Europeans who opened their homes to millions of displaced Ukrainians offer lessons for future refugee sponsorship programme responses — and vice versa

BRUSSELS — The widespread use of private hosting in response to the displacement of nearly 6 million Ukrainians elsewhere in Europe offers valuable lessons for welcoming refugees through resettlement, sponsorship and asylum systems, new research from the Building Capacity for Private Sponsorship in the European Union (CAPS-EU) Project finds.

Countries greatly relied on the willingness of private individuals and community-led efforts to offer homes for temporary stays — in the process lessening the strain on formal housing and asylum systems. For instance, in Poland, 1.6 million Ukrainians found refuge with local families between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and early 2023. In stark contrast, community sponsorship programs, initially meant to bolster refugee resettlement, have struggled to expand beyond small-scale efforts.

The new policy brief, From Safe Homes to Sponsors: Lessons from the Ukraine hosting response for refugee sponsorship programmes, compares private hosting models implemented across Europe by governments and civil society, and reflects on their outcomes. The analysis draws in part on a mapping of major hosting initiatives and conversations with representatives of civil-society organizations, individuals who implemented hosting initiatives and other key stakeholders.

Praising the swift development, flexible requirements and organic evolution in the shape and structure of hosting programs in response to the capabilities and preferences of local groups and individuals, the brief offers recommendations for civil society, governments and the European Union to further develop safe hosting as a method of refugee welcoming and emergency reception.

Among the recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders involved in hosting, sponsorship and reception programs:

• Support the creation of a civil-society community of practice that allows for the exchange of lessons across hosting and sponsorship programs.
• Create a single entry point for citizens interested in engaging in welcoming initiatives. Governments could establish country-level virtual hubs to help interested individuals learn about and sign up to participate in refugee support endeavors, as well as help them understand which opportunities best fit their preferences and capacity.
• Make sure that private hosting is monitored and that hosts are supported. Many hosting initiatives have seen considerable host burnout as well as some acute safety issues. In contrast, community sponsorship programs have in place ready safeguarding mechanisms and civil-society organizations to support sponsors and prevent or reduce risks around safety. In future crises, governments and hosting programs should integrate these elements into their operations.

"Hosting initiatives’ flexible arrangements, easier procedures, engagement of varied actors and use of digitalized mechanisms have truly been innovations in the refugee welcoming space that should not be quickly dismantled or forgotten," write analysts Susan Fratzke, Viola Pulkkinen and Emma Ugolini. "At the same time, there is a need to reflect on the role, and potential shortcomings, of private hosting as a temporary tool for refugee support. Going forward, policymakers and operational stakeholders in the field of community sponsorship and resettlement should seek to transfer the most promising of the tools and approaches developed during this period to help scale and improve community sponsorship programs, while also similarly working to strengthen hosting efforts."

The policy brief is the second contribution from MPI Europe and partners to the CAPS-EU Project, which is working to build the capacity of European, national and local government, and non-governmental stakeholders to design, implement, sustain and scale up community sponsorship programs. CAPS-EU seeks to benefit policymakers, civil-society actors that manage sponsorship relationships and sponsors by giving them the practical tools and requisite knowledge to overcome obstacles to the success and eventual growth of their programs. Led by the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) and supported by the Belgian reception agency for asylum seekers (Fedasil) and MPI Europe, the three-year project is co-financed by the European Commission under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

The first report in the series by IRPP, Fedasil and MPI Europe examined attraction, retention and diversification of sponsors in community sponsorship programs. The third and final publication for the project, focused on ways in which effective matching and placement of refugees and sponsors can improve integration outcomes, will be published on 26 October.

Read the Ukraine brief here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/ukraine-hosting-refugee-sponsorship.

For more on the CAPS-EU project, visit www.migrationpolicy.org/caps-eu-project.