This international literature review on refugee resettlement policy was commissioned by the Department of Labour. The review relates to the OECD and European Union, with an emphasis on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the following countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America. These countries were chosen because they are developed countries with resettlement programmes and offer a range of models and approaches to refugee resettlement.

The review provides a description of policies and practices regarding refugee resettlement. It also summarises available evidence from previous reviews of policy and practice to identify factors that contribute to the success or failure of resettlement policy and practice. The focus of the review is to summarise and organise rather than analyse the existing descriptive and analytical material in the literature.

For each of the countries listed, the review describes both legal and policy definitions used to categorise refugees. It also provides an overview of policies and practices including:

• The rationale for the general policy and high level outcomes sought
• Selection eligibility – criteria and processes for selecting UNHCR quota refugees and factors taken into account when planning
• Resettlement and planning approaches, including models relating to:
• Pre-arrival planning for quota refugees
• Orientation programmes
• Status
• Geographical dispersal approaches
• Approaches to service provision, including:
• Tendering and contracting of services
• Centralised service hubs
• Refugee-specific compared with mainstream services
• Length of time that refugees are eligible for specialist support services
• Roles and responsibilities across different sectors (government, local government, NGO, refugee communities, host communities) and the extent of co-ordination across these sectors
• Sector expectations of refugees
• Systems for auditing, monitoring, and evaluating resettlement processes
• Approaches to funding (e.g. contracting services)
• Systems and approaches to monitoring outcomes.

Refugee Resettlement: A Literature Review is available from the New Zealand Department of Labour’s website at http://www.dol.govt.nz/publications/research/resettlement/resettlement.pdf
For further information, contact research@dol.govt.nz, or visit www.immigration.govt.nz/research