(Mis)trusted Contact: Resettlement Knowledge Assets and the Third Space of Refugee Reception

Abstract

Drawing on interviews with 204 participants in two studies of privately sponsored refugee resettlement in Ontario, Canada, we explore the resettlement effects of pre-arrival contact on the interactional dynamics between private sponsors and privately sponsored Syrian refugees. Those who had regular pre-arrival contact via digital applications such as Facebook, Skype, and Whatsapp reported more positive, “successful” resettlement experiences than those who had not. This pre-arrival interactive dynamic has theoretical/conceptual implications beyond an understanding of the benefits of “information exchange.” Pre-arrival sponsor-sponsored interaction is not bound by the contexts of displacement or resettlement, but constitutes a “third space” of reception, co-created through trusted contact. We develop the concept of “resettlement knowledge assets” and report on how these assets emerge through pre-arrival trust building, modify the resettlement expectations of both sponsors and sponsored, and reduce resettlement uncertainty.

Trust Amongst Refugees in Resettlement Settings: a Systematic Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis of the Literature

“…The majority of studies included in this review were carried out in the UK ( 7) (Goodall, 2010;Griffiths, 2012;Hynes, 2009Hynes, , 2017Majumder et al, 2015;O'Donnell et al, 2008;Rainbird, 2012) and Australia (5) (Correa-Velez et al, 2014;Lenette, 2015;Nickerson et al, 2019;. Two studies were carried out in Norway (Eide et al, 2018;Vårheim, 2014aVårheim, , 2014b, Sweden (Björnberg, 2011;Linell & Keselman, 2011) and Uganda (Lyytinen, 2017a), while studies also explored trust in Canada (Kyriakides et al, 2019), Ireland (Níraghallaigh, 2014), the Netherlands (Feldmann et al, 2007) and South Korea (Kim & Kim, 2019). Two studies explored trust across a number of countries, including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey (Melki & Kozman, 2019) and Bosnia and the Netherlands (Mooren & Kleber, 2001).…”

“…This is an important point, as many of the studies below looked at trust amongst different individuals or institutions. Some focused on inter or intra-group trust (Lenette, 2015), others explored institutional trust more generally (Hynes, 2009), while others examined what could best be described as interpersonal trust, examining trust between General Practitioners (GPs) and refugees, for example (O'Donnell et al, 2008), or between refugees and their private sponsors in the country of resettlement (Kyriakides et al, 2019).…”

Creating Canadians through Private Sponsorship

“…Sponsorship that is not paired with reflection and interrogation of the role sponsors play in helping to create Canadians has the potential to backfire in its goals of building a stronger, multicultural Canada that plays a role in helping those in need. Additionally, more contact between refugees and sponsors before arrival may also encourage sponsors to view refugees as partners in the settlement process (Kyriakides et al, 2019).…”

Understanding the Integration Process Through the Concept of Trust: a Case Study of Latin American Professionals in Québec

“…The author's convincing arguments show that refugees in Europe are 'objectified victims' embedded in a 'fixed identity'. On another article, Kyriades et al (2019) put emphasis on refugees' interaction previous to their arrival in Canada. Authors demonstrate that those who have had interactions with their private sponsors prior to their arrival tend to co-develop a relationship of trust regarding their installation in Canada.…”