Launch of the Refugee Mentorship Toolkit
The Refugee Mentorship Toolkit provides practical guidance for organizations seeking to create meaningful mentorship opportunities that support refugee leadership, professional development, and participation. Developed through research, consultation, lived experience, and lessons from the uOttawa Refugee Hub–Pathways International Fellowship Program for Refugee Leaders, the Toolkit brings together adaptable frameworks, guidance, case examples, templates, and practical tools to support mentorship programs from design through implementation and sustainability.
Summary of Key Insights from Sponsorship in Rural Communities
Research on refugee sponsorship in rural communities explores how community-led initiatives can strengthen refugee integration while generating social and economic benefits for host communities. Drawing on experiences from Canada, Australia, and Spain, this review highlights how effective sponsorship is supported by early planning, strong local partnerships, and flexible volunteer-led approaches that respond to newcomers' needs. The findings also demonstrate that rural communities can foster long-term belonging, improve access to housing, employment, and language supports, and build more resilient sponsorship programs through sustained community engagement and collaboration.
Exploring the PGRN 2027 and the Safe Pathways Update
The UNHCR webinar on the 2027 Projected Global Resettlement Needs and Safe Pathways Update examined global displacement trends and the widening gap between refugee resettlement needs and available protection pathways. Speakers emphasized the continued importance of resettlement and complementary pathways, while highlighting the need for greater international cooperation and expanded access to safe and legal routes for refugees.
CARFMS Webinar: UNHCR’s Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2025 Report
The CARFMS webinar on UNHCR's Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2025 Report explored the growing scale of global displacement and the evolving challenges facing refugee protection systems. Participants highlighted that protracted armed conflict, political violence, and terrorism continue to drive record levels of forced displacement, while Canada faces increasing pressures from refugee processing backlogs, sponsorship pauses, and policy changes affecting access to protection. Speakers also emphasized the importance of addressing the root causes of displacement through stronger international cooperation, conflict prevention, and durable solutions alongside humanitarian responses.
Research Matters Event: Refugee Resettlement and the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement
The Research Matters event on refugee resettlement and the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement explored the evolving relationship between refugee protection, regional settlement, and asylum policy in Canada. Participants highlighted that while refugee resettlement has expanded into smaller and mid-sized communities, successful long-term integration depends on sustained investment in settlement services, community networks, and local infrastructure rather than geographic dispersal alone. Discussions also examined the historical development of the Safe Third Country Agreement, emphasizing that it was designed to balance asylum system management with Canada's international refugee protection obligations. Speakers ultimately underscored the importance of ensuring that refugee protection remains centred on equitable access to services, strong institutional support, and policies that uphold both humanitarian commitments and long-term integration outcomes.
Summary of The Power of Sponsorship: Power and Moral Action in Private Refugee Resettlement
Research on private refugee sponsorship in Canada examines the complex power dynamics that shape relationships between sponsors and the newcomers they support during the resettlement process. Drawing on interviews with Canadian refugee sponsors, the study identifies how sponsors exercise both power over resettlement by facilitating access to essential services, and power over newcomers by influencing decisions through greater social and institutional knowledge. The findings highlight the distinction between mutualistic approaches that prioritize newcomer autonomy and paternalistic approaches that reinforce hierarchy, emphasizing that awareness of these inherent power imbalances is essential for ensuring ethical, supportive, and newcomer-centred sponsorship practices.
Summary of Brokering Refugee Integration: Promises and Pitfalls of Refugee Co-sponsorship in the United States
New research on refugee co-sponsorship in the United States explores how volunteer-based sponsorship models shape refugee integration through both institutional support and social navigation. Drawing on interviews with resettlement agency staff, volunteers, and refugees, the study highlights how co-sponsorship enables volunteers to extend support beyond traditional government-funded services, while also revealing challenges such as unclear role definitions, uneven service delivery, and shifting power dynamics. Findings also show that co-sponsorship is a deeply reciprocal process, with volunteers themselves transforming as they develop greater awareness of structural inequalities and adopt new cultural perspectives through their relationships with refugees.
Virtual Book Launch: Canada in the Global Refugee Regime
The virtual launch of Canada in the Global Refugee Regime examined Canada’s evolving role in international refugee protection, highlighting both its historical leadership and the growing disconnect between its global humanitarian reputation and increasingly restrictive domestic immigration policies. Participants emphasized that effective refugee protection depends on sustained political will, strong government leadership, and flexible, community-driven approaches rather than fragmented or piecemeal responses. Discussions also underscored the critical role of civil society, diaspora communities, and multilateral engagement, while stressing that amid declining global humanitarian commitments, Canada has an important opportunity to strengthen refugee resettlement, community sponsorship, and international protection norms.
The Future of Resettlement: A Lifesaving Protection Tool
The recent briefing on refugee resettlement underscored its vital role as a life-saving protection mechanism that prevents refoulement, breaks cycles of displacement, and supports long-term integration and economic contribution. Participants highlighted that despite strengthened global commitments since 2016–2018, only a small fraction of refugees access resettlement, emphasizing the need to treat it as a core shared responsibility rather than charity. Discussions also noted the importance of strong community sponsorship models, sustained political will, and complementary pathways such as labour mobility and family reunification to expand access to protection.
Summary of Community Sponsorship and Complementary Pathways: Global Movements for Resettling Refugees Driven by Local Actors
This Special Issue provides a global overview of Community Sponsorship and Complementary Pathways outside Canada, drawing on a systematic scoping review of literature from 2015 to 2023. It finds that while these pathways can enhance social inclusion, integration, and regional revitalisation, they also face persistent challenges including bureaucratic barriers, temporary legal status, power imbalances, and uneven rights protections. Across diverse country contexts, the articles highlight both the benefits and risks of shifting responsibility to private actors, identify critical evidence gaps, particularly regarding refugee lived experiences and long-term outcomes, and offer comparative insights to inform more sustainable, rights-based policy development.
Summary of Harnessing Possibilities and Synergies to Refugee Complementary Migration Pathways in Australia: A Multiple Streams Analysis
This article applies a Multiple Streams Framework to analyze the emergence of Australia’s complementary migration pathways, including community sponsorship, labour mobility, and education pathways. It finds that these initiatives gained traction through strategic policy entrepreneurship that aligned political opportunity, problem recognition, and ready-made solutions. Beyond protection outcomes, the article highlights the strategic value of these pathways in addressing workforce shortages, demographic challenges, and international humanitarian commitments, while strengthening public–private collaboration and easing pressure on government systems.
Summary of Outsourcing Hospitality: Power, Responsibility, and Inequality in Community Sponsorship
This article critically examines how Community Sponsorship programmes redistribute responsibility for refugee support, particularly housing, from the state to private actors. Drawing on qualitative research in Ireland, it argues that outsourcing housing provision to sponsors can deepen refugee dependency, expose them to unequal power relations, and create risks of exploitation within private rental markets. The authors contend that to ensure equity and accountability, states, not sponsors, should retain primary responsibility for sourcing housing within community sponsorship frameworks.