Our project examines community or private sponsorship of refugees in Australia with comparisons to Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Ireland.
Research Objectives
Uncover Australia’s neglected history of community participation in refugee resettlement, post-World War II
Analyse community sponsorship practice in Australia with reference to similar initiatives in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Ireland
Explore how ideas of citizenship, community and refugee protection are being mobilised in community sponsorship programs domestically and transnationally
Provide evidence-based suggestions for the ongoing development of community sponsorship in Australia and globally
Methods
Archival research
To produce an historical analysis of the development of migration, refugee and multicultural policy in Australia since 1945, the project draws on materials produced by government departments and agencies, non-government organisations and community groups which are located in a variety of public and private collections
Interviews
Our analysis is informed by qualitative, semi-structured interviews with a broad range of international and national community sponsorship actors. We have interviewed politicians, public servants, sponsors and representatives from international organisations, international community sponsorship networks, global and national civil society and faith groups in Australia, New Zealand and internationally
Workshops and seminars
Participation at a range of workshops and events.
Contact us
- Email the team
- cs-refugee@unimelb.edu.au
- Email Bongkot Napaumporn
- b.napaumporn@unimelb.edu.au
A research project funded by the Australian Research Council DP220101675
Susan Kneebone
Professor Susan Kneebone is an experienced international legal researcher on refugee and forced migration issues and governance with a strong record of influential and high impact publications and interventions in public discourse. Susan is a Professorial Fellow, a Senior Associate of the Asian Law Centre and Research Affiliate of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne. She has an extensive record as a lead Investigator on ARC grants and as supervisor\mentor. She has recently completed an edited book manuscript on Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia: Between Sovereignty and Humanitarianism (Berghahn Books 2024) under an ARC grant, ‘Indonesia's refugee policies: responsibility, security and regionalism’.
Kate Ogg
Professor Kate Ogg is a legal and socio-legal researcher with expertise in human mobility and the law, refugee law, the law of internal displacement, human rights law, litigation and feminist theory and method. Kate is the author of Protection from Refuge: From Refugee Rights to Migration Management (Cambridge University Press, 2022) which is the first global and comparative examination of the role courts play in refugee journeys. Along with Professor Susan Harris Rimmer, Kate is the editor of Feminist Engagement with International Law (Edward Elgar, 2019). She regularly provides media commentary on developments in refugee and human rights law and has been invited to present her research at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Headquarters in Geneva and the Australian Federal Parliament. Kate is also conducting an ARC funded study on strategic human rights litigation under a DECRA grant.
Anthea Vogl
Dr Anthea Vogl is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, UTS. Her research takes a critical, interdisciplinary approach to the regulation of migrants and non-citizens, focusing on the social and legal categories of the refugee and irregular migrant. Anthea is the author of Judging Refugees: Narrative and Oral Testimony in Refugee Status Determination (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and director of the UTS Brennan Justice and Leadership Program. She is a national co-convenor of Academics for Refugees, a network advocating for refugee rights and justice and an Associate Co-Director of Border Criminologies at Oxford University, Faculty of Law and has been a visiting fellow at the Berlin Institute for Integration & Migration, Humbolt University (2018) and the Centre for Criminology, Oxford University (2019). Anthea is admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW. Prior to joining UTS, she practiced in family law, and in refugee and migrant advocacy in Australian community legal centres and in Canada. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Technology Sydney and the University of British Columbia (jointly awarded); an LLM (Research; Dean's Honors) from McGill and a BA/LLB (Hons) from the University of Sydney.
Nathan Gardner
Dr Nathan Gardner is a post-doctoral Research Fellow on the ARC community sponsorship project at the Melbourne Law School and a historian of Australian immigration and multiculturalism. His historical work draws upon non-English language materials to inform his studies of Australia’s diverse ethnic communities. His forthcoming monograph, tentatively titled In the Face of Diversity: A History of Chinese Australian Community Organisations, 1970-2020, will be published by Sydney University Press. It will be the first historical study of Chinese-Australian communities on a national scale since the end of the ‘White Australia Policy’, with a particular focus on the political actions of community organisations and their expressions of ‘community unity’. Nathan is working under the current ARC project to produce a comprehensive examination of the history of community sponsorship and refugee resettlement initiatives in Australia.
Bongkot Napaumporn
Bongkot Napaumporn is a Research Assistant on the ARC community sponsorship project at the Melbourne Law School, a PhD candidate at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness (supervised by Professors Susan Kneebone and Michelle Foster) and a Research Fellow at the Asian Law Centre, at the Melbourne Law School. Prior to commencing her PhD, she worked on statelessness issues for the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok and was an advocate at the Thammasat University’s legal clinic on stateless and displaced persons in Thailand. Her PhD research examines the issue of statelessness, identity and inclusion of migrants from Thailand in Japan.
Publications and Papers
- Presentations by Kneebone, Ogg and Vogl on ‘Community and Private Sponsorship of Refugee Resettlement in Australia’ at the University of Melbourne’s Law Faculty Research Seminar Series (4 April 2022).
- Kneebone, S., Vogl, A. & Ogg, K. (2022). The Evolution of Programs for Community Sponsorship of Refugees in Australia. In Refugee Law Institute Blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration. Retrieved from https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2022/11/01/the-evolution-of-programs-for-community-sponsorship-of-refugees-in-australia/
- Kneebone, S., Vogl, A. & Ogg, K. (2022). Programs for Community Sponsorship of Refugees in Australia. In Asylum Insight: Facts and Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.asyluminsight.com/kneebone-vogl-ogg
- Panel paper presentations: ‘The Role of Community Sponsorship for Refugee Resettlement in Australia: Whither State Responsibility?’, 6th Refugee Law Institute Annual Conference, University of London, UK. Panel 3C (June 2022) listen to the podcast or watch on YouTube
- Kneebone, S. ‘Alternative Framings of Community, Partnerships and Protection in Refugee Sponsorship Programs’
- Ogg, K. ‘Community Sponsorship Literature from the Perspective of Refugee Law Scholarship: What is Missing?’
- Vogl, A. ‘At What Cost? Private Sponsorship of Humanitarian Entrants in Australia’
- Hoang, Khanh ‘Lessons from history: The Community Refugee Settlement Scheme (CRSS)’
- Ogg, K. A presentation on ‘The Development of Community Sponsorship Practice and Scholarship’at the ANU’s Migration Hub Seminar Series (26 October 2023).
Events
8 March 2024 participation in Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) Workshop on the Community Refugee and Integration Settlement Pilot (CRISP) Community
3-5 June 2024 Panel on ‘Interrogating the “Complementary” in Complementary Pathways’ accepted for the 8th Annual Conference of the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI): ‘Pacts, Promises and Refugee Protection’ at University of London
4-7 June 2024 Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways, Geneva, Switzerland (some hybrid participation)
Useful links
Australia and New Zealand
- Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA)
- Community Refugee and Integration Settlement Pilot (CRISP)
- Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA)
- HOST International Aotearoa New Zealand
Global and International
- UNHCR Global Compact on Refugees
- Global Compact on Refugees Digital Flatform
- UNHCR Complementary pathways for admission to third countries
- UNHCR Private Sponsorship
- UNHCR Community Sponsorship
- Amnesty International
Europe
- The Migration Policy Institute Europe (MPI Europe)
- COMET (Complementary Pathways Network)
- Networking project ‘Paradigm Shift in the Migration Society’ – NUPS (Germany)
- Irish Community Sponsorship Programme
- UK Community Sponsorship Scheme
- Community Sponsorship Evaluation (UK)
- Sponsor Refugees (UK)