Navigating the Labyrinth: The impact and experiences of the Syrian refugee resettlement programme in comparative policy contexts

叙利亚内战被描述为造成了“我们这个时代最大的人道主义……危机”(难民署，2017a：4)。截至2013年底，难民署登记了600多万因冲突而流离失所的人(难民署，2013年)，导致叙利亚平均每天有前所未有的9500人被迫离开家园(Albuja等人，2014年)。脆弱者安置计划于2014年成立，随后于2015年扩大，由英国政府推出，旨在2015-2020年间重新安置2万名叙利亚难民，主要重点是维持家庭单位。自越南难民方案建立以来，作为该方案的一部分，已有20000人得到重新安置，其中一半的受助者在抵达时未满18岁(Wilkins，2020)，99.6%的难民自认为是叙利亚国籍(Bolt，2020)。与英国主流庇护制度不同，重新安置计划的接受者立即获得公共资金、临时居留和工作许可。我的博士研究首次从评估政策影响和经验的角度比较了地方议会对VPR的两种不同方法。以前的研究往往侧重于难民遣返制度，认为它延续了两级庇护制度(见Karyotis等人，2020年)，很少对制定政策的过程及其对接受者生活的影响进行拆解。在对叙利亚家庭和从业人员进行了40次深入访谈的基础上，我的研究通过探索政策设计背后的理由及其对受助者个人和家庭内部的影响，为现有的重新安置知识做出了重要贡献。该项目旨在通过向学术受众、政策制定者、难民社区组织(RCO)和更广泛的公众提供活动计划，进一步增强我的研究的宝贵影响。它将通过生产两个关键的学术成果来巩固我的出版记录：第一，一本书的手稿，第二，一篇影响很大的期刊文章。这本书的手稿将在与编辑进行初步讨论后面向政策出版社，并将期刊文章提交给《难民研究杂志》。在该项目期间汇总的经验数据将在“国际移徙、融合和社会融合”会议(IMISCOE)上向国际学术受众传播，该会议是欧洲在移徙和融合领域最大的研究人员网络。在研究金期间，该项目还将通过混合方法研究阐明越南船民方案难民的微观和宏观经验，这一学术领域在重新安置问题上出人意料地有限。在我博士学位期间收集的难民家庭和从业者的现有访谈数据将与人口普查、调查和内政部数据整合在一起。进一步的有限研究不仅将巩固我在ESRC资助的博士学位中收集的数据，还将通过加强我现有的量化研究方法培训来推进我的长期职业抱负。还将实施两项影响活动：第一，公共政策研讨会；第二，通过媒体参与提供专家评论。公共政策研讨会将促进政策实践者、难民组织和研究人员之间的建设性对话。将使用创造性的方法促进讨论，并将制作一份两页的政策“工具包”，并广泛分发给地方议会。在我对BBC西北今夜新闻的专家评论中传播的证据将包括由于这一奖学金而分析的开放访问的人口普查、调查和内政部数据，但将排除任何提及访谈记录或实地工作地点以保护参与者机密性的情况。

The Syrian civil war has been described as resulting in 'the biggest humanitarian...crisis of our time' (UNHCR, 2017a: 4). By the end of 2013, UNHCR had registered over 6 million displaced people due to the conflict (UNHCR, 2013), resulting in an unprecedented average of 9,500 people being forced to leave their homes in Syria each day (Albuja et al., 2014). Established in 2014 and subsequently expanded in 2015, the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) was introduced by the UK government to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees between 2015-2020, with a primary focus on maintaining family units. Since the creation of the VPRS, 20,007 people have been resettled as part of the programme, with half of the recipients aged under 18 at the time of arrival (Wilkins, 2020) and 99.6% of refugees self-identifying as of Syrian nationality (Bolt, 2020). Distinct from the UK mainstream asylum system, recipients of the resettlement scheme were granted immediate recourse to public funds, temporary residency and permission to work.My doctoral research is the first to compare two different local Council approaches to the VPRS, from a perspective that evaluates the impact and experiences of policy. Prior research has tended to focus on the VPRS as perpetuating a two-tier system of asylum (see Karyotis et al, 2020), rarely unpacking both the processes by which policy is formulated, and its entailing consequences in the lives of recipients. Drawing on forty in-depth interviews with Syrian families and practitioners, my research provides a vital contribution to existing knowledge on resettlement, by exploring both the rationale behind policy design, and its subsequent impact on recipients as individuals, and within families. This project seeks to further enhance the valuable impact of my research by delivering a programme of activities to academic audiences, policymakers, refugee community organisations (RCOs) and the broader public. It will consolidate my publication record through the production of two key academic outputs: firstly; a book manuscript and, secondly; a high-impact, journal article. The book manuscript will be targeted towards Policy Press following preliminary discussions with the editor, with the journal article submitted to the Journal of Refugee Studies. The empirical data consolidated during this project will be disseminated to an international academic audience at the 'International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion' conference (IMISCOE), Europe's largest network of researchers in the area of migration and integration. Over the duration of the fellowship, the project will also shed light on the micro and macro experiences of VPRS refugees through mixed-methods research, an area of scholarship that is surprisingly limited on the topic of resettlement. Existing interview data collected with refugee families and practitioners during my doctorate will be integrated with Census, survey and Home Office data. The pursuit of further limited research will not only consolidate the data collected as part of my ESRC-funded doctorate, but will advance my long-term career aspirations by enhancing my existing quantitative research methods training.Two impact activities will also be implemented: firstly; a public policy workshop and secondly; providing expert commentary through media engagement. The public policy workshop will facilitate constructive dialogues between policy practitioners, refugee organisations and researchers. Creative methods will be used to prompt discussions and a two-page policy 'toolkit' will be produced and distributed widely to local Councils. The evidence disseminated during my expert commentary on the BBC North-West Tonight News will include the open-access Census, survey and Home Office data analysed as a result of this fellowship, but will exclude any references to interview transcripts or fieldwork sites to protect participants' confidentiality.