On the 6th of October ICMC Europe and the Share Network hosted the second of a series of meetings of its Refugee Sponsorship Mobilisation Platform. As the name indicates, this inclusive platform brings together a wide variety of stakeholders including civil society organisations, faith communities, volunteers, cities and regions, migrant-led organisations, universities, private actors and refugees - to exchange practices and develop strategies and advocacy initiatives to improve and expand community sponsorships under resettlement and complementary pathways in Europe.

On 26-27 September, ICMC and the Canadian Embassy to the Holy See co-organized the hybrid workshop “Building the Future through Community Sponsorship of Refugees: comparing experiences and learning from each other”.

The Multifaith and wider community engagement in refugee sponsorship conference took place in Cologne on May 25, 2022. Organised in partnership with DiCV Caritas Cologne, it provided the opportunity for relevant multi-stakeholder actors to exchange and share best practices on broadening engagement beyond Christian faith-based groups, across different faith groups as well as secular actors.

The Share Refugee Advisor Workshop for Community Sponsorship took place on Zoom on the 25th of January and provided a platform to exchange and discuss best practices for meaningful participation of refugees. This preliminary workshop was organised under the umbrella of Share’s Refugee Sponsorship Mobilisation Platform which among its objectives, seeks to ensure that refugee voices are represented in advocacy at the local, national and EU level through the development of a Refugee Advisor Programme for Community Sponsorship.

As part of the Refugee sponsorship mobilisation platform activities, the Share Network is working on setting up a Refugee Advisor Programme for Community Sponsorship to ensure refugee voices are represented in advocacy at the local, national and EU level.

Syrian refugees in the UK reflect on the COVID-19 lockdown and their experiences of conflict in Syria

As part of ongoing research conducted by the University of Birmingham’s Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) a study on the impact of the COVID-19 in the UK’s Community Sponsorship Scheme (CSS) concluded that with the advent of the pandemic and the introduction of social distancing and lockdown in March 2020 Community Sponsorship groups were challenged to offer alternative support to refugees in new ways.

The SHARE Network, as partner to the CoR and a member of the Cities and Regions for Integration Initiative took part in the 9th CIVEX Commission Meeting on 28th September, 2021. ICMC Europe Director Petra Hueck highlighted the need for further multistakeholder partnerships, between regions, cities and local communities, under the horizontal priorities of the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF 2021-2027).

The first edition of the SHARE QSN Magazine