Social Capital Connections: The Role of Civil Society in Fostering Successful Refugee Integration in the Global North

By: Matthias Hoenisch

Abstract

The study of refugees generally discusses three stages of the refugee experience: the experiences of individuals which force them to leave their country of origin, the process of migration, and finally their resettlement. This third phase of refugeehood, the resettlement and integration stage, is often the longest part of the forced migration process. This paper will explore the role played by civil society organizations (CSOs) in facilitating the integration of refugees into their new communities in the Global North. Using the specific case of refugee resettlement in Canada, it will argue that the success of community refugee integration in the Global North is reliant on the presence of a strong civil society. It will reference the works of Putnam (1995), Harrell-Bond (2002), and Alkan (2021) to establish the benefits of CSOs in community-building before delving into case studies from Canada, the United Kingdom, and Norway that will illuminate the author’s argument. After acknowledging some weaknesses of CSOs, it will conclude by arguing that CSOs remain integral to ensuring the successful community integration of refugees in the Global North.

L’étude des réfugiés évoque généralement trois étapes de l’expérience des réfugiés : les expériences des individus qui les forcent à quitter leur pays d’origine, le processus de migration et enfin, leur réinstallation. Cette troisième phase du statut de réfugié, l’étape de réinstallation et d’intégration, est souvent la partie la plus longue du processus de migration forcée. Cet article explorera le rôle joué par les organisations de la société civile (OSC) pour faciliter l’intégration des réfugiés dans leurs nouvelles communautés des pays du Nord. En utilisant le cas spécifique de la réinstallation des réfugiés au Canada, il soutiendra que le succès de l’intégration communautaire des réfugiés dans le Nord dépend de la présence d’une société civile forte. Il fera référence aux travaux de Putnam (1995), Harrell-Bond (2002) et Alkan (2021) pour établir les bienfaits des OSC dans le renforcement des communautés avant de se plonger dans des études de cas du Canada, du Royaume-Uni et de la Norvège qui éclaireront l’argumentation de l’auteur. Après avoir reconnu certaines faiblesses des OSC, l’article conclura en affirmant que les OSC restent essentielles pour assurer la réussite de l’intégration communautaire des réfugiés dans les pays du Nord.

Introduction

The study of refugees generally discusses three stages of the refugee experience: the factors which force individuals to leave their homes, their migration, and their resettlement. This third phase of refugeehood, the resettlement and integration stage, is often the longest part of the forced migration process. It can take years, even decades, for people to rebuild a sense of “rootedness” in their new home after being unceremoniously forced from their native land, as illuminated by Liisa Malkki. 1 As such, it is of utmost importance that refugee-accepting states engage in efforts to facilitate the integration of new arrivals into their new communities. However, state governments often fail to adequately fund or manage their own resettlement programs. 2 Upon whom, then, does the onus of assisting the refugee resettlement and integration process fall? Drawing on sociology and anthropology, this paper will explore the role played by civil society organizations in integrating refugees into their new communities. Focusing on refugee resettlement in Canada, I will argue that the success of refugee integration in the Global North is dependent on the presence of a strong civil society. I will also incorporate case studies from the United Kingdom and Norway. While imperfect at providing humanitarian support, a strong civil society is essential for supporting the successful integration of refugees into Global North communities. Civil society organizations (CSOs) offer key services to help refugees establish roots and grow an attachment to their new community. Filling in the gaps left by government services, CSOs support refugees in two main ways: practically, by providing job-seeking support, childcare, and other services; and relationally, through the cultivation of social capital. Social capital constitutes the tangible and intangible networks that connect society and empower refugees to become more integrated into the fabric of their new community. To begin, I will define civil society by invoking the work of Robert Putnam and will argue for the superiority of CSOs over humanitarian NGOs. I will then discuss the role played by CSOs in creating a welcoming environment for refugees and a sense of relatability between refugees and locals. A presentation of case studies will ensue, followed by a brief discussion on the weaknesses of CSOs.

