Canada's Re-Spo Project

Canada's BVOR Program

Unlike their traditional private sponsorship scheme, whereby refugees are nominated by the sponsorship group, the Canadian BVOR (Blended Visa Office Referred) asks private citizens to "sponsor a stranger". The most vulnerable refugees are identified and referred by UNHCR and the Canadian government. The BVOR program is much more similar to most European sponsorship models.

The BVOR Sponsorship program was very popular in 2015-2016, when the Syrian crisis was widely publicised. However, since then, they have struggled to fill their annual quota, and "stranger sponsorship" only contributes 10% of all resettled refugees.

Introducing Re-Spo: Reviewing & Renewing Refugee Sponsorship

To increase engagement with the BVOR program, the Environics Institute for Survey Research have partnered with Refugee613 to lead market research to determine:

a) Who are the target audience for participation in the BVOR program?

b) How to support promotion and recruitment?

Below you will find:

a) 2021 Market Study

b) Presentation of their findings and work so far.

We will continue to update this page as their research and work develops.

environics-r613-private-refugee-sponsorship-market-study-2021---final-report-.pdf

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 environics-r613-private-refugee-sponsorship-market-study-2021---final-report-.pdf

ReSpo - Building Sponsor Recruitment and Retention Capacity in Canada.pdf