Refugees' Say

Refugees' Say is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the reform of refugee resettlement to empower both refugees and the communities that host them using cutting edge tools from economic theory. We propose that all refugee resettlement, everywhere, should use something we call the Refugee Match.

The Refugee Match is a pragmatic framework to optimise relocation and resettlement of refugees. Although it cannot immediately generate extra capacity, it can ensure that (a) what capacity does exist is used as rapidly and as efficiently as possible, (b) humanitarian and welfare needs are transparently, comprehensively, and accurately built into the resettlement process, and (c) both refugees themselves and the hosts (be that states, voluntary agencies, or local government) can be empowered and given a degree of choice and control over who is ultimately given protection where.

The benefits of finding good or even slightly better matches between refugee families and particular resettlement locations are huge. As such, every state ought to adopt its own matching system for refugees using the frameworks we outline.
Matching systems across different states (e.g. in the EU) can make international relocation and resettlement more rapid, more humane, and more effective. Local matching systems can be incorporated into international matching systems to coordinate, speed up, and optimise refugee matching around the world.