The Importance of Civil Society

Civil society can be defined as the associations and institutions which host social engagement. The organizations that constitute civil society include religious groups, labour unions, sporting clubs, fraternal organizations, and all manners of groups in which individuals interact to form interpersonal connections based on mutual interests. According to Robert Putnam, these connections create “social capital”: norms and shared understandings which facilitate communication, trust, and cooperation for common gains within a society. 3 It follows, then, that a society with high rates of CSO participation should be more trusting, more cooperative, more unified, and more successful. 4 A community with these qualities is understood as having a strong civil society.

Trust, unity, and cooperation are integral to the successful integration of refugees into a new community. Increased trust can be seen as a reduction in the likelihood of xenophobic attitudes towards others, as fear and mistrust are at the root of these dangerous sentiments. 5 In the context of anti-immigrant violence in South Africa, Christina Steenkamp emphasizes the importance of trust in creating bonds between different societal groups. 6 Unity and cooperation are similarly important for refugee integration. In the complicated process of societal integration and acceptance, the sense of collective effort is crucial for creating a welcoming community for refugees. 7

One could argue that NGOs, not CSOs, are the most important type of organization for supporting the refugee resettlement and integration process. Humanitarian NGOs are generally well-funded and well-organized. 8 They often collaborate with governments and international organizations seeking to provide humanitarian aid. 9 However, as argued by Barbara Harrell-Bond, interactions between aid NGOs and refugees can create a power imbalance which reduces refugees to almost sub-human units, limiting their rights in an unintentionally inhumane manner. 10 Harrell-Bond’s work focuses on the case of NGOs in Uganda, but it also applies to marginalized refugees in the Global North because many refugee-oriented NGOs operate in both the Global North and Global South. Additionally, NGOs are beholden to their donors’ desires when planning aid efforts. Daniel A. Bell and Joseph H. Carens argue that fundraising through governments and private donors creates an ethical tension around the actions of NGOs. 11 This further reduces the positive impacts of NGOs’ work with refugee communities.

To aid and empower refugees more effectively, organizations must reduce the influence of donors in decision-making and remove the dependent relationship created between themselves and the refugees they seek to help. 12 As an alternative to NGOs, CSOs have qualities which make them much more suitable for the role of helping to resettle and integrate refugees into their new communities. They are community-oriented by definition, and their offerings to refugees are generally not of the variety that creates dependency, like food or money. Rather, they offer a sense of community engagement, relatability, and inclusion which is extremely valuable for refugees in a new home.

Relatability is a particularly important quality for connecting refugees to their new communities. 13 One way of creating relatability is through hospitality, as hospitality increases trust and stimulates positive long-term relationships. The ethnographic work of Hilal Alkan 14 argues that hospitable gift-giving creates a reciprocal relationship between the giver and the receiver that compels both parties to connect as individuals; hospitality “creates relations that are not contractual, equal, or strictly bounded in time. It turns complete strangers who happen to knock on the door into others with whom one can engage and possibly coexist.” 15 The creation of this relatability is an important benefit of CSOs. Because membership in many of these organizations is centered around common interests, and because they are inherently more personal and freer from the outside influences of donors and sponsors, CSOs can act as a strong bridge between refugees and the local community. Connections which begin with relatability and shared interests can create a path to the formation of even closer forms of community integration.

Civil Society Organizations and Economic Integration

Especially in North America, an important piece of the refugee resettlement process is the integration of refugees into their local economy. 16 Language barriers and the complicated process of transferring diplomas make it difficult for immigrants to enter the workforce. Becoming an independent business owner is often the best option for refugees seeking to enter the local economy. This is a very good option, as immigrants or refugees who own their business have flexibility around scheduling and control over their salary. In addition, their businesses often become local hubs for other community members of the same background. 17 Unfortunately, administrative inefficiency and cultural barriers still pose significant challenges to refugees’ entrepreneurial efforts. 18

Civil society organizations play an important role in creating a community environment that is conducive to successful refugee entrepreneurship. The work of Hack-Polay and Igwe discusses how small, local volunteer organizations in the U.K. can act as a “catalyst to refugees rebuilding their lives, settlement, seeking employment or starting their own business.” 19 These local volunteer organizations can be seen as a type of CSO in that they are constituted of local community members who share a common interest. These compassionate, bottom-up organizations employ creative and flexible problem-solving techniques to support refugees’ needs. They provide a welcoming environment for refugees and introduce them to a wide network of community connections which can assist in everything from English language lessons to applying for jobs and completing government documentation, effectively bridging the cultural and linguistic divides which create barriers to economic integration. Membership in refugee supporting CSOs is also self-sustaining; many members of these organizations are refugees who were helped by the organizations when they first arrived in the UK. 20 Without the help of these CSOs, many immigrants would have greater difficulty entering the local economy and becoming integrated into the community.. . .

