Navarre Government highlights community sponsorship as a way to support refugee families
28 October 2025
Begoña Alfaro, Third Vice President and Minister for Housing, Youth and Migration Policies of the Government of Navarre, highlighted community sponsorship as a way to “support refugee families until they can walk on their own.”
She made these remarks at the opening of a transnational conference taking place today in Tudela and tomorrow in Pamplona/Iruña, organized by the Directorate-General for Migration Policies, with around one hundred invited participants from across Europe who will share their experiences and best practices on the subject.
In Navarre, the community sponsorship program—funded by the European Union through AMIF (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund) – Share QSN+—has been running since 2021 in Tudela under the name SOMOS and is managed by the San Francisco Javier Civil Foundation – Padre Lasa Center, following other community sponsorship initiatives implemented at the national level. From its launch until the end of its first edition in late 2024, it supported a total of six families comprising 33 Syrian refugees.
“Thanks to inter-administrative collaboration, six families have been welcomed through this program—six different stories with a common denominator: the courage to start anew and the solidarity of a community that chose to get involved in the process,” Vice President Alfaro emphasized today, noting that, unlike other programs, the hallmark of this model is the direct involvement of the community in welcoming refugees.
She went on to say: “This courage brought a family of five to Tudela in February 2022, after years living in a refugee camp in Lebanon. With the support of a local volunteer group, they learned Spanish, enrolled their three children in school, accessed the healthcare system, and achieved autonomy.” She added: “Today, this family lives in the same home, pays their own rent, and participates actively in neighborhood life.”
At the national level, Navarre and the Basque Autonomous Community (Basque Country) are the only regions that maintain and directly fund community sponsorship programs, in coordination with other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, UNHCR, and local entities (in Navarre’s case, the Tudela City Council and now also the Pamplona City Council). Following an evaluation by the Public University of Navarre, the second edition of the program is already underway, currently supporting a family in Pamplona and expecting the arrival of two more families in Tudela shortly. “Navarre’s social model refuses to be complacent and prioritizes the common good through its public policies, because welcoming is a political act, not charity, and because defending community sponsorship is defending coexistence, diversity, and human dignity,” Alfaro underscored.
The conference
Over the next two days, Tudela and Pamplona will host around one hundred invited participants who will exchange and share best practices in community sponsorship through roundtables, sessions, and site visits.
Today’s program in Tudela includes discussions on community sponsorship in rural areas, as well as integration and local development initiatives carried out in Tudela and the Ribera region, along with visits to the Padre Lasa Center and the San Francisco Javier Civil Foundation.
On Wednesday, at the Navarre Chamber of Commerce, the day will open with a panel on best practices in community sponsorship and community participation in rural areas. Discussions will also cover integration, rural revitalization and development, and labor mobility and labor market integration, among other topics. The conference will close with a focus on the next steps to advance these programs at the local and European levels.
Taken and translated from Gobierno de Navarra