Why Refugee Sponsorship

The world is experiencing its most serious refugee crisis since the Second World War, with more than 21m people fleeing their country of origin, and over 34,000 people displaced each day. 1.3m refugees have so far arrived in the EU. In the UK, we currently provide sanctuary to around 16,000 people per year. 

The Home Office introduced community sponsorship in the UK in July 2016 as part of the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, which has a goal of resettling 23,000 people by 2020. Sponsorship enables community groups to support vulnerable people fleeing conflict by providing resettlement support and helping to enable their effective integration (providing access to housing, language training, employment advice, etc.). Canada has pioneered sponsorship, with over 300,000 refugees supported in this way over the past 40 years. The evidence points to the the transformational role community resettlement can play – speeding up integration, but also bringing communities together and building a more positive narrative on refugee issues.   

 

Why we are doing this: 

Sponsors can mobilise community level resources to achieve more effective integration – for example accelerating language learning and using their informal networks to help secure employment quicker

Sponsorship brings people together, integrating communities. Their shared experiences can build a more welcoming culture and change the narrative on refugee issues 

“Our hope is that the successful Canadian private sponsorship model will inspire others to develop programs appropriate to their context.” - Johannes Van Der Klaauw, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representative to Canada

 

Community Sponsorship

Community Sponsorship gives power to local people to resettle a refugee family in their neighbourhood. Communities work together to support the family as they settle into their new community, by providing befriending, encouragement and practical help.

Nolander is a community-sponsored initiatives to provide practical, financial and emotional support for refugees. 

We offer a vulnerable refugee family the opportunity to rebuild their lives in the UK. It transforms the lives of both the family and volunteers. Here are some of the benefits:

1. Directly increase the number of refugees who can safely resettle to the UK
2. A tangible, practical way to respond to the global refugee crisis
3. Make maximum use of the capacity, commitment and networks of citizens to help refugees
4. Improve the chances of refugees to settle in, learn English and find work
5. Strengthens community bonds
6. Send a strong message that refugees are welcome in the UK and build more open communities over time

Watch this video for more information about community sponsorship and how it works:

Refugees Welcome

 

We have been working with community sponsorship groups to settle refugees in Brighton and has been supporting people who have recently moved to the UK. We are also helping refugees from Afghanistan who had escaped the Taliban and now are stuck in third countries. 

A large number of people are forcefully displaced from their home either because of violence, poverty or/and persecution; people are stuck in countries of origin and spaces of transit en route, often without adequate access to essential services.

In recent years, the issue of forced migration in Europe has often been described in terms of a ‘migration crisis’. This is a problematic narrative as it suggests that migration, or the arrival of people in Europe, is itself a problem. Moreover, by locating the issue in Europe, a wider geography and history of mobility including Europe’s violent engagements in other parts of the world, is cut off from the frame of analysis.

The problem is not movement as such – people move all the time, due to the proliferation of borders, people in search of safety often have no access to legal routes to safety. One of the reasons that so many people embark on irregular, costly and dangerous journeys is that there are very few visas for people travelling on humanitarian grounds such as fleeing conflict, persecution, poverty or other conditions that endanger their lives.

A serious rethinking of the border regime is required to ensure that people on the move do not become illegalised – that is, have to resort to irregular and often dangerous journeys. Unfortunately the countries to the east of EU have adopted a policy of border proliferation which is particularly ironic as they recently had suffered from the same calamity. Making legal pathways more accessible to people who need them most and increasing their capacity is one step in the right direction.