The Weakness of Civil Society Organizations

Thus far, I have argued that CSOs are crucially im- portant in facilitating the resettlement and integration of refugees in the Global North. This suggests that the social capital gains and support offered by CSOs would be impossible for governments or international aid organizations to provide. It must be noted that there is still an important place for national governments and international aid organizations in Global North refugee regimes in that their resources and organizational capacities far exceed those of the largest CSOs. While CSOs offer immensely important services and serve as platforms for refugees’ development of social capital in their new communities, they are far from perfect organizations. The presence of a civil society does not guarantee productive CSOs, nor does the presence of CSOs guarantee that the given community is accepting of refugees or ethnic minorities. Two of Canada’s most common types of CSOs, hockey clubs and Christian organizations, have notoriously poor records on diversity and racial inclusion. 21

CSOs may not be uniformly positive organizations, often lacking the resources and organizational capabilities of humanitarian agencies and governments. But the benefits of the practical services offered by CSOs for refugees are too significant to overlook. CSOs are crucial in helping refugees forge social bonds with their new communities and create social capital, as explained by Hilal Alkan and Oliver Schmidtke. In addition, their provision of services is essential to refugees, ensuring they are well fed and employed. 22 The variety of benefits CSOs produce for refugees makes them invaluable for empowering the refugee integration; no other type of organization has proved capable of adequately fulfilling these needs. Despite clear evidence that CSOs are powerful forces in encouraging the economic and social integration of immigrants into Global North communities, they are far from monolithic, forming and operating in a variety of ways. To better understand the nature of CSOs as unique organizations with shared benefits, we can assess case studies of CSOs in the Global North.. . .

Case Study: Refugees Welcome to the Arctic

In communities and countries with strong civil societies, cooperative groups and grassroots CSOs can be formed rapidly to respond to the needs of the community. This was the case in the tiny town of Kirkenes, Norway in 2015. When thousands of Syrian refugees entered northern Norway from Russia, their first stop was in Kirkenes, a community of around 3,500 people. 23 To support these refugees, local Norwegians founded Refugees Welcome to the Arctic (RWTA), an organization created to support the newly arrived Syrian refugees. Tens of thousands of Norwegians joined the organization, and RWTA managed to provide a huge quantity of food for the refugees. 24

At the time, the Norwegian national government had adopted a refugee policy described as “helping people where they are” 25 – in other words, sending funding for humanitarian aid to common refugee source countries and discouraging refugees from seeking asylum in Europe—and especially Norway. When the Syrian refugees inevitably arrived in Norway despite these discouragements, the Norwegian government refused to supply them with sufficient aid. 26 The founders and members of RWTA saw where additional support for refugees was needed and took action to feed thousands of refugees, openly rejecting the Norwegian government’s xenophobic policies in the process. The case of RWTA is a great example of civil society’s ability to fill in the cracks when the local government fails to provide the necessary aid for refugees.

The Canadian Context

Canada applauds itself as a diverse “cultural mosaic” of a country, 27 and thus its federal government tries to market itself as an accepting, welcoming country for refugees. Despite this pro-refugee façade, Canada lags behind 33 other countries in terms of its refugee population. 28 This contradiction between Canada’s self-promoted image and its actual government policy around refugees seeps into the bureaucracy and into the experiences of refugees in Canada. Government resettlement programs have serious weaknesses driven by bureaucratic inefficiency that makes language acquisition, accreditation of foreign education, and finding employment opportunities all extremely challenging processes. The “one-size-fits-all” approach to Canadian refugee resettlement and the bureaucratic inefficiency endemic to the Canadian government lead to a failure by the Canadian government in its efforts to create a cultural mosaic. 29

