to consider taking in refugees?

[Copperbeech33]

has anyone done it? positive or negative experiences please! I have just given up fostering, because the number of meetings etc is incompatible with working full time. I am not sure if we would be considered suitable to offer shelter to refugees. Small bathroom, lots of animals, etc.

This is something we would love to do but lack the space (no spare bedroom!). The charity, Refugees at Home would be a good starting point - I think it depends where you are though. They are often looking in Birmingham and London but have recently noticed Manchester requests.

Not at all unreasonable to do this. Refugees at Home will come and assess you. They are a great organisation. If I hadn't a spare room I would do this.

*had

I did, before becoming a foster carer as it happens.

I did it through a charity called Assist, I don't know if it's just a local charity or if they are nationwide. They recruit weekend hosts for people who use their night shelter which is only open Monday to Friday. I agreed to host a particularly vulnerable woman for two weeks. She actually ended up living with me for 5 months. On the whole it was positive, very interesting, I learnt a lot about the asylum system.

thank you bigpinkorchid

any pitfalls we should be aware of? i have sons so i am thinking male would be better, otherwise i run into the whole chaperoning thing. What about animals, bathrooms, etc, what is expected? food? any thing at all really!

I would possibly consider it as we have the space but my DH very adamantly put his foot down. Have you seen this article:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/13/i-gave-a-room-in-my-house-to-a-refugee-now-shes-like-my-sister

What's wrong with you having animals? Surely many of the refugees used to keep pets or working animals?

Our friends did it, such a positive experience we've registered to host.

You should definitely email Refugees at Home!
www.refugeesathome.org/
It's a brilliant thing to do :)
I have friends who have hosted loads and other friends who have been hosted - all have been really happy with the arrangement.
The pets thing is only a problem if the individual being hosted has an issue, so they'd make sure to find you a guest who's ok with that.
I'd really recommend getting in touch with them and discussing it. They send someone to visit you at home and you get the chance to talk it all through

Please be careful. You do hear horror stories. I'm sure they make the news because they are rare cases but still can happen.

Thanks for all your input. I'm going to contact refugees at home. My worry about our animals is its a small house, and the animals tend to be quite intrusive, and a pita if you don't like animals! also I might feel a bit anxious if I had someone staying who I didn't fully trust to treat them kindly.

If say in advance you have animals, then you might get people who miss theirs. Should be OK.

In case it's helpful, here's something written by a friend of mine:

So what is hosting actually like?

Firstly, it's much scarier in theory than in reality.

I remember standing behind the front door when my first ever guest rang the doorbell wondering what on earth I was doing, inviting a total stranger into a house with a two year old, and wondering if there was any way I could get out of it. But within hours of H moving in we were starting to get comfortable with each other ( I suspect the 2 year old actually helped!) and now he is like a member of the family, and one of my son's favourite people in the whole world.

Secondly, every hosting is different. We can't really say what hosting is like because people are, well, people, wherever they come from.

It is worth remembering, if you are nervous, that the guest is much, much more scared than you. It takes real guts to go to a stranger's house somewhere you don't really know, knock on the door, and trust they will be kind to you. And then more guts to go out, figure out the banking system, bureaucracy, get a job, learn the language, make friends- a host's kindness and having a stable base can make all the difference to the success of that.

And our hosts are not alone! We have loads of support available for hosts- our home visitors, hub network, admin team, resource database. You don't need to google whether shellfish is halal at 2am, like I did (I'm still not entirely sure)- there is a whole network to support you.

If you'd like to host or want to know more, go to our website and send us an enquiry, or email [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.