The webinar will launch the Special Issue of Frontiers in Human Dynamics ‘Managing Forced Displacement: Refugee Resettlement and Complementary Pathways’ in light of the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees (GCR).
One of the four objectives of the GCR is to ‘expand access to third country solutions’ for refugees, including refugee resettlement and ‘complementary pathways’. The GCR’s ambitions for refugee mobility via third country solutions raises many questions. For instance, refugee resettlement has long been a durable solution for a small minority of refugees that are primarily selected because of their vulnerability. If third country solutions proliferate, will particularly vulnerable refugees still be prioritised? Do all actors involved in third country solutions share the same understanding of ‘vulnerability’? What does the multiplication of third country solutions mean for resettlement candidates? What is necessary to ensure that civil society’s engagement in ‘complementary pathways’ is durable? Is community sponsorship really a complementary pathway? And what is the relationship between third country solutions and spontaneous access to asylum? These are some of the questions interrogated in the special issue.
