The Power of Refugee Sponsorship: A Sponsor’s Story

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CHAPTERS 

[00:01:22] The Case for Private Sponsorship 
[00:03:45] How Welcome Corps Works: Roles and Financial Obligations 
[00:08:57] Forming the Sponsor Group and Matching Process 
[00:11:21] The Sponsored Family: A Three-Generation Story from the DRC 
[00:13:13] Adaptation Challenges: Language, Community, and Integration 
[00:19:37] The Role of Prior Refugees as a Support Resource 
[00:24:35] Sponsorship as Policy: Capacity, Gaps, and Future Potential 

TRANSCRIPT 

[00:00:03.09] 

Welcome to the World of Migration, a podcast from the Migration Policy Institute that seeks to spotlight interesting trends, policy developments, and voices on myriad aspects of immigration around the globe in a way that goes beyond the headlines. My name is Susan Fratzke, and I am a Senior Policy Analyst with MPI. Today we'll be looking at innovations that are taking place in the refugee protection space around the opportunities that refugees have to resettle in other countries. And not a moment too soon, because the number of refugees internationally has reached a record level. The UN refugee agency known as UNHCR, estimates that as 2023 began, more than 29 million refugees were under its main mandate. Most refugees find a safe haven in the country right next door to their country of origin. And often that's because they want to stay close to home or because they have friends and family nearby. But another important reason refugees stay in neighboring countries is because once someone becomes a refugee, it is actually very, very difficult for them to legally travel and move to another country. One of the only ways that most refugees can move to another country is through refugee resettlements.

[00:01:22.10] 

But the number of places available for resettlement to refugees globally has typically been very low compared to the need. Just about 2% of refugees are actually given the opportunity to relocate to a new country each year. One of the ways some countries are trying to expand their capacity to resettle more refugees is through something known as private sponsorship. That's when private citizens and community groups are invited into the government's resettlement process. Private citizens and communities are able to give their time and financial resources to help support refugees after they arrive. Depending on the resettlement country, private sponsors might be responsible for anything from finding housing for refugees and refugee families to paying for refugees expenses in the first few months after they arrive. Sponsors also usually help refugees register for school, learn to use transportation, or sign up for public services. Now, the hope behind private sponsorship programs is that sponsors can help to take some of the pressure off of overstretched service providers and also by having private citizens and community groups involved in welcoming refugees. Governments and resettlement programs might be able to help to facilitate building social connections and better networks to support new arrivals.

[00:02:48.01] 

In January 2023, the U.S. Government announced that it would be starting a refugee sponsorship program called Welcome Corps. And this makes the U.S. one of just a handful of countries globally that offer this kind of resettlement. In the first year of the program, the U.S. State Department has said that it aims to welcome at least 5,000 refugees through private sponsorship. And in June 2023, the very first refugee family arrived under the Welcome Corps Sponsorship Program. Today we're going to hear more about Welcome Corps, how it works, and what it might mean for the U.S. resettlement system. I am delighted to welcome to the podcast Erin Schutte Wadzinski from Worthington, Minnesota. Erin leads one of the first sponsorship groups to receive a sponsored refugee family under the new Welcome Corps Program. She's also herself an immigration lawyer and owner of the firm Kivu Immigration Law in Worthington. Welcome, Erin.

[00:03:43.24] 

Hi, Susan. Thanks so much for having me today.

[00:03:47.04] 

So, Erin, could you start off by telling us a bit about what it means to be a Welcome Corps sponsor? What do you actually do? What are you actually responsible for?

[00:03:56.23] 

Welcome Corps sponsors step in and take on the responsibilities of a refugee resettlement agency. So instead of a refugee family turning directly to a refugee resettlement agency's case manager, for example, a Welcome Corps sponsor will be the individual that welcomes the refugee family into their new community, make sure that all of their basic needs are met and is committed to helping the family get acquainted to their new surroundings and in a position of thriving within 90 days of the family's arrival.

[00:04:39.02] 

And do you have financial obligations as part of that?

[00:04:43.04] 

Welcome Corps sponsor groups are financially obligated to cover the cost of living and the cost of the family's basic needs for their first 90 days in the United States. The Department of State indicates that the required minimum amount is $2,375 per individual.

[00:05:06.24] 

Sounds like a lot of, potentially a lot of money, depending on the size of the family.

[00:05:13.01] 

Yes. So our sponsor group, once we formed it, we thought about how much money can we pool within ourselves, within the group, and how much money could we raise within our community. And that helped us determine what size of family we would feel comfortable sponsoring.

[00:05:36.00] 

And then it sounds like from what you described, in addition to those financial commitments, and there's also a lot of other, a lot of other things that you're taking on in terms of introducing the family to the community and making sure they get connected with the right services and other things that they need.

[00:05:52.24] 

The very first step that we took after forming our Welcome Corps sponsor group was completing a Welcome Corps plan. And this was a document provided to us by the State Department as a way to think through all of the responsibilities that we would have to have to take in order to really help a new family be successful in our community. And so that Welcome Corps plan really did focus a lot on what resources in our community already exist that we can simply plug the family into. But then what gaps exist and where are we going to have to find capacity within our group to ensure that the family has access to all of the resources that they need? After we submitted that Welcome Corps plan, it was reviewed by the State Department. And the Welcome Corps Program within the State Department provided us a bit of feedback. We resubmitted it and. And eventually the Welcome Corps Program admitted our sponsor group. And from there on, we initiated our fundraising efforts, our planning efforts, not really knowing how much time we would have before we were matched with a family. We had about two months to raise funds and get our act together before one afternoon I received an email saying that our Welcome Corps sponsor group has been matched with a refugee family.

[00:07:36.17] 

And we had 72 hours to evaluate whether we would be able to accommodate this family in our town of Worthington, Minnesota. And we wholeheartedly and very excitedly accepted our match. The State Department told us that the family, that they didn't know when the family could arrive, but the family could arrive within seven days. So they expected that it would be one to two months, but we would get a minimum of seven days notice. And in reality, that is about the length of time we had from the time when the group, when we were notified of the date the family would arrive to our community.

[00:08:32.16] 

So that all sounds really exciting. It also sounds like a lot to take on for a group of people who aren't doing this as their day job. What actually interested you about becoming a sponsor? What motivated you to take on that amount of responsibility and work for a family you had never met?

[00:08:54.12] 

I am an immigration attorney and I handle many humanitarian type immigration cases. I work with a lot of asylum seekers and individuals who have family members who live abroad. I recognize that in our community there are many newcomers that need assistance in integrating into this community. And I have always dreamed of forming a network within our community that could provide support to newcomers. When I heard about the Welcome Corps Program as an avenue to support refugees who are new to this country, I thought, what an interesting model. And wouldn't it be neat to get a group of community members together and have the structure and support of a government agency kind of guiding us through the process, but us being the individuals on the ground, truly facilitating the resettlement of a family.

[00:09:58.18] 

And what about your fellow sponsors? What brought them together?

[00:10:04.02] 

Our sponsor group is a myriad of people. It's an eclectic group of individuals from many different walks of life. I hosted an information session at my law firm on a cold winter evening back in February when we had first heard about the Welcome Corps Program. Just to gauge whether there were individuals in the community who would be interested in informing a group. And I never anticipated there being as much interest as there was. And at that info session, we decided to form one large community group, one large community sponsor group. And not everybody in the group knew one another prior to that evening. And so as we navigated the application process and the preparation for welcoming the family members, we were also getting to know one another and learning about individuals with unique backgrounds and various skills that they can bring to the group and in supporting the family in a holistic manner.

[00:11:13.19] 

And what about the family who you ended up welcoming? Can you share anything about them? What their story is, where they came from?

[00:11:21.19] 

We are resettling a family of five individuals. This is a three generation family who are originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The matriarch of the family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997 and has been living in, or had been living in Tanzania in a refugee camp ever since. So fast forward more than 25 years and she has children who were born in the refugee camp and even grandchildren who were born in the refugee camp. So the family that we welcomed is, you know, the matriarch, two of her daughters, and then one of those daughters has two daughters of her own. So it's a, it's a family of five females. The ages range from 2 years old to 48. And it's been, it's been a joy getting to know them, but also very eye-opening to see, you know, how challenging it truly is to move to a brand new country and start a new life.

[00:12:38.11] 

What's the experience been like for them moving from the Congo to Worthington? I mean, 25 years in a refugee camp is a long time. And then I can imagine things look quite a bit different in Worthington. And I just note for our listeners, Worthington isn't a large city. It's. I think the population is about 13,000. Is that right somewhere?

[00:12:59.04] 

That's correct, yeah.

[00:13:00.24] 

And also in Minnesota. So I imagine the climate in Minnesota is a lot colder than what they were used to in the Congo especially. And they haven't had a winter yet, but winter is coming up. What's that transition been like for them?

