Catholic Social Teaching:

Mana Whakahaere

Great Examples: Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship

More people than ever are forced to flee their home country for safety or refuge. Refugees are people who are forced to flee due to a number of different reasons: conflict, persecution, poverty, and a lack of food. There are currently millions of forcibly displaced people in the world. Only a small fraction have been resettled into another country.

So what can we do? It’s easy for us to feel overwhelmed or helpless. But our team of five million have a part to play. There are a few different ways that refugees can resettle and call Aotearoa home. One of them is through Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship (CORS). While the annual refugee quota and family reunification offer ways into New Zealand, CORS is an additional pathway which complements the other two existing pathways. This means that more refugees can be welcomed onto our shores. Rather than government taking all the responsibility, CORS enables New Zealand based
communities and organisations to directly help refugees to settle into the community.

The principle of Subsidiarity means ensuring that decision-making happens at the most appropriate level, so all those affected can contribute. Let’s use CORS as an example. The Government acknowledges that NZ can and needs to play a bigger part to help in the global refugee crisis, and has opened up CORS as a pathway, and provides visas for refugees to enter New Zealand. The church, community and former refugees know what is needed to settle a family into their community; and they can bring people with different skills together. The incoming refugee family know themselves best and can decide on what school to send their children to, and what house they want to live in. Each family, community, association and group of people have gifts and needs unique to them.

During the government’s pilot of CORS from 2017, Caritas worked alongside several Catholic communities and organisations to support a refugee family settle into New Zealand. In mid-2020 the New Zealand Government extended the CORS pathway. This was made possible by government listening to the voices from the community who had supported the incoming refugee families as well as former refugees themselves. Local groups have important insights into what is best for their communities. CORS means that communities can actively engage in refugee resettlement; in this case it has meant communities can work in partnership with government. CORS connects empathetic people, utilises their networks and skills, and empowers them to support a refugee family. In turn the refugees have an already established community supporting them, allowing for building of relationships, support in finding employment, assistance in sourcing housing and household items, help in settling the children into school, and our communities are enriched by welcoming the stranger. Jesus said that when we welcome the stranger, we welcome him.

CORS has the potential to transform both the incoming refugees and the communities. CORS is creating the opportunity for government and grass-root communities to work together in ensuring the most
appropriate outcome for all.