New Zealand’s pilot programme involves four community groups sponsoring 23 refugees (newcomers). The groups include Gleniti Baptist Church in Timaru, Southwest Baptist Church in Christchurch, three friends who teamed up with St Vincent de Paul in Nelson, and Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand sponsoring a family of newcomers in Hamilton.  Each of these groups has taken on a single refugee family, except for Southwest Baptist Church, which has three neighborhood communities sponsoring one refugee family each.

The community groups have reported to Amnesty International that they feel like extended families for the newcomers. As a result, New Zealand communities are becoming more welcoming and closer-knit. 

While it is still early days, the experience of the groups is compelling. Many community group members across the country have said how wonderful the programme has been for them. Similarly, newcomers are showing a deep gratitude, trust and respect for the sponsor groups, which are not only a supportive network, but have become like family.

These are their words.

Mark Pavelka is the Pastor at Gleniti Baptist Church in Timaru. Their community group is sponsoring Mohammed, Hayat and baby Zuheir.

“One of the big costs of leaving your home country is being torn away from your support group. This gives them a new support group of people who really care – and offer all sorts of different talents and skills to help them settle in as fast as possible.

To actually meet the family was quite overwhelming. It made it very personal.

Their dream is to set up their own restaurant. Helping them put the building blocks in place to reach that dream is rewarding. I really support this programme, because I think it is a responsible way to bring in refugees.”

Miriam is part of one of the community sponsorship groups in Christchurch. Her role is to coordinate the different volunteers to work with the family.

“We’ve been really lucky in that the family we’re working with has a wee baby the same age as mine. So it’s been really nice, we can come and hang out and go to Plunket together and go to Playgroup. It’s really special being able to have cups of tea and just…yarn.

We have somebody doing the bank and finance and insurance and power companies and cell phones…all those sorts of things. We’ve got some guys who are just keen to hang out and be friends and do boy stuff with dad…so that’s really cool.

This seems like such a natural model. In terms of having communities of people who are looking out, who run into each other, who support each other.

Having a common project that we’ve been working on has been really cool for getting to know the people around us better.”

Amnesty International has interviewed many of the people involved in New Zealand’s Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship pilot programme.

Through community sponsorship, members of the community groups provide a holistic, wrap-around support service. They are there to help with the fundamentals and logistics of setting up homes, figuring out transport and accessing basic services. But equally important, they become friends with the newcomers. Through this combination of shared logistical responsibilities and regular social gatherings, there is a profound camaraderie that develops amongst community group members. This stems partly from the friendships that are often present at some level in the group before they sponsor a refugee family. But those bonds grow through this sense of shared purpose, along with the meaningful time spent together throughout the resettlement process.

THE POTENTIAL: NEW ZEALANDERS SAY WELCOME

Amnesty International knows from our work in the refugee sector in New Zealand that there are many people who want to do more to solve the global need for resettlement.

The I Welcome Pledge asked New Zealanders if they supported community sponsorship of refugees and if they would like to see the current pilot become an annual programme. In all, 10,276 people said yes, adding their voices to the Pledge.

Amnesty International also had the opportunity to meet with people who aren’t part of a community sponsor group in this pilot programme, but are either involved with the newcomers in another way, or are simply New Zealanders who would like to help.

Here is what some of them had to say.

Bronwyn Duffy
Picton

Bronwyn lives in Picton, where she runs an architectural design social enterprise.

She’s heard about the community sponsorship pilot and has gotten in touch with the Christchurch group to see if she can help. Bronwyn said: “We’ve always been interested in supporting refugees. But we’re really keen to get more involved on a community level.”

I’ve been speaking with friends and they’re very excited. They think it’s a great idea and would love to be involved in something similar. I think community sponsorship is a brilliant way to go. It’s a great addition to what New Zealand is already doing. And I think there are many people out there in communities, different organisations, churches...people that are just waiting for the opportunity.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

New Zealand has joined a growing cohort of countries internationally that recognise the opportunity of community sponsorship, with the implementation of the Community Organisation Sponsorship Category (CORS) pilot programme. As has been demonstrated here, New Zealanders are responding generously to the international refugee crisis. They seek the opportunity to be responsible, in partnership with the Government, for bringing more refugees to safety in New Zealand.

