THE EVOLVEMENT OF NGOs IN THE FIELD OF REFUGEE POLICY IN ESTONIA

During the past few decades, the importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has rapidly increased in the governance processes. In many ways, NGOs complement state activities and have become important allies for governments in service provision, policy-making and in tackling “wicked issues”. This tendency can also be seen in the field of refugee policy, where NGOs work closely with asylum seekers and refugees, providing services and advocating for their rights. The central role of NGOs was highlighted during the European migration crisis that escalated in 2015, when NGOs stepped in to provide services for the vast number of arriving asylum seekers. Taking the above into consideration, we can presume that it is important for governments to improve engagement with NGOs in dealing with complex social problems. This research opens up the collaboration between the government and NGOs in the refugee policy field, by examining the birth, development and transformation of NGOs dealing with refugees and asylum seekers in Estonia – a small EU state that was not a target country for migrants until the European migration crisis. A theoretical lens of organizational population ecology is applied. It can be expected that in a small state, there is a smaller ecological “niche” and more limited resources for NGOs to emerge and function. The central research questions are: how has the landscape of refugee NGOs developed in Estonia, how has the evolvement of NGOs shaped the interaction between the NGOs and the government, and how has the small state context influenced these processes? This is a qualitative study that develops a theoretical framework combining knowledge on organizational ecology, collaboration and small states and then uses the framework for the empirical analysis. Data for the empirical analysis is gathered through document analysis and interviews with NGO representatives, other service providers and policy-makers.