Lessons Learned? A Critical Review of the Government Program to Resettle Bosnian Quota Refugees in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This study critically evaluates the government program put in place to manage the reception and resettlement of Bosnian quota refugees who arrived in the United Kingdom between November 1992 and August 1995. It outlines the organizational structure put in place to administer the program, the objectives of the program, and the scale of funding allocated to it. It describes how the program was then implemented and critically appraises the outcomes. Particular attention is paid to how the government sought to engineer a desired spatial pattern of resettlement (clustering), how it attempted to steer Bosnians away from settlement in London, and how it tried to create stable and rooted local communities of Bosnians. We conclude that the program was far more successful than previous programs of its type in the United Kingdom, but that further lessons can be learned from it, which could be incorporated in future attempts to resettle large groups of asylum seekers or refugees.