Despite the discouraging results of governmental efforts to resettle and integrate refugees in Canada, CSOs and civil society as a whole can support refugee integration in Canada. The work of Lamba and Krahn highlights the importance of familial and social networks – and the social capital fostered by these networks – in facilitating the resettlement process. 30 The social capital built through these relationships can be channeled by refugees needing assistance with a broad range of challenges, and has been shown to be an essential resource for a successful integration and resettlement. 31 When faced with problems related to employment and health, refugees in Canada call on social capital connections outside of their family more often than within. 32 Considering the importance of health and economic entry, it is clear that maintaining strong social capital connections is crucial for refugees. Bearing in mind that many refugees do not possess financial capital or human capital in the form of a Canadian-recognized formal education, the main resource at refugees’ disposal in their new Canadian communities is social capital. 33

Civil society can play a valuable role in giving refugees in Canada a platform from which to build social capital. Schmidtke argues that a crucial piece of refugee integration is empowering refugees to become involved in public discourse and local policy making. 34 Having influence in local politics requires a significant amount of social capital, so CSOs that support refugees in gaining a political voice are extremely valuable in the resettlement and integration process. In Vancouver, British Columbia, community-run Neighbourhood Houses, a form of grassroots

CSO that have provided resources for those in need for over 80 years, are a key source of social capital – along with more tangible offerings like after-school care for children, support in seeking employment, and cultural events. 35 By fostering an inclusive, diverse environment with low-risk opportunities for social engagement, leadership, and collective goal-setting, these Neighbourhood Houses create numerous ways for refugees to construct their own social capital. In facilitating incremental steps towards greater societal involvement in a low-pressure environment, Neighbourhood Houses give refugees the chance to build a solid foundation of social capital in their new homes. 36

This same principle applies to all CSOs, which we can now see as both being the providers of practical support, like help with job applications and with navigating bureaucracy, and as means of accessing and building social capital, which refugees can then harness to enhance their connection to their new community. Such services are extremely valuable for refugees and would not be provided without the presence of a strong civil society.

Conclusion

The resettlement and integration stage of the refugee experience can be an incredibly frustrating and long-winded process. While governments and aid organizations often provide essential housing, food, and documentation for refugees upon their arrival in their new community, these actors consistently fail to facilitate the process of economic, political, and social integration for refugees. Instead, civil society organizations fulfill the crucial role of providing refugees with support in a wide range of areas. The case studies of the local volunteer organizations in the U.K., Refugees Welcome to the Arctic, and the Neighbourhood Houses in Vancouver demonstrate how CSOs are an essential resource for refugees in the Global North. CSOs can act with the support of governments but are often formed in response to the recognition of inadequate government policies toward refugees. From providing practical help with job applications, finding childcare, and organizing events to creating opportunities and platforms from which refugees can build their own social capital to become more connected to their communities, CSOs are fundamental to the process of refugee integration in the Global North.

At the baseline level, a strong civil society’s value for refugees lies in Robert Putnam’s description of social capital. The presence of a strong civil society and of CSOs allows for the creation of norms and shared understandings which facilitate communication, trust, and cooperation for mutual gains within a society. In an environment where communication, trust, cooperation, and interpersonal relatability are prevalent, refugees can resettle, integrate, and flourish.

Endnotes

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Christina Steenkamp, “Xenophobia in South Africa: What Does it Say about Trust?,” The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 98, (10 July 2009): 439-447, https://doi. org/10.1080/00358530903017949. 6. Steenkamp, “Xenophobia in South Africa,” 444-446. 7. Victoria M. Esses, Leah K. Hamilton, Caroline Bennett-AbuAyyash, and Meyer Burstein, Characteristics of a Welcoming Community, 5, March 2010, http://p2pcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Characteristics-of-a-Welcoming-Community-11.pdf. 8. Daniel A. Bell and Joseph H. Carens, “The Ethical Dilemmas of International Human Rights and Humanitarian NGOs: Reflections on a Dialogue between Practitioners and Theorists,” Human Rights Quarterly 26, no. 2 (May 2004): 300–329, https://doi.org/10.1353/ hrq.2004.0017. 9. Bell and Carens, “Reflections on a Dialogue,” 324-326. 10. Barbara E. 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