Abstract
There are over 79.5 million people globally who have been forcibly displaced, comprising refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people. In 2019, 26 million of these were registered as refugees. People may be forced to flee to safety for a plethora of reasons. Aotearoa New Zealand accepts refugees for resettlement under various pathway programmes. This thesis investigates two refugee resettlement pathways in Aotearoa New Zealand: the state-led Refugee Quota Programme, and the community sponsor-led Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship (CORS) category. Dunedin is used as a case study for the state-led programme, with Timaru and Nelson as the CORS-led case studies. The research examines what both programmes consist of and seeks to uncover and understand the everyday lived experiences of support organisations, volunteers, and former refugees who have entered the country through these two pathways. Refugees’ backgrounds are precarious, and the negotiation often carries into the resettlement period since refugees must adapt to a new country and way of life. To aid in resettlement, frameworks must be both pragmatic in meeting the needs of former refugees, and must also encompass a network of genuine care to ensure the successful integration of former refugees into the host community. It is, however, not a simple process to foster both a top-down approach and a caring strategy, and this thesis considers the barriers to effective refugee resettlement such as structural injustices and the depoliticisation of the ‘refugee’. Support agencies, volunteers, and the overall host community hold important roles to easing former refugees’ transition to life in Aotearoa New Zealand.