts on President Obama’s refugee quota? How do you think these kinds of decisions should be made?