ReHIn

Integrating refugees – What works? What can work? What does not work? A summary of the evidence

Date launched

June - 2019

Ending date

Language/s

English

Focus

Social inclusion/ Language learning/ Mental illness/ General Guidance of integrating refugees/ Employment

Type of resources

Policy paper

Education

Asynchronous

Country of lead organization

United Kingdom

Lead organization

UK Home office

Who is financing it?

UK government/ Home office

Target population

Anyone working with the refugees of develop "projects" for the refugees.

Summary

This is a general guidance of how to integrate refugees into society. The term "project" used on any kind of project ( community building, research project, etc.)
It provides a list of guidance on what works, what might work and what is not working while trying to integrating refugees.

URL

Main Objectives

This guidance justifies the following as working in integrating refugees:

  • Cultural orientation
  • Language skills are intrinsic to refugee integration and wellbeing
  • High-quality social connections promote integration
  • Partnerships between migrant refugee community organisations and other institutions can promote positive change and integration

The following as can work in integrating refugees:

  • Projects that are adaptable, developed from best practice, co-designed, co-delivered and effectively evaluated
  • Focusing on the community
  • Developing leaders in refugee communities
  • Recognising the needs of different migrant groups
  • Strategies at the national and local level are needed to facilitate integration
  • Strategies that facilitate migrants’ access to the labour market
  • Rapid initial access to the labour market is important
  • Placing resettled refugees in geographic locations conducive to employment
  • Tailored support facilitates access to the labour market
  • Support for employers to employ migrants
  • The presence of family members facilitates integration
  • Supporting migrants’ physical and psychological health and minimising time spent in detention

Pedagogical methodologies used

Identified innovation elements

The document emphasises the need of the refugees to be in the centre of the integration action by co-design and participate in decision making. It has been developed based on existing evidence form literature and the UK' Home office.

Lesson learnt

It aligns with ReHIn principle of co-creation of educational resources having the refugee in the centre of the development. Including them at different stages of the development process and tailoring the resource to their needs are most effective according to the guidance. The guidance mentions "A database of best practice could be developed using a crowd-sourcing approach
wherein projects could input their own examples of best practice. This could inform
future project development." This is inline with ReHIn objerctives which aim to use existing best practices to improve healthcare integration. ReHiN follows the ASPIRE participatory framework, which engage the stakeholders at the evaluation stage of the development of the RLOs. This guidance suggest evaluation as an action that can work and effective monitoring and evaluation will avoid wasted public money, while it will also promote continuing refinement and adaptation of projects.

Scability potential

While the advice is generic, it can be applied to healthcare integration of refugees both in terms of health services, but also for developing educational and promotional resources for health integration.

Others comments

Cite as Coley, Joseph, Godin, Marie, Morrice, Linda, Phillimore, Jenny and Tah, Carolyne (2019) Integrating refugees: What works? What can work? What does not work? A summary of the evidence, second edition. Project Report. Home Office. Url: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/812891/intergrating-refugees-2019.pdf