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Evaluation of the German Community Sponsorship Programme "NesT – New Start in a Team" ,
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The Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees evaluated the Community Sponsorship Programme "New Start in a Team" (NesT) between 2019 and 2022.
The NesT Programme
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Between May 2019 and December 2022, the German Federal Government piloted a community sponsorship programme called "NesT – New Start in a Team". NesT became a regular programme of the German Federal Government on January 1. 2023. The programme is part of the German Resettlement Scheme and is designed to admit up to 200 refugees. It enables local volunteer groups to sponsor the admission of refugees. The goal is not only to offer additional resettlement opportunities for refugees in need of special protection, but also to provide them with financial and integration support after their arrival in Germany. The sponsorship groups provide financial support for the refugees' accommodation for a period of one year. They also assist the refugees in exercising their rights, gaining access to the welfare provisions, and integrating into the local community.
Refugees within the Resettlement Programme as well as in NesT fled their countries of origin and reside in a first country of asylum. Resettlement and NesT grant them a safe pathway to protection and the perspective of a long-term stay in Germany.
The various governmental and civil society actors collaborate closely with one another. The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration, and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees are responsible for implementing the programme, while a Civil Society Contact Point – especially set up for NesT – provides information and offers training for sponsors.
Evaluating the programme
A formative evaluation was conducted by the Research Centre during the pilot phase of the programme. The study focuses on three key areas: the recruitment and schooling of sponsors, the matching of refugees with sponsorship groups, and the first year after arrival in Germany. The study contributes to the ongoing scientific discourse on the role of humanitarian refugee admission programmes and aims at providing evidence-based policy advice. The evaluation is based on qualitative interviews and administrative data. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with sponsors, refugees, and actors responsible for NesT and analysed administrative data concerning the sponsors’ recruitment process and the refugees' admission process.
The results of the evaluation are available online in the research report 44 "The German Community-based Sponsorship Programme 'NesT – New Start in a Team': Implementation Study".