The Obama administration announced that the U.S. would take in 85,000 refugees next year, including 10,000 Syrians. That's up from 70,000 this year, but still far short of what the nation's taken in during previous refugee crises. In 1980, for instance, the nation accepted nearly a quarter-million refugees, many of them from Southeast Asia.

Sudanese refugee Ahmad Adam-Ali (L) on reaching America: "For me it means everything in this life." Seen here at an Indian restaurant in Paris with fellow refugee Abdallah Abdulmunim and WNYC reporter Arun Venugopal

(Arun Venugopal)

“If this is the biggest refugee crisis since the second World War why are we taking so few refugees?” asked Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS. His organization has been resettling refugees since the 1880s, and has called for accepting 100,000 refugees from Syria alone. "It's clearly in our capacity to do so."

Conservative lawmakers, however, argue that increasing the numbers would allow a 'jihadist pipeline' into the United States. 

Despite this resistance, there are those who continue to think of America as a land of fantastic possibility and promise. WNYC's Arun Venugopal talked to one such refugee. 

This story was made possible with support from the French-American Foundation.