The wider impact of Community Sponsorship on communities

The Community Sponsorship Scheme (CSS) was introduced in the UK in July 2016 enabling community groups to support the resettlement of refugees. In late 2017 the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) at the University of Birmingham commenced a formative evaluation of the CSS. Between 2017 and March 2020 IRiS has undertaken a total of 250 interviews. These include 61 with refugees, 145 with CSS volunteers, 12 with thought leaders who were engaged in sponsorship from the outset of the scheme and 32 with wider community
members in CSS areas. The evaluation involved 22 groups in rural and urban areas in all four countries of the UK. This policy briefing draws on the findings of interviews with wider community members looking at the impact of the CSS on knowledge of, and attitudes to, refugees in five small towns characterised by low levels of ethnic diversity.