This research is a part of the Co-Creation for Inclusive Knowledges Lab and the Refugee Academy theme
To respond to the growing need for safe and regulated pathways, governments worldwide – in collaboration with civil society – are developing complementary pathways, such as humanitarian visas, family reunification, education or employment opportunities, and sponsorship programs.
In Community Sponsorship, citizens – referred to as sponsors – provide emotional, social, practical, and (in some countries) financial support for the reception and integration of refugees admitted to a country through UNHCR's resettlement program. Experiences from other countries show that Community Sponsorship helps resettled refugees rebuild their lives, increases citizen engagement and support for refugee reception within communities, and strengthens the capacity of resettlement countries.
In the Netherlands, Community Sponsorship is still in its early stages. This evaluation report focuses on the project Making the Dutch Connection: Pilots ‘Community Sponsorship’ in the Netherlands, implemented by VluchtelingenWerk Nederland (VWN). This Community Sponsorship pilot was launched based on a collaboration between VluchtelingenWerk Nederland (VWN), the Ministry of Justice and Security, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), the Dutch branch of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Refugee Resettlement Advisory Group (RRAG), and a municipality with years of resettlement experience.
The Refugee Academy of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam was asked to monitor and evaluate the pilot. The evaluation study was designed to map how VWN’s Community Sponsorship pilot was implemented and to assess the perceived added value and challenges of this approach, in addition to the existing social support provided by VWN. This was examined from four perspectives: that of resettled refugees, sponsors, VWN team leaders implementing the pilot locally, and employees of the three participating municipalities.
The data were collected through two rounds of interviews/focus groups with resettled refugees, two surveys for sponsors, monthly team leader meetings, and interviews with municipal employees. Through ‘interaction research’, in which there was continuous exchange between the lead researcher and implementing parties, insights gained were immediately shared and used to further develop the pilot in practice.
We published the findings of this project in the final report ‘Van Hart tot Hart’: Werken aan Community Sponsorship in Nederland. This report describes the perceived opportunities and challenges of the Community Sponsorship pilot and includes recommendations for further developing this model in the Netherlands in a meaningful and sustainable way.
The complete report (in Dutch, with an English summary) is available for download here.
