Private Sponsorship in Canada
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Refuge Special issue Private Sponsorship in Canada Vol 35 • No 2 • 2019 Refuge Canada’s Journal on Refugees Revue canadienne sur les réfugiés Vol. 35, No. 2 Centre for Refugee Studies, Room 844, Kaneff Tower, York University 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.yorku.ca/refuge Guest Editors Johanna Reynolds and Christina Clark-Kazak Editor-in-Chief Dagmar Soennecken Managing Editor Kathryn Barber Book Review Editor Dianna Shandy Editorial Advisory Board Sharryn Aiken, Queen’s University; Laura Bisaillon, University of Toronto Scarborough; Megan Bradley, McGill University; François Crépeau, McGill University; Jeff Crisp, Oxford University; Judith Kumin, University of New Hampshire, Manchester; Susan McGrath, York University Founded in 1981, Refuge is an interdisciplinary journal published by the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. The journal aims to provide a forum for discussion and critical reflection on refugee and forced migration issues. Refuge invites contributions from researchers, practitioners, and policy makers with national, international, or comparative perspec- tives. Special, thematic issues address the broad scope of the journal’s mandate, featuring articles and reports, shorter commentaries, and book reviews. All submissions to Refuge are subject to double-blinded peer review. Articles are accepted in either English or French. Refuge is a non-profit, independent periodical funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and supported by the membership of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS). The views expressed in Refuge do not necessarily reflect those of its funders or editors. Refuge is indexed and abstracted in the Index to Canadian Legal Literature, Pais International, Sociological Abstracts, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, and Canadian Business and Current Affairs. In accordance with the journal's open access policy, the full text of articles published in Refuge is also available online through our website, www.yorku.ca/refuge. © 2019. This open-access work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence, which permits use, reproduction, and distribution in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided the original authorship is credited and the original publication in Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees is cited. Cette œuvre en libre accès fait l’objet d’une licence Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, laquelle auto- rise l’utilisation, la reproduction et la distribution de l’œuvre sur tout support à des fins non commerciales, pourvu que l’auteur ou les auteurs originaux soient mentionnés et que la publication originale dans Refuge : revue canadienne sur les réfugiés soit citée. ISSN (online): 1920-7336 Volume 35 Refuge Number 2 Contents Introduction: Resettling Refugees through Community Sponsorship: Special Issue on Private Sponsorship in Canada A Revolutionary Operational Approach Built on Johanna Reynolds and Christina Clark-Kazak .....3 Traditional Legal Infrastructure jennifer bond and ania Kwadrans . 87 A Reflexive View of Refugee Integration and Inclusion: A Case Study of the Mennonite Central Committee and Australia’s Private Refugee Sponsorship Program: the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program Creating Complementary Pathways or Luann Good Gingrich and Thea Enns . 9 Privatizing Humanitarianism? Asher Hirsch, Khanh Hoang, and Anthea Vogl ....110 (Mis)Trusted Contact: Resettlement Knowledge Assets and the Third Space of Refugee Reception book reviews Christopher Kyriakides, Arthur McLuhan, The Migrant Passage: Karen Anderson, Lubna Bajjali, and Noheir Elgendy ............................. 24 Clandestine Journeys from Central America By Noelle Kateri Brigden What Roles Does Type of Sponsorship Play kimberly Sigmund...............................124 in Early Integration Outcomes? Syrian Refugees Resettled in Six Canadian Cities Forging African Communities: Michaela Hynie, Susan McGrath, Jonathan Mobility, Integration and Belonging Bridekirk, Anna Oda, Nicole Ives, Jennifer Hyndman, Edited by Oliver Bakewell and Loren B. Landau Neil Arya, Yogendra B. Shakya, Jill Hanley, Susanna Fioratta ...............................125 Kwame McKenzie, and SyRIA.lth . .36 The Criminalization of Migration: “We Feel Like We’re Home”: Context and Consequences The Resettlement and Integration of Syrian Refugees in Smaller and Rural Canadian Communities Dirigé par Idil Atak et James C. Simeon stacey Haugen ...................................54 David moffette et Martha Vargas Aguirre .......127 How Do Sponsors Think about “Month 13”? Refugee Resettlement: Patti Tamara Lenard.............................65 