This page uses cookies
These Cookies are necessary
Data to improve the website with tracking (Matomo).
These are cookies that come from external sites and services, e.g. Youtube or Vimeo.
Enter your username and password here in order to log in on the website
Community-based refugee sponsorship in Europe is still in its infancy. A new pilot project in Spain could attract more attention.
Image: Madrid, Spain of Maria Teneva / Unsplash licensed under CC0 1.0
At a time when migration movements continue to increase and acceptance of newcomers is under pressure, innovative concepts are in desperate need. Private sponsorship programs can be a solution. The concept is essentially a public-private partnership between a government which facilitates legal admission for refugees and private actors who take the role of a financial sponsor. Those actors then serve as a social link to the host society. The main aim is to provide a comprehensive support in integrating refugees into a local community – with flexible consideration of the local context.
While Canada developed a successful model over 40 years, Europe’s approaches are still in its infancy. Nevertheless, a yet small, but growing number of already existing initiatives has emerged in the last years. Those include the humanitarian corridors in Italy and France, the community-based sponsorship programme in the UK, and the private sponsorship programme supported by relatives in Germany and Ireland. The Netherlands, Slovakia and Poland also showed interest in developing their own programmes.
This year, Germany and Spain started implementing new pilots. Germany launched the NesT (“Neustart im Team”, or “a team for starting over") initiative in which at least five mentors from the civil society are responsible for one refugee. This includes takes such as finding a place to live but also paying the rent for two years. NesT aims to resettle 500 vulnerable refugees. The first arrivals are expected for after the summer.
With regards to the timetable, Spain is further along. Already in March, the country welcomed 29 refugees from Syria in the three Basque cities, Bilbao, Donostia and Vitoria. So far, according to testimonies from local groups, the first experiences in Spain are very promising. The power of local community groups for the bottom-up integration of refugees seems to be making a valuable difference. Yet, the number of cases is still too small to detect a new trend. An evaluation of the current experiences will be decisive in whether other EU-members want to follow or upgrade existing initiatives.
To read more on the Spanish case: In a guest article for the FES Cristina Manzanedo, an expert on migration and asylum in Spain, analyses the current development “Community-based refugee sponsorship in Spain: What are the experiences?”
Manzanedo, Cristina
What are the experiences? / Cristina Manzanedo. - Budapest : Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Regional Project "Flight, MIgration, Integration in Europe", July 2019. - 5 Seiten = 200 KB, PDF-File. - (Q&A: Trending issues on migration)Electronic ed.: Budapest : FES, 2019
Download publication (200 KB, PDF-File)
… und warum Spaniens Einwanderungspolitik dennoch kein Modell für Europa ist.
Konstantin Bärwaldt
+49 30 269 35-7501
Konstantin.Baerwaldt(at)fes.de
All FES experts on the International Community and Civil Society
For millions of people the Corona virus is both a threat to their health and their job. Now is the moment to push governments towards establishing basic social protection. As an instrument to exert pressure, FES offers a map that identifies gaps in social protection worldwide. more
How close is the global community to reaching the Sustainability Goals? The annual Spotlight Report focuses on obstacles and contradictions regarding the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. more