"[7][8] In the 1990s, refugee resettlement programs identified Clarkston as a good fit for displaced persons of many backgrounds.

The rental market was open, residents were moving farther out from the Atlanta urban core, and Clarkston was the last stop on a transit line into the city.

[34] Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, operated by the State of Georgia, is in the Clarkston city limits.

[34] The Clarkston Campus of Georgia State University's Perimeter College is just south of the city limits.

[38] In 2016, then Georgia Governor Nathan Deal issued and then reneged on an executive order attempting to cease influx of Syrian refugees into the state.