[00:13:15.11] 

Well, you're right, Susan. Worthington is a small farming community in southwestern Minnesota. The city is surrounded by cornfields. But surprisingly, the city does have a very diverse population. There are many ethnicities, many languages spoken in this community and generally is a fairly welcoming place to newcomers. But as you can imagine, this refugee family has been overwhelmed with the transition, understandably so. And I think their transition to any new place, whether that's a small town in the upper Midwest of the United States or a larger city in a different country, it would have been a challenging adjustment from what they were familiar with when they arrived. Communication has been one of the biggest challenges because the family has not had English training and no one in our sponsor group is familiar with Swahili or Kibembe, the two languages that they speak. And so we've had to rely largely on Google Translate on a day-to-day basis. And then also the small number of Swahili speakers who live in Worthington and have been very generous with their time and willingness to kind of step in and assist us with communication.

[00:14:53.00] 

And what's the reaction been like within the community you mentioned? Of course, Worthington is a very welcoming place. It's also not a stranger to immigration or refugee resettlement, but has a sizable immigrant and refugee population for many years because of the meatpacking plant that's that operates in town. But I also am aware that the transitions, of course, that the town has gone through haven't been without certain amount of controversy at different times. Did you get any pushback from anyone in the community when it was shared publicly that Worthington would actually be participating in this program?

[00:15:33.17] 

I wouldn't call it pushback. At least I have not personally experienced or witnessed any direct pushback from this initiative. But there has certainly been some skepticism and curiosity about, you know, what it is that we're doing, why are we doing it, what does it entail? Because, you know, Worthington is actually outside of the radius of any refugee resettlement agency. You know, refugee resettlement agencies can work within 100 miles of its physical location. And being in the remote part of Minnesota that we are, Worthington has not actually received refugees through a refugee resettlement agency in a number of years. So the county, the schools are relearning or learning for the first time some of the processes about, like regarding what kind of eligibility of public benefits or resources that refugees have. And so a lot of it has been figuring it out as we go, but engaging with individuals in their professional positions to determine what pathways and possibilities are available for these refugees. By and large, I've been very pleased with how supportive the community is. And if that stems from an element of curiosity, then it's a great opportunity to learn more about our new neighbors and the process of refugee resettlement.

[00:17:14.04] 

So you mentioned a bit at the top about what some of the planning process was that you had to go through. And the responsibilities that you had and having to create these welcome plans that sort of anticipate the needs that families will have and what you'll do to meet those, and then the process of actually having just seven days to set up a home and get everything in place. And those are things that normally, outside of the private sponsorship program, are done by these professional refugee agencies who are nonprofits, who actually do a lot of resettlement cases each year and have a lot of experience doing these things. One of the concerns that I've heard a lot about private sponsorship is the amount of responsibility that it places on sponsors who don't have expertise or a lot of experience in walking through those potentially really complicated systems and also might not have experience with things like meeting individual special needs or dealing with trauma or post traumatic stress. So the program is really placing private individuals without that particular training or background in really high responsibility positions. How would you, based on your experience so far, how would you respond to that concern?

[00:18:30.16] 

Do you feel like you were prepared for the responsibilities that you needed to take on?

[00:18:37.02] 

As I alluded to earlier, there's been a lot of learning as we go and some surprises along the way. Our sponsor group does have some very helpful areas of expertise. We have a few social workers in our sponsor group. We have retired teachers, a retired psychologist. I feel like very, very blessed to be working with individuals in a sponsor group who do have some very relevant and helpful skills. But we have relied quite heavily on the refugee resettlement agency that is kind of serving as our sponsor group's mentor because we. We have been linked up with a refugee resettlement agency that is based on out of Minneapolis, and they are available for kind of like technical guidance to assist us with areas of resettlement that we aren't familiar with or don't know how to handle because of our lack of experience. And having that relationship has been very, very helpful to us. But I think one, perhaps even more important resource that our sponsor group has relied on is the experiences and expertise of other refugees who have gone through the process that our family is currently going through. No one in our sponsor group has a refugee background.

[00:20:11.22] 

We have not personally experienced the flight and resettlement that our family is experiencing. But to connect the family with other refugees, especially those who speak the family's native languages, has really put the family at ease and has been the best resource in terms of aiding our sponsor group in facilitating a successful transition and resettlement for the family.

[00:20:46.20] 

It's interesting that you mentioned the role of previous refugees, and they've been able to bring to the experience. Could you say a little bit more about that? What in particular has been especially useful about having them involved?

