Within the field of international migration, most studies focusing on home‐based migrant social networks tend to focus on family relations, whereas the role of the friends who stay behind is largely neglected. This study explores how friendships affect and are affected by, international migration. Via an ethnographic approach, we have analysed the experiences of 16 young adults who stayed behind in the sending region of Essaouira, Morocco. In contrast with the pressures experienced within family relations, friendships emerged as an important source of socio‐emotional support for migrants, thereby functioning as safe spaces. Building on the findings, we argue that for a more comprehensive understanding of the social embeddedness of migration, friendships should be considered along with family relations.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents Northern-based development organisations with unprecedented difficulties. They are challenged in fundraising opportunities in their home countries and in finding ways to continue their work in the Global South. As the first study to present a systematic mixed method, cross-country study of small-scale, voluntary development organisations in four different European countries, this study provides insight into the role of these private development initiatives (PDIs) in the COVID-19 crisis and sheds light on the differential impact of the crisis on these organisations. Whereas most PDIs are involved in long(er)-term development interventions, the COVID-19 crisis was for most organisations their first experience of emergency aid. Overall, we see strong resilience among PDIs and also find that the organisations which relied more exclusively on traditional methods of fundraising (offline) received a greater funding hit than organisations—often with more younger members—that had already moved to online fundraising.