Fostering the integration of persons in need of protection through private sponsorship schemes

Deadline: Jan 30, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

Scope:

Background

As part of the EU efforts to provide more legal channels for the growing number of displaced persons in need of international protection, the European Commission[1] invited Member States to explore ways to establish private sponsorship schemes where civil society organisations provide support for the settlement and integration for persons in need of protection. In line with the conclusions of a study recently carried out for the European Commission[2] on private sponsorship, the European Commission proposes to provide funding for fostering the integration of persons in need of protection through private sponsorship schemes.

The concept of private sponsorship is not clearly and easily defined. The above-mentioned study identified a wide range of definitions of private sponsorship and an equally varied array of practices. The number of different sponsorship schemes has proliferated across the EU and they have a wide variety of characteristics in the eligibility criteria of the sponsor and beneficiary, responsibilities of the sponsor, and in the status granted and associated rights. Private sponsorship schemes implemented to date in Europe can be divided into four main categories: humanitarian corridors; ad-hoc schemes for specific religious groups; specific family reunification schemes; and community-based sponsorship. Given the diverse range of admission schemes that have operated in Member States with a sponsorship component, sponsorship is best described as a way of admitting persons for humanitarian reasons, rather than as a separate channel itself. Private sponsorship schemes share one common characteristic: they involve a transfer of responsibility from government agencies to private actors for some elements of the identification, pre-departure, reception, or integration process of beneficiaries. With a strong involvement of local communities and civil society organisations, these schemes allow strengthened capacities at local level to provide adequate support for integration and usually lead to better integration outcomes of the persons concerned.

The use of private sponsorship is expanding within the territory of the European Union, and over the period 2013-2018 the number of persons admitted under private sponsorship in the EU exceeded 30,000, with over three quarters admitted by Germany alone (the other Member States include the United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, France, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, and Belgium).

Topic 1 of this call for proposals focuses on one of the key objectives of private sponsorship schemes: enabling better integration prospects for private sponsorship beneficiaries.

Objectives

The objectives of topic 1 of this call for proposals are to support transnational projects that:

1. In Member States that operate private sponsorship schemes, provide support and enhance capacity building for sponsor organisations, including new sponsor organisations, and their members (individual mentors), which take part in private sponsorship schemes and are entrusted with facilitating the integration of the beneficiaries of such schemes;
2. In Member States that do not yet operate private sponsorship schemes, support the design and implementation of pilot schemes on private sponsorship.

Proposals should indicate whether they relate to objective a) or b) mentioned above.

Actions:

• Technical assistance, trainings, workshops, mutual learning activities aiming at transferring and sharing knowledge on successful refugee integration through private sponsorship schemes between experienced and new sponsor organisations;
• Create tools or platforms to facilitate the implementation of private sponsorship and the dissemination of know-how and best practices among sponsor organisations;
• Providing technical, legal and operational support for designing and implementing a private sponsorship pilot project in a Member State that does not yet operate private sponsorship schemes, aiming at successful integration outcomes for the beneficiaries. Such support may include actions related to the development of an agreement with the Member State’s authorities in charge, the selection of the beneficiaries and of the sponsor, the preparation of the departure of third-country nationals to that Member State, their transfer and their integration measures at arrival and afterwards, as well as monitoring and evaluation of the private sponsorship scheme.

Outcomes

• Achieving more efficient private sponsorship schemes with better integration situation for their beneficiaries through capacity building and peer learning across borders.
• Scaling up existing private sponsorship schemes through capacity building and peer learning across borders – and potentially new sponsor organisations.
• Involving more Member States in private sponsorship through promoting pilot schemes in close cooperation between the Member States and sponsor organisations.
• Successful integration situation through well trained and informed sponsor organisations and individual mentors, aware of the roles and responsibilities entailed in private sponsorship;
• Improved transnational cooperation on private sponsorship schemes between experienced and new sponsor organisations;
• Improved private sponsorship schemes following the exchange of information and experience between organisations participating to the project;
• Improved knowledge on the impact of private sponsorship on the integration of third-country nationals (especially in comparison with the situation of third-country nationals not benefitting from private sponsorship schemes);
• Best practices on private sponsorship schemes shared and peer learning facilitated;
• New private sponsorship pilot schemes created in Member States that have so far not been engaged in private sponsorship.

Further considerations applicable to this topic

Future projects should take into account the work to be undertaken by EASO building on their first pilot project on private sponsorship programmes which started in December 2017.

In case proposals address objective (b) above (i.e. supporting the design and implementation of new pilot schemes on private sponsorship), their focus should not be only on pre-departure measures. Proposals submitted under this objective by a NGO or international organisation as lead applicant/coordinator should involve directly (as member of the consortium) or indirectly Member State’s authorities concerned.

Given the potential overlap with topic 2 in relation to integration measures through involvement of local communities (see below), potential applicants should take into account the specificities of topic 1, which focuses only on integration of persons in need of protection through (existing or to be developed) private sponsorship schemes, while topic 2 relates to third-country nationals in general.

The Commission would welcome large or small projects in terms of budget and number of partners. The Commission considers also valuable that organisations representing migrants are involved in the project.

Moreover, the Commission considers positively that applicants build on the experience of private sponsorship already in place in other countries, for example through mutual learning activities, including from some organisations based in non-EU countries, such as Switzerland and Canada, given the relevant experience in terms of resettlement and private sponsorship.

Applicants are also invited to take note of, to avoid duplication with, and to build on projects previously funded by the EU in relation to integration and to take into account the study on the feasibility and added-value of sponsorship schemes as a possible pathway to safe channels for admission to the EU, including resettlement[3].

Applicants may find additional information at:

• European Resettlement Network;
• European Web Site on Integration;
• Funded projects under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund;
• Projects funded under the European Fund for the integration of third-country nationals;
• Financial Transparency System.

[1]COM(2017) 558 final

[2]Study on the feasibility and added value of sponsorship schemes as a possible pathway to safe channels for admission to the EU, including resettlement, available at https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/1dbb0873-d349-11e8-9424-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-77978210

[3]See previous footnote.