To mark the twentieth anniversary of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees,[1] the Latin American and Caribbean States undertook a consultative process which concluded with the adoption of the 2004 Mexico Declaration and Plan of Action.[2] The document was a…
Until recently, Canada has been the only country that offers private sponsorship to refugees. Sponsors fund the first year of resettlement while the government covers health care and children’s education; in the second year, refugees (who become permanent residents upon…
Canada’s Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) programme affords the opportunity for private sponsorship groups to be paired by the Canadian government with refugees seeking resettlement. While the process is well established, each group undergoes its own learning journey. Our experience sponsoring…
The application form for Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program asks for the applicant’s ‘intended occupation’, to which the applicant is supposed to answer in half a line what he or she intends to do in Canada. This question is…
The rhetoric and policies of Australia’s major political parties have sought to differentiate between refugees and asylum seekers. Asylum seekers are depicted as ‘fake refugees’, particularly because they do not ‘mind the queue’. Their action (getting on a boat) is…
Refugee-related services, policies and research in countries of resettlement typically focus on the early years of resettlement. Refugee experiences of resettlement, however, change over time, as does the resettlement context, with ongoing adjustments to policy, service provision, host society reception,…
Over their seven decades as a large-scale refugee population, the Palestinians have been remarkably consistent in collectively opposing resettlement as a durable solution to their plight. Both the grass roots and later the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) have repudiated any…
When it became clear in 1945, at the end of the second world war, that the Polish forces and refugees abroad would not be able to return to their homeland, the British government took on responsibility for them. The first…
Resettlement is an area of refugee policy that too often escapes scrutiny. It is often viewed as inherently benevolent and serves as a means for distant countries and progressive members of civil society to believe that they are ‘making a…
People whose application for asylum has been refused are vulnerable when they are subsequently deported to their country of origin. In some places, simply claiming asylum in another country is viewed as an act of treason and exposes the applicant…