THE EVIDENCE
Refugee-led organizations (RLOs) are successful because they have an awareness outsiders don’t have, and are driving solutions for people outsiders can’t reach.
Evidence Base for the Impact and Importance of Refugee-Led Organizations:
Barnett, M.N. (2013). “Humanitarian Governance.” The Annual Review of Political Science 16: pp.
379-98. Available at:
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-polisci-012512-083711.
Bekaj, A. and Antara, L. (2018). Political Participation of Refugees: Bridging the Gaps. Stockholm:
IDEA. Available at: https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/political-participation-of-refugees-bridging-the-gaps.pdf.
Betts, A. and Jones, W. (2016). Mobilising the Diaspora: How Refugees Challenge
Authoritarianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at:
Bradley, M., Milner, J., and Peruniak, B. (2019). Refugees’ Roles in Resolving Displacement and
Building Peace: Beyond Beneficiaries. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Available at: http://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvfrxq90.
Clarke, K. “The Politics of Refugee Relief.” Dissent 63(3): pp. 94-101. Available at:
Crutchfield, L.R. (2018). How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While
Others Don’t. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Available at: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/How+Change+Happens%3A+Why+Some+Social+Movements+Succeed+While+Others+Don%27t-p-9781119413813.
Development Initiatives (2019). Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2019. Bristol, UK:
Development Initiatives, Ltd. Available at:
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/GHA%20report%202019_0.pdf.
Easton-Calabria, E., Betts, A., and Pincock K. (2020). “Refugee-led Organisations: Collective
action for collective assistance.” Rethinking Refuge. Refugee Studies Centre, University
of Oxford. Available at:
---. (2020). The Global Governed? Refugees as Providers of Protection and Assistance.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at:
Ejorh, T. (2014). “The Challenge of Resilience: Migrant-Led Organisations and the Recession in
Ireland.” Journal of International Migration and Integration 16(3): pp. 679-99. Available
at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-014-0361-5.
Griffiths, D., Sigona, N., and Zetter, R. (2006). “Integrative Paradigms, Marginal Reality: Refugee
Community Organisations and Dispersal in Britain.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration
Studies 32(5): pp. 881-98. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830600704529.
Hakiza, R. et. al. (2020). “Refugee groups fill gaps in COVID-19 response, and they need
support.” The New Humanitarian. 29 April. Available at:
Hopkins, G. (2006). “Somali Community Organizations in London and Toronto: Collaboration and
Effectiveness.” Journal of Refugee Studies 19(3): pp. 361-80. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fel013.