At a time when anti-migrant rhetoric shapes much of Europe’s political debate, thousands of citizens in villages and small towns are quietly doing the opposite: organising to receive refugees, finding homes and opening doors to schools, services and work. This new policy brief by researcher Petra Hueck asks what policymakers can learn from a decade of this rural community sponsorship, and how to build on it.
The brief is written for EU institutions, national and regional governments, municipalities, funders and sponsorship organisations. It brings together evidence from France, Ireland, the Basque Country, Belgium, Italy and Germany, the Share Network’s 2025 conference in Navarra and Canadian research. It builds on a longitudinal study of humanitarian corridors in rural France, and places its findings in a European comparative perspective.
What is new
• Designing for the territory, not the village. Integration happens across the area where people actually live, study and work, which often crosses municipal borders. The brief proposes designing placement, housing and support at this scale. Its test for policy is whether each family member can reach school, work, language classes, health care and public services without depending on volunteers to drive them.
• Citizen engagement in a hostile climate. Sponsorship has created a constructive space amid rising anti-migrant sentiment, including in places where far-right parties are strong. Some groups mobilise the whole village; others deliberately keep a low profile, avoiding publicity and building trust at the school gate. Both are strategies, and both work.
• Revitalisation, redefined. Reception rarely reverses population decline on its own. Its strongest contribution is civic: local structures, relationships and trust that outlast individual arrivals.
• Repeat sponsorship as the key indicator. Half of the French volunteer groups formed since 2017 have received more than once, and similar patterns appear in Ireland and the Basque Country. Groups that receive again are the clearest sign that a territory has built lasting capacity. Today, housing rather than volunteer willingness most often limits further reception.
• Resources: time, housing and public support. Volunteers contribute time, networks and access to homes that formal systems cannot reach, but this cannot replace public provision. The brief shows how municipalities can take over rent so that volunteers give time rather than money. It also shows how EU funds could form one continuous pathway from reception to durable housing, work and language learning.
• Rules that decide where families can live. A comparison of Ireland, the Basque Country, Germany and France shows how social housing, income support and residence rules determine whether families can stay near the place that received them.
What the brief recommends
The brief sets out seven recommendations:
• place-specific orientation and matching before departure;
• integration plans centred on accessible language learning;
• mobility treated as a core integration measure;
• a mandated coordinating body for each functional territory;
• stronger refugee participation and renewed volunteer capacity;
• standing peer exchange between rural territories;
• monitoring of trajectories and territorial outcomes over time.
It also points to openings at EU level, including the Rural Pact and the European Affordable Housing Plan, for bringing community sponsorship into rural and housing policy.
Read the full policy brief: