Antonio Guterres, the former head of the United Nations refugee agency, implored governments earlier this year to massively increase the scale of private-sector expertise and funding to help deal with the devastating international refugee crisis. Canada’s approach is already serving as a model for many countries, and the United States should join that list.
As of last month, Canada had resettled over 25,000 Syrian refugees in just four months and 43% of them — 10,999 people — were resettled using funds raised partially or entirely from private individuals, church groups, and businesses. Canada’s embrace of privately-funded refugee resettlement is part of an encouraging international trend of tapping into the private sector to increase overall refugee resettlement.
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