Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hernandez, Sarah

Keywords

Capetown, South Africa, Refugees, Welfare, Business, Grants

Area of Concentration

International and Area Studies

Abstract

This research project seeks to understand the differences in outcomes of social assistance programs which are geared toward building or sustaining urban refugee livelihoods. I study three different types of social assistance programs with similar goals of assisting urban refugees in Cape Town, South Africa: one skills training program, one program which provides beneficiaries with micro-business grants, and one program which provides short-term welfare assistance. In order to collect the data, I conducted indepth interviews with employees to the programs and their beneficiaries. I found that the program which allocated micro-business grants to urban refugees was the most successful of the three, however each program has it’s own set of strengths that fill in gaps in assistance that the others do not. This knowledge allows us to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each type of program and to improve the social assistance provided to urban refugees.

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