Refugee Community Organizations and Volunteering

Abstract

The voluntary sector is known to be a crucial component in the settlement of refugees (Balloch, 1993; Carey-Wood et al. 1995) and has been of paramount importance in the lives of refugee people. It has been especially crucial in the absence of formal and ongoing statutory reception and resettlement provisions. The provision for forced migrants on arrival tends to be ad hoc and much of the responsibility in the past has been placed on community organizations (Renton, 1993; Wahlbeck, 1997a). Moreover, because many refugees arrive in the host society without kinship ties and support networks, the role of community organizations is key in the early stages of settlement. As we saw in Chapter 4, the majority of respondents had not made a positive choice about coming to the UK and more than half had arrived alone. Moreover, only a few had heard about organizations that could help them on arrival. As a result, refugees who arrive spontaneously in the UK and seek asylum, actively seek out people from their own communities and community organizations to help them with many of their needs in the early stages of settlement. This chapter will examine the role of refugee community organizations in the lives of forced migrants in Newham.