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.
Workshop
The Purpose, Past, Present and Future of Community Sponsorship of Refugees: Critical and Comparative Perspectives
9 May 2025
Melbourne Law School
Colloquium
The Context and Background to “Community Sponsorship” in Australia: Refugees and Humanitarian Entrants Colloquium
8 May 2025
Melbourne Law School
Contact us
- Email the team
- cs-refugee@unimelb.edu.au
- Email Nathan Gardner Molina
- nathan.gardner@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.
Nathan Gardner Molina
Dr Nathan Gardner Molina 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 book, 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.
Publications, Papers and Submissions
- June 2026: Prof Susan Kneebone, 'Refugees and Humanitarian Admissions in Australia: between Control and Management', in Francesco Luigi Gatta and Mario Savino eds, Visas in Migration and Asylum Law: The Key that Opens the Door (Routledge 2026)
- 31 March 2026: Vogl A, Ogg K, Kneebone S, Government Submission, 'Submission to Australia's Humanitarian Program Discussion Paper: Submissions addressing the Redesign of the Community Support Program', Department of Home Affairs
- December 2025: Refugee Survey Quarterly (vol.44 no.4) Special Issue: “Interrogating the ‘Complementarity’ of Complementary Pathways: a Transnational Evaluation of Policy and Practice”. Including:
- Susan Kneebone and Anthea Vogl: “Introduction: Interrogating the ‘Complementarity’ of Complementary Pathways”. 457-468.
- Kate Ogg: “Refugee Sponsorship’s Unrealised Objectives and Unanticipated Benefits: A New Perspective on the Meaning of “Complementary” Pathways?”. 495-523.
- Anthea Vogl: “The Expansion of Community Refugee Sponsorship: Principles for Sustainability and Australia’s Community Support Program in Review”. 524-545.
- Susan Kneebone: “New Zealand’s “Complementary” Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship: A Sustainable Community Partnership?”. 546-572.
- 5 November 2025: Prof Susan Kneebone and Assoc Prof Anthea Vogl presented papers on 'International comparative research on named sponsorship programs' and 'Key findings from a review of the CSP' at the Workshop on Reforming Named Community Sponsorship by invitationof Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) and the Refugee Council of Australia.
- October 2025: Prof Kate Ogg presented a paper on ‘Mobilising Whole of Society Approaches to International Protection’ at the Kaldor Centre Conference, University of New South Wales.
- May 2025: Prof Kate Ogg presented a paper on 'The Precarity Continuum in Pathways to Regular Migration Status: Active Refugee Admission Policies (ARAP) and Regularisation', at the Law and Society Association Conference, Chicago.
- 21-23 January 2025: Professor Susan Kneebone and Associate Professor Anthea Vogl attended the International Association for the Studies of Forced Migration (IASFM) conference on Forced Displacement in an Urbanizing World in Jogjakarta Indonesia where they presented a paper on ‘Sponsors’ motives in community resettlement in New Zealand and Australia: A tale of (two) communities’ to a panel organised by Professor Kneebone on: “New frontiers of refugee hosting: relationships and emotions – comparative perspectives.”
- 12 October 2024: Associate Professor Anthea Vogl and Dr Nathan Gardner attended Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) Conference at Kyneton, Victoria. They gave a presentation in a session on “How does Australia’s historical race-based approach to immigration law affect how we shape change?”
- 2 September 2024: Dr Nathan Gardner presented the Hancock Lecture at the Australian Academy of Humanities in Sydney. The title of his lecture was “What makes a multicultural nation? The contribution of Chinese Australian communities.”
- 15 July 2024: Professor Susan Kneebone and Associate Professor Anthea Vogl, joint submission to the Draft Program Framework for a New Approach to Linked / Named Community Sponsorship
- 4 June 2024: Professors Susan Kneebone and Kate Ogg presented papers to a panel on ‘Interrogating the “Complementary” in Complementary Pathways following the Global Compacts,’ at the 8th Refugee Law Initiative Conference on ‘Pacts, Promises and Protection,’ University of London, UK, as follows (Their presentations are available here):
- Professor Susan Kneebone: ‘(Re)Settlement, Community and Private Sponsorship: Creating “Sustainable” Complementary Pathways’
- Professor Kate Ogg: ‘Pathway, Durable Solution or Tool? Harmonious and Divergent Politics underlying Community Sponsorship Pacts and the Implications for Refugee Protection’.
- 2 July 2024: Dr Nathan Gardner presented a paper for the 2024 Australian Historical Association Annual Conference at Flinders University, Adelaide on ‘“New Settlers Need Your Friendship!”: The Good Neighbour Councils’ Role in Building Grassroots Support for Immigration and Refugee Resettlement’.
- 8 March 2024: Jointly with Associate Professor Anthea Vogl, Dr Nathan Gardner made a presentation on the project at the Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) Workshop on the Community Refugee and Integration Settlement Pilot (CRISP) Community, Kensington Town Hall.
