Hosting as shelter during displacement: considerations for research and practice

• Main Author: Cynthia M. Caron
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2019-03-01
• Series: Journal of International Humanitarian Action
• Subjects: Displacement; Hosting; Humanitarian assistance; Programming; Refugees; Research agenda
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41018-019-0052-0

Abstract Hosting or local families taking in displaced families is an important way to shelter persons displaced during war or by natural disaster. While field-level evidence of hosting is on the rise, academic and policy-related scholarship on hosting is scant. Based on an extensive literature review and supplemented by the author’s own work experience in the humanitarian sector, this paper identifies and summarizes ten aspects that shape the hosting environment and its associated support programs. These aspects provide insight to humanitarian actors that support hosting situations rather than allowing them to play out on their own. These aspects potentially serve (1) as programmatic criteria that humanitarian actors and aid agencies should consider when designing and supporting hosting programs and (2) are substantively rich areas that would expand the research agenda on displacement and humanitarian response and assistance. This paper has implications for both humanitarian practice and research, including how members of the humanitarian community conceptual hosting as a social relationship.