Increases in displacement and forced migration is an enduring feature of many countries. Resettlement is a policy response to displacement, that relocates refugees from a country of asylum to a safe third country. Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program is noteworthy. It allows non-profit organizations and volunteer groups to support newcomers during their first year in Canada and has especially aided resettlement of Syrian refugees on an international scale. We take a critical look at this programme by focusing on the social implications of private sponsorship and Syrian newcomers’ experiences of resettlement. We view private sponsorship initiatives as furthering processes that privatise decision-making, identify specific sponsorship groups as objects of policy, and transfer public authority to private citizens and non-profit organizations to encourage refugee resettlement. We argue that the privatising processes defining private sponsorship are further complicated within localised settings. Based on scholarly, policy, and programme documents, and extensive semi-structured interviews with Syrian newcomers in southern Ontario, Canada, we illuminate what we call “localising the privatisation of refuge,” which calls attention to the various networks, activities and relations of power that define and shape the local, and the processes and experiences of refuge that take place within.

中文翻译：

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论批判的地方主义与避难所私有化：叙利亚新移民在加拿大的重新安置

流离失所和被迫移民的增加是许多国家的一个持久特征。重新安置是对流离失所的政策回应，将难民从庇护国重新安置到安全的第三国。加拿大的私人赞助难民计划值得注意。它允许非营利组织和志愿者团体在新移民抵达加拿大的第一年为他们提供支持，尤其是在国际范围内帮助重新安置叙利亚难民。我们通过关注私人赞助的社会影响和叙利亚新移民的重新安置经历来批判性地看待这个项目。我们将私人赞助计划视为推动决策私有化的过程，将特定赞助团体确定为政策对象，并将公共权力移交给私人公民和非营利组织，以鼓励难民重新安置。我们认为，定义私人赞助的私有化过程在本地化环境中更加复杂。基于学术、政策和计划文件，以及对加拿大安大略省南部叙利亚新移民的广泛半结构化访谈，我们阐明了我们所谓的“避难所私有化本地化”，这引起了人们对各种网络、活动和关系的关注。定义和塑造当地的权力，以及发生在当地的避难过程和体验。