Factoring in Societal Culture in Policy Transfer Design: the Proliferation of Private Sponsorship of Refugees

The Canadian model of private sponsorship schemes (PSS) for refugees is becoming an increasingly popular target for policy transfer in the field of migration. This article argues that the influence of societal culture on this transplanting process has played an underexplored role in the literature....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of international migration and integration 2020-03, Vol.21 (1), p.253-271
Main Authors: Bertram, Daniel, Maleki, Ammar, Karsten, Niels
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cultural awareness
Cultural sensitivity
Culture
Demography
Design
Hypotheses
Influence
Migration
Policy transfer
Population Economics
Refugees
Social Sciences
Society
Sociocultural factors
Sociology
Sponsorship
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Summary:The Canadian model of private sponsorship schemes (PSS) for refugees is becoming an increasingly popular target for policy transfer in the field of migration. This article argues that the influence of societal culture on this transplanting process has played an underexplored role in the literature. We seek to provide original guidance for factoring in cultural elements into the policy transfer framework by demonstrating how specific design choices in PSS transfer display clear cultural associations. A tentative study of nine countries that have adopted different models of PSS corroborates this hypothesis empirically. Our preliminary findings suggest that cultural compatibility may indeed increase the effectiveness of a policy transfer in some instances, while culturally preferred choices being adopted in other cases may result in suboptimal design. This converse interplay indicates that cultural awareness constitutes a crucial element of successful transfer processes and stresses the need to adopt a culturally sensitive perspective more frequently and more explicitly.
ISSN:1488-3473
1874-6365
DOI:10.1007/s12134-019-00738-0