Georgia legislature mulls laws to grant state tuition to refugees |

Georgia Rep. Wes Cantrell

ATLANTA – Legislation that would grant tuition fees at state colleges to refugees from Afghanistan who were resettled in Georgia last year won bipartisan support in a state House committee on Wednesday.

House Bill 932 would waive the one-year residency requirement to qualify for state tuition at the state’s public colleges and universities, which applies to students who have moved to Georgia from abroad.

“These refugees … worked with our military, primarily in Afghanistan,” Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, the bill’s lead sponsor, told members of the House Higher Education Committee on Wednesday. “These people want to be American and want to live the dream.”

Cantrell last year chaired a legislative study committee that was exploring ways to strengthen Georgia’s economy by allowing foreign-born Georgians to participate to the greatest extent possible. About 10% of today’s Georgians were born outside of the United States.

“We have more jobs in Georgia than people,” Cantrell said. “We shouldn’t put artificial limits on these people to educate themselves and become productive members of society.”

“It’s a sensible way to address an economic development issue,” added Representative Betsy Holland, D-Atlanta.

Darlene Lynch, chair of the Business & Immigration for Georgia Partnership, a coalition of business and civil society leaders, said refugees should be treated differently under the domestic tuition law than people who choose to move here from other states.

“Georgia is the only state they’ve ever called home,” she said. “They were told to come to Georgia to settle here.”

But committee chairman Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, said he was uncomfortable with waiving the one-year refugee residency permit while it still applies it to others moving to Georgia.

“My fight is to put these people ahead of other people,” he said.

The committee did not vote on the bill on Wednesday, but could decide whether to bring it forward as early as next week.

This story is available through a news partnership with the Capitol Beat News Service, a Georgia Press Educational Foundation project.