Community Sponsorship and Complementary Pathways: Global Movements for Resettling Refugees Driven by Local Actors

Abstract The ongoing global displacement emergency characterised by increasing numbers of forced migrants needing refuge has prompted the exploration of alternative solutions to traditional refugee resettlement programmes. Complementary Pathways and Community Sponsorship have emerged as innovative approaches to refugee resettlement which often involves partnership between the state and civil society and potentially the private sector. These initiatives build on years of experience from Canada in the shape of their Private Sponsorship Programme. This paper contributes to the study of these initiatives as they emerge outside of Canada by establishing the state of knowledge on Complementary Pathways and Community Sponsorship. Through a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research on these programmes, we set out what is known, identify research gaps and outline a future research agenda. The review describes and synthesises works written in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, focussing on initiatives introduced outside Canada published post-2015 refugee ‘emergency’. The paper ends by setting out the ways in which the contributions which follow attend to some of the gaps in knowledge identified in the review thereby setting the foundations for this special issue.