Summary of Refugee-Integration-Opportunity Structures: Shifting the Focus from Refugees to Context
The article offers a counterpoint to integration discourses that emphasise the responsibilities and integration outcomes of refugees: by focusing on how the receiving society context is critical to shaping refugee-integration opportunities. The article offers an analytical framework to analyze refugees’ normative integration outcomes by introducing five sets of host society “opportunity structures”: locality, discourse, relations, structure and initiatives, and support.
Summary of The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
This chapter addresses the role played by the Office of the UNHCR in making and implementing of international refugee law.
Summary of OECD-UNHCR Study on Third-country Solutions for Refugees: Admissions for Family Reunification, Education, and Employment Purposes between 2010-2019
This study offers an indicative picture of (1) the type and magnitude of admission pathways used by specific refugee populations and (2) the data-collection challenges and gaps associated with complementary pathways for admission. This report builds on the data and findings presented in the 2018 OECD-UNHCR joint report.
Summary of Resettlement
This chapter in The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law critiques resettlement as a ‘durable solution’ to forced displacement, focusing on the tension between asylum and resettlement in Global North States. This critique does not attack the value of resettlement, to both refugees and receiving States, but rather seeks to encourage States to do better in how they govern resettlement and asylum.
Summary of OECD-UNHCR Study on Third-country Solutions for Refugees: Admissions for Family Reunification, Education, and Employment Purposes between 2010-2019
Between 2010-2019, 1.5 million people arrived in OECD countries and Brazil through family, work, and study permits. This study offers an indicative picture of (1) the type and magnitude of admission pathways used by specific refugee populations and (2) the data-collection challenges and gaps associated with complementary pathways for admission.
Summary of the Impact of Education and Employment Quality on Self-rated Mental Health Among Syrian Refugees in Canada
This study looked at employment rates and job quality across a sample size of 1805 Syrian refugees resettled in Canada and considered how this related to their mental and physical health. This paper explores three questions: (1) Does education level among Syrian refugees predict the quality of their current employment, 2-3 years after resettlement? (2) Is there a relationship between job quality and the psychological variables of stress and perceived control? (3) Do education levels, employment quality and psychological variables impact Syrian refugees’ general mental health?
Summary of The Impact of Syrian Refugee Arrivals on Local Systems of Support in Canada
The influx of 40,000 Syrian refugees in Canada between November 2014 and January posed several challenges for Canada's local refugee support system. This 10-month study explored the disruptive impact that the period had on the way local communities support newcomers and how communities can improve their support to bring about transformative change in their vision, structure and processes.
Summary of The cracks in our admired private refugee sponsorship program
Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program is regarded as the “gold standard” for refugee sponsorship around the world; however, there are several shortcomings to the program that urgently need addressing. This article compiles the research findings and provides a comprehensive list of common obstacles faced by the research participants as well as a bank of best practices.
Summary of Selection Criteria in Refugee Resettlement: balancing vulnerability and future integration in eight settlement countries
This report compares refugee resettlement programs in eight countries: Norway, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The study examines how each country determines their selection criteria for UNHCR resettled refugees and how they balance the consideration of future integration in the host society against the humanitarian goal of protecting the most vulnerable refugees.
Summary of Intentional Connections for Welcoming Communities: Improving Settlement for Privately Sponsored Refugees in Ontario through Settlement Sponsor Collaboration
Project partners OCASI and Refugee 613 observed gaps in knowledge, relationships and operations between private sponsors and the formal settlement sector in Canada. These gaps often “become cracks that negatively affected the settlement journey of [sponsored] refugees.” This report summarizes the approach taken by the Allies for Refugee Integration (ARI) Project to create more welcoming communities for privately sponsored refugees.
Summary: Economic Self-Reliance or Social Relations? What works refugee integration? Learning from resettlement programs in Japan and the UK
This summary provides an overview of the comparative article by Phillimore, et al., on the strengths and shortcoming of refugee integration programs in Japan and the United Kingdom and how the integration domain in each country impacts refugee experience.
Summary of Working against and with the State: From Sanctuary to Resettlement
This article explores the relationship between the citizen and the state in Canada, in the context of (i) sanctuary, where a church congregation shelters failed asylum seekers, and (ii) community sponsorship of refugees. The author argues that the political and legal framework governing border control and refugee admission structures the citizen’s relationship with the Canadian state and inflects their relationship with the refugees they shelter or sponsor. Further, in general, sanctuary providers interpose themselves as a shield between those they recognize as refugees and the state when refugee status is denied.