Why American landlords love refugee tenants

New York

ONE week a refugee family is fleeing the brutality of civil war and living in a shipping container near the Syrian border, and the next they might be moving into a furnished apartment in Cleveland. Completing this trek from war-torn villages to safety in the United States can take years and involves a complex apparatus of donors, volunteers, non-profit organisations, and US State Department personnel. But the resettlement process ends just like every American apartment rental story: with a signature on a lease.

Welcoming refugees to the US has become a highly charged political issue in the wake of the recent terror attacks in Paris that killed 129 people. The House voted on Thursday to put the resettlement programme on hold even in the face of a growing humanitarian crisis. Thirty-one governors have objected to taking in refugees, and a majority of American adults in a recent Bloomberg Politics poll doesn't want to accept Syrians over concerns about terrorist infiltrators. There is renewed impulse to protect the nation by turning away desperate refugee families trying to escape dangerous areas.