A Canadian initiative funded by billionaires George Soros and Frank Giustra has prepared the way for President Biden’s proposed “public-private partnerships” that will play a key role in delivering on the surge in refugee admissions to the United States promised by the Biden administration in FY 2021 and FY 2022.
The Ottawa based Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI), whose mission is “to assist and inspire countries around the world to open new pathways for refugee protection,” was founded in 2016 by billionaire George Soros, who pledged $500 million through his Open Society Foundations to help refugees around the world, the Government of Canada, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Canadian billion Frank Giustra, through The Giustra Foundation (involved previously in controversial donations to the Clinton Foundation) and retired American investment manager Ed Shapiro, through his Shapiro Foundation, subsequently joined the initiative.
The GRSI’s web site says it accomplishes its mission “by sharing Canada’s history, experience, and leadership in private sponsorship and by supporting the creation of new programs that countries design to meet their unique needs.”
Through our work with local organizers, we aim to:
- increase and improve global refugee resettlement by engaging private citizens, communities, and businesses in resettlement efforts;
- strengthen local host communities that come together to welcome newcomers; and
- improve the narrative about refugees and other newcomers.
More than four years after GRSI’s founding, President Biden is giving the billionaires who funded it–and others in America– an opportunity to use the community sponsorship model to resettle refugees in the United States through “public-private sponsorships.”
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