The Next Season of Refugee Support in San Diego

By Megan Soares, Bridge Builders Network Staff

For years, Bridge Builders has focused much of its work on one of the most immediate moments in a refugee’s journey: arrival.

We have helped newly arrived asylum seekers and refugees find housing, navigate unfamiliar systems, practice English, support their children with tutoring, connect with resources and, perhaps most importantly, begin to feel at home in a new city. We have helped people get their bearings when almost everything around them was new.

That work has always been about more than meeting immediate needs. It has been about helping people build a life.

And now, the landscape is changing.

Over the next five to ten years, we believe Bridge Builders' work with refugees in San Diego will increasingly shift from welcoming new arrivals to sustaining meaningful relationships with people who are already here.

A changing landscape

San Diego has long been one of the nation's major communities for refugee resettlement. In recent years, local resettlement agencies welcomed thousands of people through a combination of refugee resettlement, humanitarian parole and other pathways.

The scale of that work was particularly visible during the 2023–2024 federal fiscal year. San Diego County's resettlement agencies reported more than 5,000 arrivals during that year, including refugees, Cubans and Haitians, Afghans with special immigrant visas and other humanitarian entrants.

The following year, the numbers began to change. San Diego's resettlement agencies reported 1,516 arrivals during Fiscal Year 2024–2025, a substantial decrease from the previous year.

That decline is not happening in isolation.

In January 2025, the federal government suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, directing that the entry of refugees be suspended while the government reassessed the program, with only limited case-by-case exceptions.

In March 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the president has broad authority to suspend refugee admissions, allowing much of the federal suspension to remain in place. The court's decision left more than 100,000 conditionally approved refugees in limbo while maintaining certain protections for people who had already been admitted to the United States.

The result is a very different environment from the one Bridge Builders operated in just a few years ago.

There will still be people seeking safety. There will still be refugees and immigrants in San Diego who need support. And policies will continue to change.

But we cannot build our work around the assumption that thousands of new people will arrive each year needing the same immediate assistance.

So what does that mean for Bridge Builders?

From arrival to belonging

It means our definition of welcome has to evolve.

When someone has just arrived in a new country, support can be very tangible: a place to live, a ride to an appointment, help filling out a form, an English conversation partner, a tutor for a child, a connection to a food pantry or a doctor.

Those things matter enormously.

But eventually, the question changes.

It becomes less about How do we help this person get settled? and more about What does it mean for this person to truly belong here?

Belonging is harder to measure.

It is knowing someone will notice when you haven't been at church, school, work or a community gathering in a while.

It is having someone to call when your car breaks down.

It is being invited to a birthday dinner.

It is having a neighbor who knows your name.

It is having friends who celebrate your children's accomplishments.

It is being able to contribute your own skills, traditions and experiences rather than always being the person receiving help.

And that is where we see an important opportunity for the next chapter of Bridge Builders.

The power of staying

For a long time, much of refugee support has necessarily been organized around the first days, weeks and months after arrival.

But a person's need for community does not disappear after 90 days, six months or a year.

In fact, in many ways, it becomes more important.

The initial urgency of arrival eventually gives way to a quieter set of challenges: learning how to navigate American workplaces, building friendships, raising children between cultures, finding a sense of purpose, maintaining connections to home while creating a new one and simply figuring out where you fit.

These are not problems that can be solved by a resource list.

They are addressed through relationships.

That is why we believe Bridge Builders' role over the next five to ten years will increasingly be about staying.

Staying connected.

Staying involved.

Staying in relationship.

And building a community where refugees are not simply welcomed into San Diego, but are genuinely part of San Diego.

Living in community, not serving from a distance

This shift also asks something different of all of us.

If the work of the past several years was often about mobilizing people to respond to an immediate influx of newcomers, the work ahead may be less about responding to a crisis and more about cultivating community over time.

That could mean continuing to tutor a student long after their family has become established.

It could mean maintaining an English conversation group that evolves into friendships.

It could mean inviting refugee families into neighborhood gatherings, holiday celebrations, dinners and ordinary life.

It could mean creating opportunities for refugees to become volunteers, mentors, leaders and community builders themselves.

And it means recognizing that the relationship is not one-directional.

Bridge Builders is not simply bringing something to refugee communities. We are building relationships with people who bring their own stories, talents, cultures, perspectives and strengths to San Diego.

The goal is not dependency.

The goal is connection.

A different kind of Bridge Builder

The name Bridge Builders has always reflected something important about our work: bridges connect people who might otherwise remain separated.

As San Diego's refugee landscape changes, that mission becomes even more relevant.

The bridge we build may no longer primarily be between a newly arrived family and a housing resource, an English class or a government program.

It may be between neighbors.

Between families.

Between generations.

Between cultures.

Between someone who has lived in San Diego for twenty years and someone who arrived two years ago.

Between people who might never have met otherwise.

That is a different kind of work, but it is no less important.

In fact, we believe it may be some of the most important work we can do.

Looking ahead

The next five to ten years will likely bring continued uncertainty. Immigration and refugee policies can change quickly, and the number and circumstances of people arriving in San Diego may shift again.

We do not know exactly what the next wave of arrivals will look like, or when it will come.

What we do know is that the people who are already here are not going anywhere.

They are our neighbors. They are raising families, starting businesses, going to school, working, worshiping, volunteering and contributing to the communities around them.

And they still need community.

So Bridge Builders is preparing for a new chapter.

We will continue to respond when new people arrive and when urgent needs emerge. But increasingly, our work will be about what happens after the welcome.

The answer will not be found in a single program or service.

It will be found in relationships that last.

In neighbors who show up.

In friendships that cross cultures.

In communities that make room for one another.

And in people who are willing to keep building bridges long after the first welcome is over.