Refugee Reception Research Articles

Views from Teachers, Children and Parents on the Reception of Refugees in Primary School in Greece

The refugee issue facing our country in recent years has triggered a heated debate in the social sciences about its impact on students. Most research focuses on the education of refugees and their smooth integration into society and the psychological support of families. However, there is a lack of interest in the research field for refugee reception about the teachers, pupils and parents' views and what their perspective is on this, as they directly and indirectly affect them. In this context, the present study focuses on the perspective of teachers, pupils and parents on the refugee issue, what they feel and how they perceive it, and we will examine whether the formal curriculum and informal curriculum through actions taken teachers can influence students' attitudes. In the direction indicated by the international literature, this research will be structured in a sample data collection (25 teachers, 25 students, 25 parents in Thessaloniki, Greece) through questionnaire and interview questions in primary school children on the perspective of teachers, students and parents on the refugee issue. The research findings are expected to illuminate the perspective of teachers, students, and parents on the current issue of refugee issue.

European Citizens\u2019 Attitudes on the Return of Refugees to Their Home Country: Results from a\xa0Survey in 13\xa0EU Member States

European law requires member states of the European Union (EU) to accept refugees. It also allows them to return refugees to their countries of origin if the reason for asylum no longer exists. Both the reception and return of refugees has become a widely debated and controversial issue in many member states of the EU. Based on a survey conducted in 13 EU member states, we analysed whether citizens support the return of refugees when the cause for their displacement has become obsolete and how differences in attitudes toward the return of refugees can be explained. A clear majority of Europeans (70%) support the return of refugees. This is also the case for those who believe that their country should accept refugees in the first place. These results mean that existing law—the acceptance of refugees in need and the return when the cause becomes obsolete—is being supported by a majority of Europeans. However, there are considerable differences in approval rates among the countries. The results of multivariate analysis show that ideational factors—both on the micro and the macro level—influence attitudes toward the return of refugees, whereas structural factors, recurring to economic interest, do not contribute substantially to the explanation of attitudes toward the return. The political implications of these findings are discussed in the last section of the article.

The Urban Governance of Asylum as a “Battleground”: Policies of Exclusion and Efforts of Inclusion in Italian Towns

The article argues that the governance of immigration, especially at local level, can be considered a “battleground” involving diverse actors. Beyond the idea of a “negotiated order” as the result of the interaction among actors (mainly institutional) in the multilevel governance framework, the management of asylum at a local level is the outcome of conflict and cooperation, of alternative views and political actions, of official policies and practical help, of formal statements and informal practices. The practical governance of immigration and asylum is not only determined at an institutional level; it is also influenced by this mobilization on the part of civil society. In order to reconstruct the dynamics of this “battleground”, the article first analyses the different attitudes of Italian municipalities to asylum seekers, and in particular the mobilization of local governments against refugees’ reception. It then shows by contrast how civil society actors mobilize either in favour of the reception of refugees and immigrants with dubious legal status or against them. Thereafter, among civil society actors, it focuses in particular on “supporters” acting on behalf of asylum seekers in various ways, for moral, political or religious reasons, and on the issue of their political engagement.

Современная миграционная политика Франции

The article considers the main directions of migration policy outlined in Emmanuel Macron’s policy statements (France, 2017) and government programs of recent years. This refers to the policy of France regarding the reception of refugees, student immigration, “family” immigration, immigration on the status of “passport talent”, as well as immigration of professional and scientific personnel. The latest data on the number of immigrants in these categories are provided. The priority area of integration of immigrants is discussed in detail, as well as measures that are designed to improve the French integration model, including the system of reception and adaptation of newcomers. The discussion points of view on the current migration policy of the country by representatives of the main political parties, expressed at the debate in the National Assembly of France in November 2019, are investigated. 20 measures adopted by the government in November 2019 to change the French migration policy and make it more effective and more controllable are analyzed. The procedure for introducing quotas by profession and stages of its practical application are examined in detail. The issue of state spending on the reception of refugees and integration of immigrants is raised. Attention is drawn to the approach of E. Macron to the main problems of French migration policy and to the changes that occur during his presidency. Innovations related to strengthening cooperation with French citizens living outside of France, as well as expanding French education system abroad, are highlighted. The article discusses the statements of the presidential program, which, on the one hand, should strengthen the influence of French expatriates on the sociopolitical and economic life of France, as well as their representation in the country, and, on the other, solve the issue of their information and economic support.