Power, Politics, and Humanitarian Governance Edited by Adèle Garnier, Liliana Lyra Jubilut, and Fostering Better Integration through Youth-Led Kristin Bergtora Sandvik Refugee Sponsorship geoffrey Cameron ..............................128 Carolyn mckee, lee-anne lavell, Michelle Manks, and Ashley Korn .................................75 Forced Migration: Current Issues and Debates Edited by Alice Boch and Giorgia Donà Anita h. Fábos...................................130 1 Volume 35 Refuge Number 2 Introduction: Special Issue on Private Sponsorship in Canada Johanna Reynolds and Christina Clark-Kazak Introduction Blended Visa Office–Referred (BVOR) Program, launched in The Canadian government, community organizations, 2013, is a new category of hybrid sponsorship, a cost-sharing sponsorship agreement holders, and ordinary people have initiative between the Canadian government and sponsorship invested significant time, energy, and resources in the reset- groups, through which refugees are referred for resettlement tlement of refugees to Canada since the establishment of the by UNHCR and approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citi- private sponsorship program in 1979. Other countries are zenship Canada (IRCC). beginning to adopt and adapt private sponsorship in very To complement a previous Refuge special issue focusing different contexts. However, there has been limited research on the historic establishment of Canada’s private sponsor- to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of sponsorship as a ship and a forthcoming edited volume by Shauna Labman resettlement process. and Geoffrey Cameron, this special issue focuses specifically The Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Program pro- on lessons learned from sponsorship efforts and concrete vides Canadian citizens the opportunity to identify and spon- suggestions for future policy and programming. The articles sor refugees for resettlement to Canada. For twelve months in this issue make empirical and conceptual contributions to or more, sponsored refugees receive settlement and financial understanding the diversity and context specificity of spon- support from their sponsorship group. A sponsorship group sorship, particularly in relation to the variability of “success,” can be formed in various ways: by five or more permanent as well as the ways in which Canadian-specific examples can residents or citizens, also called a Group of Five (G5), who or cannot be “exported” to other countries. collectively arrange to sponsor a particular refugee living abroad; or by community sponsors, such as an organization, Literature Review: Private Sponsorship in Canada corporation, or association; and a constituent group, working While Canada’s private sponsorship program has existed for with a sponsorship agreement holder (SAH), can also support forty years, until recently there was little academic literature a refugee or family in their community of settlement. Sup- evaluating the program and its impacts. Shortly after the port during this first year of sponsorship (both through direct large-scale sponsorship and resettlement of Indochinese service provision and financial support) is provided by the refugees to Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a few 2 sponsorship group in partnership with service providers.1 The articles described and analyzed the process and evaluated © Johanna Reynolds and Christina Clark-Kazak, 2019. This open-access work is Cette œuvre en libre accès fait l’objet d’une licence Creative Commons Attribu- licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Interna- tion-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, laquelle autorise l’utilisation, la tional Licence, which permits use, reproduction, and distribution in any medium reproduction et la distribution de l’œuvre sur tout support à des fins non commer- for non-commercial purposes, provided the original authorship is credited and the ciales, pourvu que l’auteur ou les auteurs originaux soient mentionnés et que la original publication in Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees is cited. publication originale dans Refuge : revue canadienne sur les réfugiés soit citée. 3 Volume 35 Refuge Number 2 refugees’ integration.3 In the early 2000s some practitioners on sponsorship in Canada and other countries.22 Third, published reflections on private sponsorship,4 while schol- articles in this special issue attempt to offer practical lessons ars analyzed resettlement outcomes of sponsored refugees5 learned to guide current and future private sponsorship. and relationships and partnerships amongst actors involved in sponsorship.6 There was also limited literature on the Measuring the “Success” of the Canadian Private World University Service of Canada’s (WUSC) Student Refu-