Complementary pathways and community sponsorship in Europe: benefits, challenges and policy recommendations

This article adopts an explanatory approach to policy analysis to explore Complementary Pathways (CP) and Community Sponsorship (CS) as civil society-led refugee solutions. Drawing on over 200 interviews across Europe, it highlights CP and CS benefits – human-centered reception, integration, and community engagement – as well as challenges like housing shortages, high costs and bureaucratic hurdles. CP and CS can reshape public attitudes, support refugee self-sufficiency, and enhance policy. The study calls for sustainable funding, defined stakeholder roles, and refugee involvement to ensure these programmes complement, not replace, existing protection systems, with recommendations to institutionalize CP and CS for long-term, equitable integration.