Abstract
Normally, in JAS cases, the federal government provides fi nancial assistance for a portion of an agreed-upon time period, while the sponsors take on the responsibility for the rest of the sponsoring timeframe. [...] The most striking feature for people who had sponsored refugees in the past was the fact that sponsors of the Kosovars were not required to provide any fi nancial support (although some groups chose to supplement the federal funding). [...] Within the KOF sponsorship groups, 75% of the respondents reported that at least half of the group was still involved, whereas the majority of the KOS sponsors (55%) said that fewer than half of their group members were still seeing the refugee families. [...] These included the broadening of the defi nition of family, the practice of keeping extended families together both in the sustainment sites and in the cities to which they were eventually destined, the rescinding of the right of landing fee (ROLF), the subsidy of housing costs as required, and the speed with which the government acted. [...] For example, the complaint of some sponsors that the Kosovars expected them to be on call may have arisen from the experience at the sustainment sites, where there were people available to meet the refugees’ needs 24 hours a day.
