Work

Named Sponsorship and Newcomer Settlement: Insights from Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Named sponsorship allows sponsors to identify the specific refugees they wish to welcome and support, yet very little is known about the human links underpinning naming or how these impact newcomer settlement. Drawing on interviews with sponsors and other stakeholders in Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program, this article offers two contributions. First, it shows that named sponsorship is used by a range of sponsors with diverse relationships to the refugees they name, challenging prevalent assumptions that named sponsorship is used exclusively by family members seeking reunification. Second, within this heterogeneity, we identify four types of named sponsorship and map the distinct impact that each type has on the settlement journey of sponsored newcomers.

Source: Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies

DOI: 10.1080/15562948.2026.2637924

Authors: Tihomir Sabchev, Jennifer Bond

Institutions: University of Ottawa, Tilburg University

Language: English

Topic: Migration, Refugees, and Integration

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Award: G1869488273