Innovation & Advocacy

CRSA is continually exploring the power of community-led welcome by learning from colleagues around the world, testing new ideas and partnering with other organisations seeking to improve and expand solutions for refugees.

We then advocate for policies, programs, and resources to bring these ideas to life. Our work includes:

 

  • Developing and supporting sponsored pathways for refugees – Research, policy and advocacy work to develop new sponsorship streams including “named” sponsorship and crisis response models (eg arrivals from sudden onset conflicts).
  • Leading innovation, collaboration and cross-fertilisation – Convening and leading sector discussions and initiatives focused on developing and scaling new complementary pathways. These include education and labour mobility schemes for refugees and how the community sponsorship model can support such pathways. To learn more, visit our Other Programs page.
  • Demonstrating success – Showcasing how these models deliver benefits for refugee newcomers, local communities and others with aligned goals.

Current Advocacy Priorities

Our publications page includes recent submissions and policy briefs and articles.

1. Advocacy for community sponsorship and other complementary pathways to increase access to safety in Australia 

The CRISP program currently draws on visas from within Australia’s humanitarian intake. It was launched in 2022. In 2023 the Australian government increased this quota to 20,000 places per annum (previously 13,750 places per annum plus the special Afghan intake of 4,000 places per year for 4 years), partly aided by the new CRISP model. The team is proud that the CRISP is contributing to an enlarged, government-backed Australian resettlement effort. We continue to advocate for the CRISP and other community sponsorship programs to become structurally additional to the humanitarian intake quota.

We note that the current government has made commitments to the principle of “additionality” which we hope to see realised in the near future.

2. Researching, designing and advocating for a permanent and additional “linked” community sponsorship program.

CRSA is leading civil society efforts to design and advocate for a new approach to “named” or “linked” community sponsorship program – a better way for Australians to sponsor refugees known to them or identified by them. This will tap into a variety of connections and motives for more Australian communities to sponsor, including family reunion, affinity-based sponsorship, and education/skills-based sponsorship. Currently, the only program in Australia that allows this has restrictive criteria and other features that exclude many would-be sponsorships.

Read our draft framework for a new approach to named community sponsorship HERE.

3. Advocating for community sponsorship to assist in emergency intakes

 CRSA is working with colleagues in the sector to show the power and potential of community sponsorship in times of crisis, like when Australia offered protection to Afghan evacuees in 2021 or to support arrivals from Ukraine in 2023 and Gaza in 2024. Everyday Australians typically want to help in times of crisis and community sponsorship offers a robust but flexible way to harness community compassion and resources.

4. Demonstrating how community sponsorship can work for student and labour pathways.

Visit our other programs page to learn more about this work.

Our pulications page includes recent submissions and policy briefs and articles.