ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

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What would be your advice to those seeking to increase public support
and awareness about refugee resettlement?
This issue is very complex and depends mainly on local factors and contexts.
In Canada, we have found that engaging local host communities at the outset
of a resettlement scheme lays the foundations for more public support. This
requires receiving as much information as possible prior to refugees’ arrival,
in some instances undertaking pre-arrival community planning with host
communities, and ensuring you have developed key messages when dealing
with the media.
The public is not always clear about the difference between resettled refugees
and asylum seekers. It is important to emphasise the humanitarian aspect
of the programme, and having advance information on the conditions that
refugees are coming from is also very important when engaging civil society.
Identifying a refugee who is willing to share some of his or her personal
migration story is a powerful tool in increasing public awareness of resettled
refugees. Maintaining working relationships with key media contacts helps
to increase their knowledge of refugee resettlement over time, and engaging
media with suggested story ideas helps to position you as a ‘go-to’ person on
refugee-related issues.
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER VI CHAPTER V
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER III