Following the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, numerous civil society initiatives were started to help resettle families and individuals who were fleeing conflicts in the Middle East. In France, where refugee reception has tended to be administered by the State and state-sponsored NGOs, new forms of collective sponsorship of refugees are being encouraged by the government, particularly in small towns and rural areas, where infrastructures for reception and housing are non-existent.
This presentation will focus of local citizen networks and their efforts to resettle refugees. Drawing on fieldwork findings from several rural municipalities, it discusses how this work at the local level, which often is focused on humanitarian support, can come at odds with expectations for integration and public policies and procedures regarding migrants and refugees at the State level.