- 26 October 2023: Professor Kate Ogg made a presentation on ‘The Development of Community Sponsorship Practice and Scholarship’ at the ANU’s Migration Hub Seminar Series.
- 4 April 2022: Professor Susan Kneebone, Professor Kate Ogg and Associate Professor Anthea Vogl gave presentations on ‘Community and Private Sponsorship of Refugee Resettlement in Australia’ at the University of Melbourne’s Law Faculty Research Seminar Series.
- 1 November 2022: Professor Susan Kneebone, Dr Anthea Vogl and Professor Kate wrote a blog on ‘The Evolution of Programs for Community Sponsorship of Refugees in Australia’ in Refugee Law Institute Blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration.
- 30 June 2022: Professor Susan Kneebone, Professor Kate, Dr Anthea Vogl and Dr Khanh Hoang presented their papers to a panel on ‘The Role of Community Sponsorship for Refugee Resettlement in Australia: Whither State Responsibility?,’ at the 6th Refugee Law Institute Annual Conference, University of London, UK, as follows (Their presentations are available on YouTube here):
- Professor Susan Kneebone: ‘Alternative Framings of Community, Partnerships and Protection in Refugee Sponsorship Programs’
- Professor Kate Ogg: ‘Community Sponsorship Literature from the Perspective of Refugee Law Scholarship: What is Missing?’
- Dr Anthea Vogl: ‘At What Cost? Private Sponsorship of Humanitarian Entrants in Australia’
- Dr Khanh Hoang: ‘Lessons from history: The Community Refugee Settlement Scheme (CRSS)’
Events and Activities
- 24 February 2026: Professor Susan Kneebone, Associate Professor Anthea Vogl and Dr Nathan Gardner Molina attended CRSA Named Sponsorship Workshop: ‘Pipeline, Diversity and Intermediaries’, at the Melbourne Law School.
- 9 May 2025: A Workshop on ‘The Purpose, Past, Present and Future of Community Sponsorship of Refugees: Critical and Comparative Perspectives’ was held to receive feedback from an invited group of experts in the field.
- 8 May 2025: A Colloquium on ‘The Context and Background to “Community Sponsorship” in Australia: Refugees and Humanitarian Entrants’ was hosted and attended by stakeholders and experts in the field. Three panels broadly responded to the question: How did Australia’s current approach to community sponsorship of refugees evolve within the Special Humanitarian Program (SHP) for refugees and humanitarian entrants?
- 1-7 December 2024: Dr Nathan Gardner conducted a research trip to Canberra to collect materials related to CRSS policy, and the administration and program development and applications of community groups to sponsor refugees under CRSS. He also collected material related to the historical development of Australia’s migration policy.
- August 2024 - February 2025: A number of interviews have been conducted with past and present Approved Partner Organisations (APOs) and Community Organisations related to the Community Support Programme (CSP) and members of the general community with historical knowledge \ experience of sponsorship.
- May-June 2024:
- Professor Kate Ogg conducted interviews with civil society and scholars in UK and Ireland aiming to explore the community sponsorship situations and programs.
- Dr Anthea Vogl conducted interviews with scholars, experts and key actors who are involved in aspects of the community sponsorship program in Canada.
- Dr Nathan Gardner conducted a research trip to South Australia to collect historical materials on the Good Neighbour Council (GNC) and grassroot community groups.
- 3-5 June 2024: Professor Susan Kneebone and Professor Kate Ogg attended in person the 8th Refugee Law Institute Annual Conference (RLI) at University of London, UK. They presented papers to a panel on ‘Interrogating the “Complementary” in Complementary Pathways following the Global Compacts.’
- 6 May 2024: Dr Anthea Vogl and Dr Nathan Gardner and Professor Susan Kneebone participated in a roundtable consultation held at the Melbourne Law School, organised jointly by the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) and the Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) on Building a Future Named Community Sponsorship Program which involved representatives and participants from key organisations. Dr Vogl and Professor Kneebone gave presentations to the roundtable and subsequently made a joint submission to the Draft Program Framework for a New Approach to Linked / Named Community Sponsorship.
- 8-22 November 2023: Professor Susan Kneebone conducted interviews with government officials, scholars, civil societies and sponsors in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand.
- September 2023: Dr Nathan Gardner conducted a research trip to Canberra to collect historical materials on the 1977-8 Review of Post-Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants (Galbally Review) and the Good Neighbour Council.
- 29 June – 1 July 2022: Professor Susan Kneebone, Professor Kate, Dr. Anthea Vogl and Dr. Khanh Hoang attended the 6th Refugee Law Institute Annual Conference, organised online by University of London, UK. They presented a paper to a panel on: ‘The Role of Community Sponsorship for Refugee Resettlement in Australia: Whither State Responsibility?’
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)