[00:21:05.00] 

Language has certainly been helpful, but also refugees who can help explain, for example, the process of applying for public benefits and what public benefits are. We sometimes take for granted that there are these, like, social systems in place to assist those who cannot, who are not solely, like, financially self-sufficient. And explaining that to individuals who are just completely unfamiliar with the concept of public benefits, our refugee friends who have gone through the experience and have navigated that in the past, have been the most effective in helping our refugee family understand the concepts of the public benefits afforded to refugees upon arrival to the United States.

[00:22:05.09] 

So you're almost two months into this experience right now. What surprised you most so far about being a sponsor?

[00:22:15.07] 

One thing that has surprised me has been how joyous the children have been from day one. I think the adults have certainly been scarred by trauma and are still dealing with some of the impacts of experiencing trauma that will not go away in the short term or just simply by being in a new place. But the young children who are ages 2 and 4 are just the most joyous children that any of us have ever seen. And that has been a true blessing in times of challenge and change and uncertainty. The family has expressed some uncertainty about whether the Worthington community is where they want to settle long term. And so helping them adapt to this community, yet knowing that maybe this won't be their permanent home forever, has required our sponsor group's kind of adjustment of our mindset, because obviously we think that Worthington is our forever home and live our lives accordingly. But it's, you know, that has been an element of uncertainty that we are supporting the family in, as they sort of figure that out for themselves long term and helping them navigate all of the considerations when it comes to where they ultimately want to call home.

[00:23:58.21] 

Could I ask you to step back a little bit and reflect on how you see sponsorship as a model? You're a sponsor, of course, but also someone who has worked in immigration and refugee space for years in your role as an immigration lawyer. Based on your experience as a sponsor so far, do you think sponsorship is a model that could be taken forward in the future? How do you think it compares to the other pathways that are available for refugees and what's its added value, if any?

[00:24:35.12] 

Private sponsorship is an excellent avenue in helping address the capacity issues, the capacity shortages in meeting our refugee resettlement targets. I know in this fiscal year, the United States could resettle up to 125,000 refugees, but just in the past eight months, only about 30,000 have actually been resettled. And my understanding is that one of the reasons why we're not meeting those targets is capacity issues with refugee resettlement agencies and just kind of getting those gears going and unsqueaked. And so I think that if private sponsorship can help unlock opportunities to resettle more refugees in the United States and help meet those generous targets that have been made, I think there's real potential. My hope moving forward in phase two of the Welcome Corps Program is that sponsor groups could work to help resettle family members who they might know in refugee camps. When I hosted the info session that I mentioned earlier, there were a number of refugees who attended, and their main question was, can the Welcome Corps Program help me bring my family to the United States because they are stuck in refugee camps currently under the Welcome Corps Program, that the model doesn't accommodate, like, specific selection of refugees to be resettled.

[00:26:27.04] 

But I think that if that element could be included in a future phase of the Welcome Corps Program, there would be significant interest among refugee communities within the United States and who are desperate for avenues to bring their own family members who are still in refugee camps around the world.

[00:26:52.02] 

And finally, maybe reflecting on your own experience, would you recommend sponsorship to others? And if so, do you have any final words of wisdom or advice for anyone who might want to become a sponsor themselves?

[00:27:06.00] 

It has been an extraordinarily fulfilling experience on a personal level, and anyone who has the heart for helping others during a particularly tumultuous time, I would highly recommend this experience and to be a Welcome Corps sponsor. But, you know, go into it knowing that there are challenges, there are commitments, there are many, many responsibilities. And, and as sponsors, we are often problem solvers, navigating systems that are unfamiliar to us. And so I think it takes a great level of patience and love and respect for those who have different backgrounds from ourselves, but together it has just been such a. A rewarding experience and one that I hope many other Americans will choose to be part of.

[00:28:12.22] 

And I'd add for anyone who is interested in finding out more about Welcome Corps or how to become a sponsor, you can go to welcomecorps.org for more information. Erin, it's been really been a pleasure and I've really just so enjoyed our conversation and hearing more about your experience in working. Worthington, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:28:35.24] 

Thank you, Susan, for having me.

[00:28:41.09] 

If you're interested in more of MPI's work on refugee resettlement policy, please visit our website at migrationpolicy.org thanks for tuning in to this episode of World of Migration. You can find all the episodes for World of Migration and other MPI podcasts at migrationpolicy.org/podcasts or find us wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for World of Migration and please leave us a review while you're there. This episode was produced by Yoseph Hamid and Michelle Mittelstadt and made possible with the help of Lisa Dixon. Our music is a song called Geographer by Bright Idea and my name is Susan Fratzke. Thanks again for listening.