Research commissioned by the Scottish Government to explore and assess the role of Scotland's 32 local authorities in supporting the integration of refugees and people seeking asylum.
Introduction
Since 2015, Scotland has welcomed an increasing number of refugees and people seeking asylum in reaction to a wave of recent humanitarian crises, from the civil war in Syria to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the forefront of the response to new refugee arrivals has been Scotland's local authorities, who have played a pivotal role in delivering humanitarian protection programmes and supporting refugee integration. In a complex and fast-moving policy environment, local authorities have adapted to a succession of new schemes to deliver a comprehensive package of integration support for refugees and people seeking asylum.
Through their work, local authorities in Scotland have developed a range of learning and experience in supporting refugee integration. At the same time, they have faced challenges in delivering integration support, particularly in response to the recent increase in refugee arrivals on the bespoke Afghan and Ukrainian humanitarian routes. Yet there has been little research to explore how local authorities have delivered humanitarian protection programmes and what can be learnt from their experiences. Given their wealth of expertise, it is critical to reflect on the work of local authorities in recent years to help inform future refugee integration strategy at both the local and the national level.
Purpose of the research
This report aims to explore and assess the approaches of Scotland's 32 local authorities in supporting the integration of refugees and people seeking asylum. It intends to offer an in-depth understanding of the role of local authorities in facilitating refugee integration in Scotland, including the unique role of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) in coordinating refugee resettlement activities and advocating on behalf of local authorities to shape refugee integration policy.
Local authorities in Scotland have built up considerable knowledge and experience in refugee integration since 2015, as delivery on the ground has had to respond at pace to new policy developments and humanitarian crises. By capturing the different approaches taken by local authorities across Scotland, their partnership working with other statutory agencies and the third sector, and the coordinating function of COSLA, the report aims to illuminate the work of local authorities in order to learn from recent successes and challenges. The ambition is for the report to inform both policy and practice, including the next iteration of the New Scots refugee integration strategy, as well as future local authority approaches to supporting refugees and people seeking asylum.
The report is the culmination of a research project on the role of local authorities in delivering humanitarian protection programmes and facilitating refugee integration, commissioned by the Scottish Government and COSLA's Migration, Population and Diversity team. This is part of the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project (NSRIDP), a two-year (2020-2022) EU-funded programme aimed at understanding, documenting and expanding the impact and reach of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy (2018-2022). The programme is supported by the European Commission's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and involves a partnership between the Scottish Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), the Scottish Refugee Council and the UNESCO Chair at the University of Glasgow.
One of the core aims of the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project is to understand and assess current approaches to refugee integration in Scotland to build on good practice and support innovative approaches to this work. As part of the overarching NSRIDP work, the eight aims of this project are to:
- Identify the operational functions and statutory obligations of Scottish local authorities in their delivery of humanitarian protection programmes, including refugee resettlement and integration, asylum dispersal and supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
- Describe and assess different approaches to humanitarian protection work across Scotland's 32 local authorities.
- Explore the coordinating function of COSLA's Strategic Migration Partnership and its effectiveness in supporting different humanitarian programmes from the perspective of local authorities.
- Identify the opportunities and challenges facing local authorities in delivering humanitarian protection programmes and facilitating refugee integration.
- Understand how devolved and reserved policy impacts on the work undertaken by local authorities.
- Generate insight and learning for local authorities and other stakeholders in Scotland, identifying and highlighting areas of good practice as well as challenges, gaps and areas of this work that have potential for improvement.
- Present and communicate findings and outputs in ways that are accessible and useful to a wide range of audiences, including local authority practitioners and policymakers.
- Generate actionable insights and findings that can be considered and reflected within the next iteration of Scotland's New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy
This report refers throughout to ‘humanitarian protection programmes'. While the meaning of this term can vary depending on the precise context, for the purposes of this report, ‘humanitarian protection programmes' refers to the UK resettlement and relocation schemes, placements for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, as well as service provision as part of asylum dispersal and those in emergency asylum accommodation.
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