Conditions for sustainable involvement of service users and volunteers in refugee integration services

• In Event: NGOS in Refugee Integration and Services

Abstract

The 2015 European refugee crisis highlighted the crucial role that non-profit organizations (NPOs) and volunteers play in providing support to refugees. Previous studies showed how NPOs were instrumental in mobilizing volunteers to provide housing and emergency aid to arriving refugees (e.g. Meyer and Simsa, 2018; Boersma et al., 2019). What we know less about is what happens after the initial crisis response, and more specifically, how NPOs deliver services to support the longer-term integration of refugees into their new communities. Integration, or the process of supporting refugees to achieve inclusion and access to rights (Feinstein et al., 2022; Ager and Strang, 2008) is a multi-faceted area of social service provision that impels providers to engage holistically and collaboratively with service users. This approach whereby refugees and local volunteers are directly involved in designing and delivering services is known as co-production (McMullin, 2022).

However, the context for refugee integration has shifted dramatically in the last eight years: while many refugees from the 2015 wave continue to need language and social integration support due to the length of the asylum application process, NPOs who work with refugees now also encounter Ukrainian refugees who have different language skills, cultural background and aspirations in terms of permanent settlement. We thus do not yet know about how NPOs adapt their approaches to volunteer involvement and whether these practices are sustainable (Steen and Brandsen, 2020; McMullin, 2023a, 2023b). Because refugee integration is a long-term process that requires NPOs to create trust and relationships, it is crucial that involvement practices are empowering and enduring, rather than ad hoc.

Based on qualitative research undertaken with NPOs working in the refugee integration sector in Vienna, Austria, this paper considers the research questions: RQ1: How do non-profit professionals involve volunteers and refugees in delivering integration services? RQ2: What conditions are necessary to support co-production that is sustainable over the longer term? I find that NPOs have undergone significant shifts in their approaches to working with refugees from the 2015-2016 wave compared to now with refugees from Ukraine. The research also finds that across the cases, volunteer involvement by NPOs was seen to be a vital factor in the success of refugee integration efforts, while services provided by public organizations were seen as more rigid, lacking personalization and unable to adapt to changing needs.

This paper produces important new empirical evidence about the involvement of refugees and volunteers in delivering integration services, allowing me to produce recommendations on how public policy can support NPOs to provide services with and for refugees. Finally, I make an important contribution to the literature on the sustainability of co-production over time.

References

Ager, A., & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(2), 166–191.

Boersma, K., Kraiukhina, A., Larruina, R., Lehota, Z., & Nury, E. O. (2019). A port in a storm: Spontaneous volunteering and grassroots movements in Amsterdam. A resilient approach to the (European) refugee crisis. Social Policy & Administration, 53(5), 728–742.

Feinstein, S., Poleacovschi, C., Drake, R., & Winters, L. A. (2022). States and Refugee Integration: A Comparative Analysis of France, Germany, and Switzerland. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(4), 2167–2194.

McMullin, C. (2022). Non-profit Organizations and Co-production: The Logics Shaping Professional and Citizen Collaboration. Routledge.

McMullin, C. (2023a). Expectations versus reality: The sustainability of co-production approaches over time. Public Management Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2023.2212265

McMullin, C. (2023b). The Persistent Constraints of New Public Management on Sustainable Co-Production between Non-Profit Professionals and Service Users. Administrative Sciences, 13(3), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci13020037

Meyer, M., & Simsa, R. (2018). Organizing the Unexpected: How Civil Society Organizations Dealt with the Refugee Crisis. Voluntas, 29(6), 1159–1175.

Steen, T., & Brandsen, T. (2020). Coproduction during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic: Will It Last? Public Administration Review, 80(5), 851–855.

Author

• Caitlin McMullin, Aalborg University