Emily Longtin

Topic

Walking Alongside Refugees: Strengths and Challenges of Canadian Private Sponsorship

Department of Psychology

Date & location

• Thursday, August 18, 2022
• 9:30 A.M.
• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Catherine Costigan, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Danu Stinson, Department of Psychology, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Leslie Butt, Department of Anthropology, UVic

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Paul Schure, Department of Eocnomics, UVic

Abstract

As the global refugee crisis grows increasingly dire, the Canadian government has raised quotas for refugee resettlement through the Privately Sponsored Refugees Program. Private sponsors provide emotional, financial, and practical support to refugees throughout the sponsorship agreement. The limited research on private sponsorship consists mainly of region-specific samples in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, which may not be representative of day-to-day private sponsorship across Canada. This research draws on Intergroup Contact Theory to situate how private sponsors can approach sponsorship in ways that support or hinder refugee autonomy. In the current study, Canadian private sponsors (N = 155, 73% female) completed an online survey containing vignettes and various ratings to assess values, attitudes, behavioural intentions, and sponsorship group process. Together, findings indicated that both autonomy supportive and restrictive approaches are occurring in private sponsorship. Reflective thematic analysis results outlined the constraints of sponsorship (i.e., budget, scope, timeline), sponsorship group process, and the breadth of relationship quality between refugees and private sponsors. Quantitative results demonstrated a link between higher Social Dominance values and lower attitudes of Ethnocultural Empathy and Reciprocity, and higher attitudes of Paternalism. Higher Power values were associated with lower attitudes of Reciprocity and higher attitudes of Colour Blindness. Moreover, higher Power values predicted private sponsors' behavioural intentions to communicate with refugees and support their autonomy. As the Canadian Privately Sponsored Refugees Program is the largest sponsorship stream in Canada and has been adopted worldwide, implications, recommendations, and future research directions are discussed.