Evaluation of the Humanitarian Migrants to Israel (HMI) Program

Challenge

The Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (DOS/PRM) Humanitarian Migrants to Israel (HMI) Program supports humanitarian migrants as they resettle in Israel upon leaving the Former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Africa, and other regions where they have experienced discrimination and prejudice. HMI is implemented by the United Israel Appeal (UIA) through the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). UIA/JAFI manage a network of absorption centers for humanitarian migrants throughout Israel. The centers seek to integrate migrants into the larger Israeli society: They offer temporary residence, Hebrew language instruction and cultural education, and support in securing new livelihoods and affordable housing. The majority of humanitarian migrants arrive from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, and they encounter different challenges to integration.

Despite its long tenure, the HMI Program had not previously undergone a comprehensive performance and process evaluation. DOS/PRM sought to understand how PRM, UIA, JAFI and other partners can optimize efforts to prepare humanitarian migrants for successful integration into Israeli society as well as how the program can most effectively monitor and measure its success.

Solution

DOS/PRM contracted Resonance, and its subcontractor MSI, to conduct a performance evaluation using a mixed methods design of the HMI Program’s success in providing integration-related services to humanitarian migrants from 2016-2018. The evaluation consisted of:

• A comprehensive desk review and analysis of best practices in local integration of migrants, including an analysis of HMI program documents and reporting.
• Field-based data collection in Israel, including site visits to absorption centers and data collection with center staff, humanitarian migrants, and HMI program leadership.
• An evaluation report and debriefings on findings, conclusions, and recommendations on the effectiveness of HMI’s efforts to prepare migrants for successful integration as well as efforts to measure progress and success.