Refugee Reception in Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea

Refugee Reception in Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea Renata Schellenberg Goethe published Hermann und Dorothea in 1797. Described by Wilhelm von Humboldt as a work that was "zugleich so rein und idealisch," (simultaneously so pure and ideal)1 the poem was popular and well-received by contemporary readers, eliciting wide-ranging support from critics who praised Goethe's portrayal of a distinctive German bourgeoisie and its staid response to the historical turmoil of the French Revolution. Modern literary scholarship has largely continued to focus on the interaction between the two main characters of Hermann and Dorothea, elaborating on the symbolism and repercussions of their relationship, while differentiating between the seemingly contrastive concepts of Bürgertum and Weltbürgertum (citizenship and world citizenship)2 that the characters purportedly espouse.3 This article takes these analyses one step further by investigating the poem's overall response to the political crisis underway and by pointedly examining the depiction of refugees within the context of this late eighteenth-century narrative, considering their migratory status and purpose, while also evaluating the wide-ranging and sometimes fraught concept of citizenship. In doing so, it draws on contemporary discussions pertaining to topics of identity, national belonging, and state responsibility vis-à-vis refugees within political borders, thereby positioning Hermann und Dorothea as a narrative that articulates some of the challenges that occur in today's increasingly mobile and transnational world. This article thus involves interrogating the processes of group identity formation and individuation at work within the text. Goethe had engaged with the subject matter of exile in previous literary works, most obviously in Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787) and Unterhaltungen Deutscher Ausgewanderten (1795; Conversations of German Refugees). In both of these works, he explored the theme of enforced absence from a homeland, elucidating the behavior and mindset of the exiled individual as an essential part of the narrative. In Hermann und Dorothea he continues with similar themes of loss and departure, while also accentuating the conditions of historical violence that propel people to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere. That said, Hermann und Dorothea is arguably also very different from the aforementioned works in its own particular focus on exile, as it concentrates on the arrival and reception of refugees in their new community, highlighting some of the challenges refugees face in their new surroundings and in the immediate aftermath of the exilic journey. Integration [End Page 83] and acceptance are therefore key themes of the poem, as is the portrayal of refugees as a homogenized, group identity. Despite its recognized canonical status, Hermann und Dorothea remains difficult to categorize in singular and decisive literary terms. Due to its stereotypical portrayal of local characters and a seemingly idyllic Germanic village setting, some critics have characterized Hermann und Dorothea as an early example of Heimatliteratur, a genre popular in the nineteenth century. As Elizabeth Boa explains, Goethe's epic has clear affinities with the Heimat genre insofar as it embodies a universal type of appeal that engages different levels of society, while offering a distinct portrayal of "Germanness" within the narrative.4 Boa elaborates at length on the appropriateness of using the Heimat concept for Hermann und Dorothea, noting the advantages it has had for Goethe's epic by identifying it as a recurrent and predictable literary topos in times of political upheaval.5 Other literary critics have focused more explicitly on other aspects of the poem such as the use of Homeric hexameters, querying the reason and efficacy of their usage. Georg Kaiser, for example, believes that the classical meter is a conscious ploy on Goethe's part, a means with which to legitimize the regional context of the epic, contributing thus to the "Direktheit der Mitteilung" (immediacy of the message), and enhancing thereby its overall stature and poetic potency.6 Charlton Payne has also commented on the use of hexameters in the poem, lauding it and writing that it "offers a commentary on the political form of democratic representation," and he examines the "insertion of human beings into the epic and their representation within its narrative structure and symbols."7 These discussions point to a deliberate tangling of literary traditions, possibly as part of Goethe...

A Brief on the Intersection between Climate Change Impacts and Asylum and Refugee Seekers’ Incarceration on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea

A Brief on the Intersection between Climate Change Impacts and Asylum and Refugee Seekers’ Incarceration on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea Robert Bino (bio) Through the case of Manus Island and its regional refugee processing center, this contribution to the dialogue on Australia-bound refugees and asylum seekers in Oceania offers a consideration of how the reception of refugees and asylum seekers may be related to the vagaries of and local responses to climate change. Instead of accepting a siloing of the political logics and narratives surrounding the refugee crisis and the climate crisis respectively, seeing these “concentration camps for alien refugees” as disposable sites for “toxic otherness” can help us understand the global treatment (past and present) of Pacific Islands and their populations in the age of climate change, during which the region has been equally revealed as a dump for toxic nuclear waste and plastic and for climate change– generated occurrences, such as sea-level rise. The case of Australia with respect to Manus (and Nauru) exemplifies a situation whereby a first-world nation—whose development paradigms have amplified the impacts of climate change—has entangled itself with these “prison islands” and the politics of climate change. This case is even more interesting because Australia, in relation to Papua New Guinea (PNG), is not just any first-world nation; it is also a former colonial master and influential player in regional politics. Australia has certainly used bilateral aid to persuade a cash-strapped PNG government to relinquish a piece of its sovereign space for use as a regional processing center. Due to my remote location in PNG relative to Manus Island, this paper’s focal site of interest, it was difficult to monitor the in situ impacts of climate [End Page 484] change. In contrast, the media scrutiny in relation to the incarceration of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus is watertight, and little escapes the media spotlight. This commentary is thus a desktop study of information derived from official reports, journal articles, newspaper reports, and other credible sources available in the public domain. To direct my focus, I also draw on my time in social media discussion groups and forums (eg, the Facebook group “Manus Issues”) tracking issues Manus communities deem relevant, as well as pertinent interviews conducted during a three-day trip to Manus in 2013. In what follows, I go through different representations of the notion of “refugee” in relation to the impact of climate change on Manus communities. Refugees and Climate Events The term “refugee” has become widely used in PNG as a result of media coverage of the regional processing center on Manus Island, but a related term, “climate refugee,” has been generated as a result of climate change and its impacts. “Climate refugee” is a notion that originated from the climate change–mobility nexus and has a unique connection to Oceania due to the social constructs that define it or actively contribute to its establishment (Farbotko 2005). From a legal perspective, the term “refugee” does not include people who are environmentally displaced as a consequence of climate change–induced events (Gonzales 2018, 380), as they do not meet the legal requirement of having a well-founded fear that results in their search for refuge and can be used to justify their refugee-type situation (Pulu 2015). However, it must also be understood that for many in Oceania, the issue with the label “refugee” has not been about its legal definition; rather, it has more to do with the term’s negative connotations (Pulu 2015, 11–13). In the context of Oceania, “refugees” have been represented as desperate persons attempting to cross the ocean in small, unseaworthy boats, seeking asylum in Australia. However, these persons have instead ended up in detention centers with appalling conditions, either on Nauru or on Manus Island, where the locals have been forced to stare the global refugee crisis in the face. Therefore, the term “refugee” has been connected to frightening images of guarded camps populated by foreign “refugees,” many of whom are in a state of mental and physical anguish. It is on this basis that the people of Oceania, including those on...

Editors' Preface

Editors' Preface Patricia Anne Simpson and Birgit Tautz With the publication of volume 27, we would like to take the opportunity to address some innovations. In this volume, we introduce an array of new formats through which we pursue research on Goethe, his age, and the long eighteenth century and seek to encourage new modes of collaboration, including, perhaps, communication across several volumes. A range of articles that contribute to the rich and growing archive of scholarship on German eighteenth-century studies opens this issue. Helmut J. Schneider's article, based on a keynote address at the 2017 Atkins Goethe Conference, "Re-Orientations around Goethe," highlights the eighteenth-century genesis of the bourgeois subject's unitary experience of the natural world. With select readings of Goethean texts, Schneider explores the disjuncture that opens between the gaze and the corporeal. Moreover, Schneider's reading captures the destructive consequences of the emancipatory escape into nature for anthropocentric moments of modernity. The remaining articles, while devoted to discreet subjects, authors, and texts, invite fascinating cross-readings. Oliver Simons turns our attention to the representation of Werther's narrative pulse. Herder and Lessing also figure in the framework for this interpretation of metanarrative reflections on suicide and acts of ending; the essay extends the narratological focus of a special section in last year's volume (What is an Event?). The two following articles—a fascinating, opportune pairing—redirect our attention to Karl Philipp Moritz, through texts that engage with but go beyond the Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde. Richard Apgar explores the fraught process of subject formation through an examination of Moritz's writing on the individual, "Erinnerungen aus den frühesten Jahren der Kindheit" (memories from the earliest years of childhood). This interrogation of impressions and mediated memories leads to fresh insights into the construction of the modern individual. Mattias Pirholt continues the focus on Moritz in his analysis of ethical and aesthetic principles encompassed by the concept of disinterested love in "Versuch einer Vereinigung aller schönen Künste und Wissenschaften unter dem Begriff des in sich selbst Vollendeten." The remaining contributions in this first section take up a challenge that our subfield has latently faced, namely to engage overtly or covertly with issues of relevancy; together the articles show how modern Goethe and his contemporaries are in our dialogues on belonging and identities, cultural legacies, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Renata Schellenberg turns our attention to the uncanny correspondence between [End Page xi] Goethe's portrayal of refugee reception in Hermann und Dorothea, foregrounding parallels to contemporary discussions and politics of statelessness, citizenship, and national belonging. Issues of intersectional identities also appear in Renata Fuchs's contribution on Rahel Levin Varnhagen's epistolary and dialogical engagement with Goethe. Despite her centrality as salon host and vibrant intellectual, Levin Varnhagen's reception was challenged by her outsider status as a woman and as a Jew. Stefan Höppner's article on Goethe's personal library invites a reconsideration of the shift from legal inheritance to cultural heritage. Michael Saman interprets three Goethean texts as keen observations of human ritual that offer prefatory ethnographic studies that impact structuralist anthropology. Karin Wurst approaches the intellectual hub of Weimar through the lens of contemporary creativity theory. These interventions demonstrate the continued, if underestimated, relevance of eighteenth-century studies for the study of humanities in the present, as well as sustained and innovative engagement with the literature of the Goethezeit. This volume launches our first Forum, a section comprised of invited contributions on an important topic of debate in the profession. For the debut, we asked colleagues engaged in Digital Humanities research to consider the canon in comparison to "the great unread" (Margaret Cohen): a vast expanse of noncanonical texts. The contributions evince approaches that go beyond the established binary of scholarly methods vs. data sciences; they also explore Digital Humanities as a way of navigating the gendered fault lines of canon formation to expand on the process, more generally, of canonization vs. marginalization in literary studies. We hope that readers of the Goethe Yearbook will be inspired to take up some of the questions, perspectives, and challenges introduced here, and that they will suggest further forum topics for...

Professionalisation for what? Reflections on social work practices with asylum seekers at the interface between spatial proximity, emotional distress and professional distance

ABSTRACT The article questions in what ways personal capacities (or a lack of them) as well as structural factors ameliorate or aggravate the idea of providing responsive social work and thus promote responsive professional social work practices within different types of reception facilities for refugees and asylum seekers in northern Italy. This study is based on a qualitative research approach which seeks to understand the relation between the refugee crisis, reception centres and professionalisation from social workers’ perspective. The author opted for a qualitative research approach in order to interpret and better understand the complex reality of the research settings. As the results reveal, the provision of social services for refugees and asylum seekers in northern Italy has, for a long time, been carried out alongside the rhetoric of emergency and temporality with a high impact on the quality of the services. Thus, as the results show, social workers report emotional distress due to the complex nature of the work environment, the highly diversified demands and the excessive workload.

“The Teacher is not a Magician”: Teacher Training in Greek Reception Facilities for Refugee Education

Greek Reception Facilities for Refugee Education (RFREs) operated for the first time in Greece during the school year 2016-2017, as a result of the need of refugee children to participate in formal education either in the refugee reception centers or in school units, with the purpose of their educational integration. The aim of this study is to examine the process and criteria with which teachers in RFREs were chosen and the training they received. The research participants were seven teachers and one Refugee Education Coordinator (REC) in the cities of Volos and Larisa, Greece. Through semi-structured interviews, the participants expressed the challenges they faced which resulted from receiving insufficient training in teaching refugee children. Based on the study findings, it can be concluded that the lack of training of teachers working in RFREs causes multiple problems, which impede educational procedures. It was found that the teachers were not able to successfully approach their refugee students so as to create the prerequisites for the children to be smoothly integrated into the Greek educational system. Lack of skills for students’ psychological support and communication difficulties due to lack of a language of mediation also causes many issues which obstruct the educational process.

An Economic Instrument to Improve Migration

The Naturally Optimised Revenue Demand in Communities (NORDIC) model is employed to improve migration. The proposed model produces constructed shadow costs to be inserted into the public budgets to induce economic incentives to improve the integration of immigrants. The resulting shadow cost, and its impact on the PSBR, constitutes a single, key factor that by one digit only expresses how successful the integration is over time. The human tolerance is encapsulated in the launched model through a single factor in the NORDIC model equation that considers the population's general acceptance of immigrants that affects the result. Particularly, the case study shows how refugees should be better integrated into the Swedish society by application of the NORDIC model. The results point at a promising methodology for successfully integrating migrants by using economic instruments. The major conclusion is that the NORDIC model can be used for improving the immigration to a nation. In particular, the suitable level of refugee-reception is possible to determine by employing the NORDIC model in a societal context to improve a nation’s GDP and the citizens’ welfare. Possible end users are the migration-authorities and politicians that want a comprehensive tool to improve the efficiency of the reception of immigrants and refugees to the current nation. Recommendations for the use of the proposed model are given and further research suggested.

“Suitcase – shelling – Russia”: narratives about refugees from Ukraine in Russian media

ABSTRACTThe armed conflict in South-East Ukraine has brought a massive increase in refugees in the Russian Federation. This article examines the meaning-making process surrounding the sudden presence of these refugees, through analysis of narratives in three major national newspapers – Izvestiya, Novaya gazeta and Rossiiskaya gazeta –1 June – 30 September 2014. Three thematic groups of narratives predominated: about war, about refugee reception and aid, and about Russia in international relations. These give meaning to the subject-position “refugees from Ukraine” primarily as war victims and aid recipients.

Effectiveness of Regional Protection Program (RPP) Rezim - International Protection Regime - European Union (EU) in Germany

Refugees migrate from their countries to other countries in the study of migration because of natural disasters, famine, difficulty in getting jobs, and fear of war or armed conflict in their countries. The problem of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2011 due to armed conflict made Syrian refugees leave their country for Europe. In 2011 Syrian refugees began to enter Europe through waters, then UNHCR announced the status of refugees and encouraged the EU to respond with refugee acceptance. In 2012 the EU then adopted the Regional Protection Program - International protection regime in accepting refugees. Germany was then very enthusiastic in accepting refugees, so there were many refugee destinations to get protection. Through the German resettlement scheme then received many refugees. Through the Balkan lane the EU then negotiated with Turkey which made it easier for refugees to enter Europe, then it had implications for the increasing number of refugees entering Europe in 2015. This caused fears of the Balkan countries so that the peak of the Balkan lane was closing which resulted in a reduction in German revenue from the original plan of acceptance. Therefore, the author wants to confirm whether the Regional Protection Program - International protection regime is quite effective in carrying out the reception of Syrian refugees in 2013-2015. The writer uses Arild Uderdal's regime effectiveness concept, which consists of several variables such as problem type, problem-solving capacity, and the level of collaboration then to confirm the effectiveness of this regime.

Pediatric Healthcare Utilization in a Large Cohort of Refugee Children Entering Western Europe During the Migrant Crisis.

Background: Currently, half of the population displaced worldwide is children and adolescents. Little is known on healthcare demand in underage migrants. Materials and Methods: We analyzed healthcare utilization in n = 1.411 children and adolescents living in a large German refugee reception in 2015-2016. Results: The mean age of all included refugees was 9 years (60.8% male). The majority came from the eastern Mediterranean region. During a mean camp inhabitance of 34 days, 57.6% needed primary healthcare, with a significant inverse correlation of healthcare seeking frequency with age and duration of camp inhabitance. Infants and unaccompanied minors displayed particular high demands for medical help. Discussion: Our analysis showed that pediatric primary healthcare in pediatric and adolescent refugees are most sought during the first period upon arrival with particular demand in infants, toddlers, and unaccompanied minors. Based on this data, future care taking strategies should be adapted accordingly.

The Unique Case of Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN: Locational Attainments and Segregation in the Twin Cities

The Minneapolis–St. Paul Metropolitan Area has a rapidly growing foreign-born population in part due to its high levels of refugee reception and migrants drawn to the burgeoning high-tech and manufacturing industries. As a result, the Twin Cities are unique in that every major racial group has a sizable foreign-born segment with a wide range of U.S. entry experiences and thus the area offers an opportunity to investigate the dynamics of locational attainments and segregation of a highly diverse non-White population. Accordingly, we examine the residential outcomes of Blacks, Latinos and Asians, investigate how nativity, socioeconomic gains, and acculturation translate into residential contact with Whites, and draw the link between these micro-level locational attainments and overall segregation patterns for the area. We find Latinos and Asians experience traditional spatial assimilation dynamics but a different pattern is seen for Blacks wherein foreign-born Blacks are less segregated than U.S.-born Blacks, reversing the expected role of nativity and acculturation and suggesting a more complicated story of ethnic stratification and assimilation supported by the segmented assimilation framework.

(Mis)trusted Contact: Resettlement Knowledge Assets and the Third Space of Refugee Reception

Drawing on interviews with 204 participants in two studies of privately sponsored refugee resettlement in Ontario, Canada, we explore the resettlement effects of pre-arrival contact on the interactional dynamics between private sponsors and privately sponsored Syrian refugees. Those who had regular pre-arrival contact via digital applications such as Facebook, Skype, and Whatsapp reported more positive, “successful” resettlement experiences than those who had not. This pre-arrival interactive dynamic has theoretical/conceptual implications beyond an understanding of the benefits of “information exchange.” Pre-arrival sponsor-sponsored interaction is not bound by the contexts of displacement or resettlement, but constitutes a “third space” of reception, co-created through trusted contact. We develop the concept of “resettlement knowledge assets” and report on how these assets emerge through pre-arrival trust building, modify the resettlement expectations of both sponsors and sponsored, and reduce resettlement uncertainty.

The role of local immigration partnerships in Syrian refugee resettlement in Waterloo Region, Ontario

As of January 29, 2017 Canada had received 40,081 Syrian refugees. The scale and scope of this resettlement is historic, with the only comparable event being the arrival of 60,000 Indo‐Chinese refugees in the late 1970s. Since that time, much has changed in local resettlement policy. This research focuses on one component of these changes—the role of Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) in Syrian refugee resettlement—through a case study of an official refugee reception centre in the Waterloo Region of Ontario and a series of interviews with key informants from multiple sectors involved in resettlement. Results indicate Waterloo's LIP playing a sizable role, but not acting as the sole response body to refugee resettlement. Nevertheless, participants saw the LIP as a crucial part of Waterloo's resettlement efforts. Despite being a product of a tri‐level intergovernmental agreement, the LIP played a central role in shaping a local strategy by using local solutions. LIPs represent an example of place‐based policy that worked well during the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative, but LIPs’ success may set a challenging precedent for future mass refugee resettlement events.

The German Refugee Crisis: Narratives of Empathy and the Politics of Memory

The refugee crisis reached its peak in Germany and Europe in 2016. More than one million refugees, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq were registered in Germany alone. Worldwide, millions of people were fleeing, with Europe recording the highest growth rates of refugees In September 2015, Germany and Austria decided to open their borders to refugees who had been prevented from continuing their journey by the government in Hungary and allowed them to register in Germany or Austria. Most refugees moved on to stay in Germany. The refugee crisis in Europe has not only changed the political landscape in most European countries but has also had a major impact on the culture of remembrance. The example of Germany will show how the reception of more than one million civil war refugees from Syria influenced and changed the German culture of remembrance and how history was used to promote the reception and integration of refugees. The German example reveals how historical analogies are being used for political reasons and how this decontextualization translates into new patterns of commemoration and politics of memory.

Shaping access to health care for refugees on the local level in Germany – Mixed-methods analysis of official statistics and perspectives of gatekeepers

BackgroundAnalyses of refugee reception in European countries are increasingly focusing on the local level. We analyzed how gatekeepers can shape access to health care on a local level, taking as an example the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany, where municipalities have implemented different local access models for newly arrived refugees. MethodsWe assessed the details of and the rationale for the implementation of local access models (implementation analysis), and the potential access to health care for refugees in municipalities (local policy analysis). We covered three municipalities with a health care voucher model and three with an electronic health card model. We combined data from official reports and semi-structured interviews (N = 21) with gatekeepers. ResultsLarger municipalities are more likely to implement the eHC. Gatekeepers report that costs, workload and control are the major aspects underlying the choice of a model in municipalities. Access plays only a minor role – even though some of the gatekeepers claim that the eHC can facilitate access. Regardless of the implemented model, gatekeepers on the local level can contribute to facilitating the access to health care for refugees. ConclusionPotential access of newly arrived refugees is – among others – determined by the gatekeepers’ support and the implementation of the access models. Within the legal framework, municipalities implement the models differently.

Responding to the Dutch Asylum Crisis: Implications for Collaborative Work between Civil Society and Governmental Organizations

Between 2015 and 2016, the Netherlands experienced an asylum crisis, one that directly affected organizations working with refugee reception and integration. Besides civil society and governmental organizations (CSOs and GOs), the period also saw individuals coming together to form emergent CSOs (ECSOs). We look at these organizations to determine whether their work brought a shift in Dutch practice and policy with regarding refugee reception. We also examine literature concerning crisis governance, participatory spaces, and refugee reception governance. Finally, we investigate the views and experiences of individuals from selected organizations that played an active role during the crisis. This explorative research is based upon a qualitative and interpretative study involving panel discussions, document analysis, and interviews, conducted between 2017 and 2018 by the Refugee Academy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. We show circumstantial and interorganizational elements that enhanced and hampered interactions between ECSOs, CSOs, and GOs. We argue that shared activities during the crisis may have created possibilities for durable forms of collaboration and for the inclusion of civil society groups in a debate mostly dominated by GOs.

The long-term economic integration of resettled refugees in Canada: a comparison of Privately Sponsored Refugees and Government-Assisted Refugees

ABSTRACTPrivate refugee sponsorship has been an important Canadian policy initiative for 40 years. It is now attracting international attention as Europe grapples with an influx of refugees. However, no Canadian research has evaluated the long-term refugee economic integration associated with private sponsorship, in comparison to government assistance, using rigorous multivariate analysis. This study compares the economic outcomes of Privately Sponsored Refugees (PSRs) with those of Government-Assisted Refugees (GARs) using the Longitudinal Immigration Database, administrative data on virtually all immigrants and refugees arriving in Canada since 1980. Our regression analysis finds PSRs maintain higher employment rates and earnings than GARs up to 15 years after arrival when measurable compositional differences between the two groups are adjusted. The PSR advantage is particularly noticeable among less educated refugees. The findings suggest unmeasured factors (e.g. effectiveness of settlement policies, refugee selection processes, societal reception of refugees) may partly explain PSRs’ long-term economic advantage.