Advocacy

The first big advocacy win that CRSA contributed to was, of course, the announcement of the CRISP program. The success of this program is CRSA’s current operational focus, but that doesn’t mean that our advocacy work has ended!

We continue to advocate for policies, programs and resources to ensure that community-led efforts to welcome and support refugees can grow and improve Australia’s humanitarian migration program in line with our organisational mission.

Our current policy priorities include:

• advocacy work to ensure that the CRISP program becomes permanent and additional to the humanitarian intake quota;
• advocacy, research and design work to create an affordable ‘named’ sponsorship program allowing Australians to sponsor refugees they know; and
• establishing educational sponsorship pathways for refugees wishing to settle in Australia.

A NOTE ABOUT ‘ADDITIONALITY’:
The CRISP program currently draws on visas from within Australia’s overall humanitarian quota. However in 2023, under the Albanese Government, this quota was increased 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. We continue to advocate for community sponsorship programs like CRISP to become structurally ‘additional’ to the humanitarian intake quota but are pleased that CRISP is now making a contribution to an enlarged government-backed Australian resettlement effort.’ Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles reaffirmed the governments commitment to the principal of additionality, and to expanding community sponsored pathways to 10,000 places per year, in this September 2023 statement made to mark the first anniversary of the CRISP. The Australian Labor Party also has ambitions to also progressively increase the traditional government-led resettlement quota to 27,000 per annum (see ALP National Platform here).

Nov 2023: Global Refugee Forum 2023 Australian Community Sponsorship Pledge

Ahead of the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) this December, the CRSA team invite you to help us tell the global community and the Australian government that everyday Australians and the organisations they belong to wish to see more refugees given the opportunity to rebuild their lives in safety in Australia through ‘community sponsorship’, in addition to the government maintaining and building government-led resettlement programs.

By endorsing the GRF 2023 Australian Community Sponsorship Pledge, we will collectively be telling the Australian government and the global community that we will do our bit to support and expand community sponsorship. More

May 2023: Submission to Department of Home Affairs consultation on Australia’s Annual Humanitarian Intake for 2023-24

Our submission elaborates on our key advocacy points (see above) and can be read here.

April 2023: Complementary Pathways

Australia has or is piloting a range of initiatives that could provide safe pathways for the world’s 32,5m refugees. In partnership with the Refugee Council of Australia, Talent Beyond Boundaries, the Refugee Education Special Interest group, the Settlement Council of Australia, CRSA has developed policy principles for unlocking these pathways. More