Refugee policy: international cooperation put to the test

Responsibility for refugees currently rests heavily on the shoulders of countries neighboring a conflict. All too often, refugees lack long-term prospects. In acute crises, flexible approaches that give refugees greater scope for decision-making have also proven valuable – helping host organizations and refugees alike. One example is the European Union’s Temporary Protection Directive, which the EU activated after the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022. This enabled Ukrainian refugees to travel quickly and unbureaucratically to friends, family or other hosts in various European countries, as well as to places where they had a good chance of finding a job. This in turn reduced the pressure on accommodations and support services in the immediate border states such as Poland.

Another approach that offers more opportunities to refugees and therefore more agency is to make it easier for refugees to seek employment in other countries. The Global Task Force on Refugee Labor Mobility is an initiative working on this issue. Many refugees are potential employees but are often stuck for years in a country where they lack job prospects. Canada and the UK already have programs that allow refugees seeking work to immigrate, and other countries are in the process of creating such paths.

In order to migrate to a country as a worker, valid travel documents are required. As many refugees do not have these, a "Nansen Passport 2.0", a generally recognized proof of identity for refugees, could be a solution. At the Global Refugee Forum, numerous stakeholders are lobbying states to support this idea.
 

One key deficit in international refugee policy is that refugees have had too little meaningful opportunities for participation. Less than 3 percent of participants at the last Global Refugee Forum were refugees. Their increased participation would not only add more legitimacy to the forum, their perspective and knowledge would also contribute to the development of better political instruments and programs – to the benefit of host societies and for the refugees themselves. 

There are now numerous civil society organizations led by refugees that want to become politically engaged. We are committed to ensuring that they receive more financial support and more opportunities for their voices to be heard. So far, only a fraction of the global funding for refugees has gone to the organizations led by refugees, even though they do vital work on the ground and usually know best what refugee communities need. Together with Open Society Foundations, the Robert Bosch Stiftung is supporting "R-Space" at the Global Refugee Forum, a place for discussions and networking on the topic of refugee leadership and participation – developed and created by various refugee-led organizations.