Amnesty International urges the New Zealand Government to ensure that the pilot programme is established and extended as an annual pathway, and is underpinned by the following principles:

PERMANENCE

Amnesty International recommends that the CORS category be established in 2019 as a permanent fixture in New Zealand’s broader refugee and humanitarian programme, with scope for further evolution and refinement.

A stated policy objective of the pilot was to “provide an alternative form of admission for refugees to complement our Refugee Quota and, in doing so, demonstrate New Zealand’s response to the scale of refugee movement and commitment to international responsibility sharing.” The local potential and global need for a permanent and sustainable community sponsorship category to be a part of New Zealand’s contribution internationally is both significant, and timely.

The general public, current sponsors and potential sponsors have clearly demonstrated both considerable capacity and desire for CORS to be confirmed as a permanent pathway for refugee resettlement. For example, a joint open letter from 47 organisations from around New Zealand in support of developing community sponsorship includes faith-based groups, unions, rural communities, urban community trusts and refugee-led organisations. Transitioning to a permanent programme in 2019 also ensures that the momentum from the New Zealand public and the capacity building of sponsors can be best leveraged.

PARTNERSHIP

Amnesty International recommends that the New Zealand Government engages further with a broad range of community and civil society stakeholders to develop the CORS programme in New Zealand, and invests in the catalyst partnership entity alongside key sponsorship stakeholders.

The pilot also sought to “provide an additional opportunity for community organisations to actively engage in refugee resettlement, and to build local communities that welcome refugees.” Community sponsorship succeeds in building welcoming communities when the principle of true partnership between communities and governments is developed and communities, including former refugee and diaspora communities, are empowered.

Also crucial to this partnership are community members and organisations outside of the sponsoring groups who volunteer, offer goods or funds, and provide training or connections to support sponsors. The Government needs to ensure they don’t isolate these groups in favour of a more traditional “service delivery” approach as it is the broader community who will provide support to sponsors, become future sponsors and support the success of more welcoming communities.

As international experience tells us, successful public-private collaboration requires “commitment and effort to maintain ongoing dialogue, an improvement and solutions orientation, and openness to change.” Both Canada and the UK invest in infrastructure designed to ensure ongoing communication, co-design with key members of the sponsorship community and other stakeholders, and conduct regular evaluations to ensure the integrity and quality of the programme. Amnesty International notes there has been strong evidence provided to the Government from a coalition of key sponsorship stakeholders in New Zealand of both willingness and capability to form and lead a catalyst partnership entity.

HUMANITARIAN

Amnesty International recommends that the language, skill, age and health eligibility criteria under the CORS category be reviewed in line with CORS primarily existing as a humanitarian category.

The original policy development of the pilot category explicitly stated that it was intended to be part of “New Zealand’s broader refugee and humanitarian programme.” New Zealand has historically taken a primarily humanitarian approach to accepting refugees through its ratification of international instruments such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention) and human rights treaties, which recognise that refugees’ safety and well-being (i.e. protection needs) should be prioritised over other common immigration imperatives. However, currently the admission restrictions under the CORS category somewhat contradict these principles. Whilst sponsored refugees are UNHCR-mandated refugees, they are also in addition required to meet high standards of English language skills, tertiary education, work experience and health to be eligible for the CORS category. For example, the pilot category requires that both principal and secondary applicants must have the same acceptable standard of health that is required of residence visa applicants, i.e. economic migrants.

This is a higher standard than is required for admission to the Refugee Quota Programme. Whilst Amnesty International acknowledges that sponsor capabilities must match refugee vulnerabilities, the restrictions create an unnecessarily high barrier for UNHCR-mandated refugees to be eligible for admission and are not grounded in protection principles.

ADDITIONALITY

Amnesty International recommends that CORS is maintained as an additional category that is part of New Zealand’s broader refugee and humanitarian programme.

The pilot sought to “provide an alternative and additional form of admission for refugees to New Zealand, to complement the annual quota.” The community sponsorship model is uniquely suited to sit alongside a stable and quality government-led refugee resettlement effort, such as New Zealand’s Quota Programme.

It is clear from our interviews with participants that a driver for their commitment is that they feel they are playing a part in helping a global need, on top of what the Government offers. This motivation would be impacted if the community sponsorship programme lost the additionality component and instead asked citizens to carry out work that should be done by the government quota.