Complementary pathways are legal admission channels that allow refugees to move to a third country in a safe and regulated manner, supplementing (not replacing) traditional UNHCR-led resettlement. The term gained prominence through the Global Compact on Refugees, affirmed by the UN General Assembly in December 2018, which urges states to expand third-country solutions through such pathways.
Typical categories include:
- Labour mobility schemes that match skilled refugees with employers abroad (for example, programs facilitated by Talent Beyond Boundaries in Australia, Canada, and the UK).
- Education pathways, such as student visas and scholarship programs like Germany's DAFI or the university corridors operated by Italian universities with UNHCR.
- Family reunification, allowing refugees to join relatives already lawfully present in a third country.
- Community or private sponsorship, pioneered by Canada's Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program (operating since 1979) and later adapted by Ireland, the UK, Spain, Argentina, and others.
- Humanitarian visas and humanitarian corridors, including the corridors run by Sant'Egidio and the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy since 2016.
UNHCR launched a Three-Year Strategy (2019–2021) on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways, followed by additional targets discussed at the Global Refugee Forums in 2019 and 2023, aiming to admit hundreds of thousands of refugees through these routes.
Crucially, complementary pathways are intended to be additional to resettlement places, not a substitute. Advocates argue they expand protection space, ease pressure on host states, and let refugees use their own skills and networks. Critics caution that labour and study routes may favour refugees who are already employable or educated, potentially excluding the most vulnerable, and that admission criteria sometimes blur the line between protection and ordinary migration. The 1951 Refugee Convention obligations of non-refoulement continue to apply regardless of the route used.
Example
In 2018, Canada and the UK piloted labour mobility schemes with Talent Beyond Boundaries to hire Syrian refugees living in Lebanon and Jordan as a complementary pathway to resettlement.
Frequently asked questions
Resettlement is a UNHCR-coordinated process selecting refugees in need of protection for transfer to a third state. Complementary pathways use existing migration channels—work, study, family, sponsorship—to admit refugees, and are meant to be additional to resettlement quotas.
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