Instrumentalising refugees: organisational networks and the precarity of US refugee resettlement
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper examines how nonprofit resettlement agencies (RAs) in the United States navigate systemic funding inadequacies by constructing local ‘resettlement networks’. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with RAs across the country, we demonstrate that these networks are forged and sustained through the instrumentalisation of refugees as resources exchanged with donors, landlords, employers, politicians, and volunteers. We argue that this instrumentalisation – often hidden behind humanitarian rhetoric – can generate coercive, exploitative relationships and (re)produces inequalities across refugee populations. Furthermore, this dynamic embeds precarity into the resettlement system, as sharp declines in refugee arrivals can lead resettlement networks to disintegrate, leaving those entitled to services adrift and undermining state capacity. Our findings reveal contradictions within neoliberal welfare models, highlighting the costs of devolved, underfunded public/private partnerships. This paper contributes critical insights into the intersection of refugee policy, organisational sociology, and welfare state studies, underscoring the need to reimagine and reform resettlement policy.
Authors: Jake Watson, Heba Gowayed
Institutions: University of California San Diego, Hunter College
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: Boston University
OpenAlex ID: W4410317004