Hosting as shelter during displacement: considerations for research and practice

Cynthia M Caron

doi:10.1186/s41018-019-0052-0

Abstract

Hosting or local families taking in displaced families is an important way to shelter persons displaced during war or by natural disaster. While field-level evidence of hosting is on the rise, academic and policy-related scholarship on hosting is scant. Based on an extensive literature review and supplemented by the author’s own work experience in the humanitarian sector, this paper identifies and summarizes ten aspects that shape the hosting environment and its associated support programs. These aspects provide insight to humanitarian actors that support hosting situations rather than allowing them to play out on their own. These aspects potentially serve (1) as programmatic criteria that humanitarian actors and aid agencies should consider when designing and supporting hosting programs and (2) are substantively rich areas that would expand the research agenda on displacement and humanitarian response and assistance. This paper has implications for both humanitarian practice and research, including how members of the humanitarian community conceptual hosting as a social relationship.

Highlights

Scholarship on displacement that examines and problematizes the role of the camp in sheltering and protecting displaced populations goes back decades
The paper focuses on formal or intentional hosting programs; hosting programs where a humanitarian actor intentionally pairs up displaced families with local, host families, and/or supports already-existing spontaneous hosting situations rather than allowing them to continue without support
Families hosting displaced families as a result of conflict or a natural disaster is a long-standing practice currently garnering attention in the media and in the public communication materials and practitioner reports published by humanitarian agencies

Summary

Introduction

Scholarship on displacement that examines and problematizes the role of the camp in sheltering and protecting displaced populations goes back decades. There are other forms of sheltering the displaced following a conflict or a natural disaster that remain understudied. Local families taking in one or more displaced families, is one such understudied response. This paper examines hosting as a means for sheltering the displaced and identifies ten key aspects that make hosting a successful or challenging experience. These aspects form an initial list of concerns that practitioners and researchers should pay attention to and, which over time, could become a coherent set of variables that inform humanitarian practice. The paper focuses on formal or intentional hosting programs; hosting programs where a humanitarian actor intentionally pairs up displaced families with local, host families, and/or supports already-existing spontaneous hosting situations rather than allowing them to continue without support

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion