The United States last week announced a new policy that may be among the most significant since its refugee resettlement program was formally created in 1980: Allowing groups of private individuals to take the lead in resettling some of the estimated 95,000 people from Afghanistan expected to arrive by next September.

Globally, the idea is not necessarily groundbreaking. Interest in community sponsorship of refugees has been growing, in part as a response to the widening gap between the number of resettlement-eligible refugees and those who are successfully relocated to a new country, which Benedicta Solf and Katherine Rehberg describe in a new Migration Information Source article. In 2020, only about 2 percent of the estimated 1.4 million refugees determined to need resettlement obtained it.

In some places, community sponsorship is baked into the system. Canada, for instance, has long relied on a novel system allowing private and nonprofit groups to sponsor significantly more refugees than the national government. As Ian Van Haren explained in the Source earlier this year, that unique system was a large reason why Canada became the world’s top country for refugee settlement in 2018 and 2019, as the United States—historically the global leader—pulled back its operations.

Yet the new U.S. policy is likely to be significant, given the pole position that the country has inhabited in terms of resettlement and the Biden administration’s commitment to resettle up to 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2022.

Although the current program is limited to Afghan arrivals (who, as my MPI colleagues recently explained, fall into a variety of legal categories that may differ from refugee status), it will offer a preview of a new pilot program on refugee resettlement more generally, which had already been in the works and is scheduled to be rolled out next year.

Officially known as the Sponsor Circle Program, the new effort for Afghans allows at least five adults to come together to form a sponsorship group. Groups must have $2,275 per individual they want to sponsor, be able to demonstrate they can support the new arrival for three months, and be willing to undergo background checks. Sponsors can specify a particular family or individual they want to sponsor, such as a former colleague, relative, or associate.

As one of several types of so-called complementary pathways for refugee resettlement, growing community sponsorship programs could help provide relief for a resettlement system that is in need of support.

Of course, there is a concern that such avenues not replace the current resettlement system or otherwise allow national governments to shrug off their responsibilities onto charitable individuals. But the new U.S. policy is a sign that countries are willing to explore new routes for migrants in need of them, particularly those who may not fall into narrowly defined legal categories.

Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected]