Launched and announced earlier this year on January 19th, 2023, the Welcome Corps is a new private sponsorship program that creates a way for everyday Americans to play a welcoming role in resettling refugees throughout the United States (U.S. Department of State, 2023). A collaboration of the Department of State and the Department of Health and Human Services has worked to create this pilot private sponsorship program that shifts away from the way previous refugee resettlement in the U.S. has worked. Described as the “boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades” by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, this program works to empower Americans to take ownership in creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for refugees.
Since the 1980s with the creation of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), initial resettlement assistance has largely come from non-profit resettlement agencies. This new program will allow for private sponsorship of refugees that acts as a complement to the existing work of resettlement agencies. The hope is for this program to expand the capabilities of refugee resettlement in the U.S. by utilizing the goodwill of Americans to offer a warm welcome. The program stems from recent previous efforts with Afghans and Ukrainians. Specifically, it pulls from the Sponsor Circles Program for Afghans and Uniting for Ukraine, which was overseen by the Department of Homeland Security (U.S. Department of State, 2023). For example, Sponsor Circles allowed any group of Americans to come together to welcome those evacuating Afghanistan, so long they met certain requirements—the groups had to raise more than $2,000 per refugee that were resettled to cover rent and other expenses, along with submitting a resettlement plan and passing a background check (Rose, 2023). Now, the goal is to expand similar efforts to refugees from all around the world (U.S. Department of State, 2023).
So, how exactly will this program work and what will it look like?
U.S. citizens and permanent residents will be allowed to sponsor refugees from around the world. Groups of five or more private sponsors will work to help their “assigned” refugees in finding housing and work and help them navigate their new lives and home in the U.S. Qualifications include groups of at least 5 members over the age of 18 who live in or near the same community (Welcome Corps, 2023). Groups can be formed by friends, neighbors, work colleagues, members of faith groups, etc. These private sponsors will be “responsible for independently raising funds and directly providing essential assistance to refugees for their first 90 days in their new community” (U.S. Department of State, 2023). Such assistance includes enrolling children in school, helping adults find housing and employment, getting acclimated to the new community, and connecting them with essential services in the community. While a minimum of $2,375 in cash and in-kind contributions per refugee newcomer is required, groups may find that a need to raise more to properly support the resettlement may be required for certain communities (Welcome Corps, 2023). Additionally, while the support required is outlined for 90 days, it is essential that sponsors commit to helping newcomers make connections with ongoing support and services within their communities that reach beyond this
90-day mark. It is also the idea that relationships built, both with the sponsor and the larger community, can last a lifetime (Welcome Corps, 2023).
As part of the application process of becoming a private sponsor group, a Welcome Plan must be completed that allows those volunteering to be intentional with planning how they will offer support to refugees in becoming involved in their specific community (Welcome Corps, 2023). Some examples of the requirements from the Welcome Plan include considering airport reception when the refugees first arrive (securing child car seats, specific transportation plan, etc.), showing research on how to help the newcomers obtain a driver’s license in their new state, identifying where initial medical screenings can be conducted, discussing how facilitation of cultural connections can be done (such as finding places of worship), and much more (Welcome Corps, 2023).
Furthermore, Private Sponsor Organizations (PSOs) may apply to participate—these are community organizations and institutions that will commit to overseeing private sponsors. Some organizations already getting involved include Rainbow Railroad, HIAS, Alight, WelcomeNST, and others (U.S. State Department, 2023).
In the initial phase, the private sponsors will be matched with refugees who have already been approved for resettlement by the USRAP. This will be rolled out for the first six months of 2023. While allowing for a global range of refugees to be resettled, the first few months will feature many refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa, where many have waited for years for a solution. The second phase, expected to launch in mid-2023, will include the ability for private sponsors to identify refugees that can be referred to the USRAP for resettlement, along with supporting refugees that have already been identified. Specific details on this phase are still in the works.
In this first year of the new program, the Department of State aims to mobilize 10,000 Americans to act as private sponsors to help resettle at least 5,000 refugees. If this 10,000 volunteer expectation is exceeded, they will look to continue pairings to offer more resettlement opportunities for refugees (U.S. Department of State, 2023). Because these private sponsors are not required to work through the refugee resettlement offices that already exist, there is an expanded opportunity for where newcomers can be welcomed.
A consortium of non-profit organizations that are versed in resettling and integrating refugees is being funded by the Department of State. Being led by the Community Sponsorship Hub, this group includes Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), the International Refugee Assistance Project, the International Rescue Committee, and others. With their expertise, the consortium will work to offer guidance and support to the Americans that become involved with Welcome Corps. Specifically, they will manage the Welcome Corps’ infrastructure which includes overseeing the vetting and certification of private sponsors, offering training and resources to private sponsors, and monitoring and evaluating the program overall (U.S. State Department, 2023).
Notably, the conception of Welcome Corps is not the first of its kind in North America. This initiative is also greatly modeled in part on the system in Canada that has long relied on private sponsorship to provide refugee resettlement (Rose, 2023; Zumhagen, 2023). Between 1979 and 2020, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) as a program has brought more than 327,000 refugees to Canada (Moran, 2023). With the Welcomes Corp having been modeled after this program that facilitated the arrival of Vietnamese refugees in 1979 and that has seen much success since, it is clear that the U.S. can work to gain insight to make the best of the newly founded program. It has already been stated that the U.S. is grateful to the Canadian government for sharing details about their program and for Canada’s support in allowing the U.S. to learn from them (Moran, 2023).
With the implementation of the Welcome Corps, it is clear that there is an effort to expand the resettlement opportunities in the U.S. that are not bound by the location and resources of resettlement agencies alone. With these agencies still working on building back from cuts and slashes from the previous administration, this is especially (Rose, 2023; Moran, 2023). Viewed as a new way of nation-building, it is clear that there is much hope in this initiative when it comes to welcoming refugees to a new country, introducing them to a new community, and aiding in their success. But with it, there are still some questions and some of the same issues that we have encountered in the past. After leaving a traumatic and daunting situation, how can we ensure that there is support that extends beyond the 90 days outlined in this program? Will this program work to facilitate this, and how successful will it be in doing so? How successful will new locations and communities that are not accustomed to welcoming refugees be? How can we work on ensuring a form of consistency in experience for refugees with the new addition of individual stakeholders as private sponsors? How can we ensure that proper boundaries are set with the sponsor and that self-reliance and independence are fostered in the relationships that are built? So, while there are many expectations for the program, there are still many questions that stand; the first year will especially bring answers and, hopefully, new solutions that will allow for a more successful rollout in the later future.
References
Moran, P. (2023, February 2). The U.S. is copying Canada’s private refugee sponsorship program, even as groups here pull out. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/u-s-canada-private-refugee-sponsorship-1.6733832
Rose, J. (2023, January 19). The State Department launches a new way for ordinary Americans to resettle refugees. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/01/19/1143604311/state-department-refugee-resettlement-pilot-program
U.S. Department of State. (2023, January 19). Fact sheet- launch of Welcome Corps- private sponsorship of refugees. https://www.state.gov/launch-of-the-welcome-corps-private-sponsorship-of-refugees-2/
Welcome Corps. (2023). Sponsoring refugees strengthening communities. https://welcomecorps.org/
Zumhagen, B. (2023, February 1). How Canada inspired “revolutionary” Welcome Corps. HIAS. https://hias.org/news/how-canada-inspired-biden-administrations-revolutionary-welcome-corps-initiative/