A new report by the Swiss Federal Council states that “private hosting for Ukrainian refugees has had a generally positive effect on their integration”.
Among those involved in hosting and helping refugees, the Swiss Federal Council recognises the role played by churches and faith-based networks in supporting displaced people since the begining of the war in Ukraine.
According to the report, staying with host families “has helped refugees to cope with everyday life in Switzerland and has generally had a positive impact on their social, linguistic, cultural and professional integration”.
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The Federal Council believes that personal contact between refugees and host families “has a positive effect on the acceptance of refugees within the population and contributes to social cohesion”.
However, it also points out that it is still unclear “whether private accommodation pays off financially for the public sector”.
“Any potential savings resulting from faster integration into the labour market are offset by considerable costs of recruiting and supporting host families”, adds the report.
Since the Russian invasion began, Ukrainian refugees have found shelter in Swiss evangelical churches. / SEA.
In a statement, the Swiss Evangelical Alliance (SEA) welcomes the report and stresses that many of the early efforts to house and support Ukrainian refugees were led and also strongly backed by churches within the SEA network.
“The fact that many people opened their homes and offered private accommodation is now proving invaluable”, says the SEA.
They mention the example of the Kirchen-helfen platform, run by SEA-Basis, which accommodated over 1,000 Ukrainian refugees with individuals and families across Switzerland.
The network works in partnership with around 100 local churches and “currently still has capacity for a further 1,500 refugees”, explains the statement.
For the SEA, the Federal Council report is “a wonderful tribute to all those people in the country who have acted selflessly out of compassion and continue to support refugees to this day”.
The Federal Council also calls on Switzerland’s cantonal authorities to examine private accommodation in order to establish it as a supplementary option for future crises, where appropriate.
It also encourages “further measures to strengthen civil society engagement in refugee integration”.
Furthermore, the State Secretariat for Migration will work with stakeholders in this field to explore how this engagement could be strengthened.
You can read the Federal Council report here (in German)
Published in: Evangelical Focus – europe
– Switzerland recognises the work of evangelical churches with Ukrainian refugees