GRSI Weekly Round-UpNovember 28, 2023 |
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Community Sponsorship 🇪🇸 🇺🇸 |
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The 'SOMOS' program to welcome refugees is extended |
| State and resettlement groups help Ukrainians in Oregon |
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NOVEMBER 17, 2023—The Local Government Board has ratified the extension for a period of two years of the agreement to develop a pilot experience of community sponsorship in Navarra, called 'SOMOS', in matters of reception and integration of people beneficiaries of international protection, who have been transferred to Spain within the framework of refugee resettlement programs. Part of this agreement, which came into force on November 16, 2021, are the General Directorate of International Protection and Humanitarian Care Programs of the Secretary of State for Migration of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the Government of Navarra, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Spain (UNHCR), the Tudela City Council and the San Francisco Javier Civil Foundation.
Read article translated in English here. |
| NOVEMBER 17, 2023—About 4,500 Ukrainians have arrived in Oregon since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, upending their lives and forcing them to flee the danger and chaos of their homeland. Nearly two years later, government agencies, resettlement organizations and community groups have banded together to help Ukrainians settle into a new life in Oregon. To help accomplish that task, the Oregon Department of Human Services Refugee Program is accepting applications from community agencies for part of $2.25 million in federal funding to help Ukrainians arriving in Oregon with housing, employment assistance, health care and legal assistance. Just under half, $1 million, of the grant is designated for housing assistance. The remaining includes $500,000 for employment services, $300,000 for health and mental health programs, $300,000 for legal services and $75,000 for services to help senior citizens. |
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Image: The Board of Directors of the International Center of Kentucky unveiled the new facility during a ribbon cutting.
Jacob Martin / WKU Public Radio |
| International Center of Kentucky opens new facility to serve refugee communitiesNOVEMBER 20, 2023—The International Center of Kentucky has unveiled a new facility that will provide expanded resources, job training, and security for the refugee population in the Bowling Green region. The new facility will be called the Dr. Catherine Ward Center for New Americans and is named in honor of a professor emeritus of English at Western Kentucky University. The new building will be used to provide job training, prepare new arrivals for U.S. citizenship tests, and build relationships with local businesses. It will also house a literacy program and a state sponsored program to help victims of domestic violence. Albert Mbanfu, the Executive Director of the International Center, said that the new building is an exciting development for the growing refugee community across southern Kentucky.
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Complementary Pathways 🇨🇦 |
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One of Nova Scotia's newest nurses is a former refugee |
| Program helps student refugees with fresh start at Brock |
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NOVEMBER 16, 2023—Agnes Lomoro arrived in Nova Scotia in 2021 under a federal program for skilled refugees, initially working as a continuing care assistant. Lomoro earned a nursing degree in Kenya but her refugee status got in the way of working there. She got the chance to move to Canada under the Economic Mobility and Pathways Pilot Program to work as a continuing care worker, which she took with the goal of upgrading her skills. She earned her nursing credentials in Nova Scotia at a critical time, as the health-care system faces major staffing concerns. Lomoro gives a lot of credit to Nova Scotia Health for providing her the opportunities to build her career. Now she has bigger goals. She's thinking about doing her masters degree, as well as considering continuing her training to become a nurse practitioner. |
| NOVEMBER 21, 2023—Each academic year, the Brock University Students’ Union (BUSU) sponsors up to two refugees who become Canadian permanent residents and students at Brock through the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) refugee program. For second-year Economics student Ahmed Ibrahim Sheik Abdirahman, that journey began in 2022 when he applied for the WUSC Student Refugee Program. Originally from Somalia, he lived in Uganda as a refugee before coming to Canada at the age of 27 to study at Brock. Ahmed’s arrival last year was the beginning of many new experiences, including adjusting to Canadian winters. “The cold weather was new to me, but the support from BUSU and the University community made it easier. They helped me adjust and made the experience better,” said Abdirahman.
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Canada is also already welcoming people from the Americas by bringing in an additional 4,000 people through Canada’s existing temporary worker programs, including the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program & leveraging Canada’s existing refugee labour mobility pathway, the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot.
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| Canada continues humanitarian effort for people in the AmericasNOVEMBER 17, 2023—The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced that the dedicated humanitarian pathway to provide permanent residence to Colombian, Haitian and Venezuelan foreign nationals is now open for applications. To qualify for the pathway, the principal applicant must be a child (regardless of age), grandchild, spouse, common-law partner, parent, grandparent or sibling of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who agrees to support them and their family members as an anchor for one year. Those coming to Canada through the new humanitarian pathway will receive pre‑arrival services, including an employment skills assessment and a referral to a settlement service provider organization in their community. They may also be eligible for transitional financial assistance from the Resettlement Assistance Program. |
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World of Migration offers fresh takes and thoughtful perspectives on some of the top migration issues.
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| A Passport to Opportunity: The Importance of Refugee Access to Travel DocumentsNOVEMBER 15, 2023—Travel documents play an important role in international mobility, and for refugees serve as an essential gateway to a world of opportunities, from pursuing education and employment to reuniting with family.
In this episode, MPI’s Susan Fratzke unpacks the complexities around travel documents and their pivotal role in refugees' livelihoods with Adhieu Achuil Kueth, founder of MonyQadow, and Jackie Keegan, deputy director of the Division of International Protection for Resettlement and Complementary Pathways at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Kueth shares her first-hand experience traveling on a refugee travel document and her commitment to aiding fellow refugees in accessing higher education opportunities. Keegan sheds light on the challenges refugees face in obtaining these essential documents.
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MPI, Zoom 🌎
Thursday, November 30th, 2023
10:00 AM ET / 4:00 PM CET / 3:00 PM GMT
The U.S. government in 2021 recommitted to the U.S. refugee resettlement program following several years of dismantling and record-low admissions. This reconstruction is taking place even as the resettlement program has been tasked with scaling up to meet the needs of refugees admitted in the wake of emergency resettlement initiatives, Operation Allies Welcome and Uniting for Ukraine, which have brought in more than 200,000 Afghan and Ukrainian refugees since 2021. This rebuilding is also occurring against the backdrop of unprecedented numbers of humanitarian migrants entering the United States through immigration parole pathways or the asylum system. Collectively, these developments have consequences for local capacities, affecting public health systems, schools, and other human services. As a result, coordination and communication among key stakeholders in the resettlement network has never been more critical. During this MPI webinar, speakers will discuss the importance of community consultation in a rapidly evolving landscape, and explore how consultation supports capacity building and where it can, at times, fall short. Marking the release of a new MPI report, The Unmet Potential of Community Consultations in U.S. Refugee Resettlement, this webcast will explore key recommendations and actionable steps toward a more inclusive, collaborative, and adaptable consultation process.
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GRSI Tools & Resources The Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative, through its resources, aims to help government officials, civil society organizations and community members understand the building blocks of community sponsorship programs, establish refugee sponsorship programs through a core set of policy questions as well as plan and implement monitoring and evaluation activities.
Explore our resources in a variety of languages: GRSI Guidebook, GRSI Policy Design Workbook, GRSI Monitoring & EvaluationToolkit. |
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