We spent last night playing in the database (it's all excitement at Refugees at Home towers...) and looking at who we are asked to host, who we do host etc. Fortunately we have a friendly data scientist helping us out- because the data is almost as complicated as the UK asylum system!We have hosted 544 guests across 1,006 placements, offering 59,784 nights not on park benches, night buses or worse. All that is thanks to our amazing volunteer hosts.As we suspected, we are asked to host far more men than women- only 28% of our guests are female. There are lots of reasons for that which we need to explore a bit, but a big one is that single young males are not usually categorised as vulnerable or in exceptional need. We disagree.We have hosted guests from 54 countries in total. Our top nationalities by number of people hosted are (in order):- Syrian- Sudanese- Eritrean- Iranian- EthiopianIraqis are surprisingly far down the list- 9th- and we have had some guests from unexpected places- Mexico, Russia, India, Thailand- as well as some stateless guests. It is worth remembering that people seek protection as individuals, not as nationalities- they as an individual have a well founded fear of persecution in their country of origin. It really could be any of us.At the moment we host about 50% refugees and 50% asylum seekers- including people who have put in asylum claims and are waiting to hear, people who have been refused asylum and are appealing that decision, or are putting in a fresh claim. 4% of our guests are 'other'- which covers a whole list of asylum statuses we had never heard of before we started doing this.... limited leave to remain, temporary protection, and some special 'fast tracks' for survivors of trafficking or abuse.There are loads more things we are going to explore and find out- Where do guests go on to? What is the age profile of our guests and of our hosts? Length of stay?- and we're not just doing this for our own amusement. As we get bigger and help more people, we need to have data to apply for grants, plus what we find out may help us to work better. And, of course, we think its important to be able to offer transparency about our impact to people like you, our hosts and supporters.Let us know if there is anything you'd be particularly interested in and (as long as it can be done while retaining confidentiality and doesn't drive us too crazy extracting it) we'll try and find out.We dream of spreadsheets and pivot tables.
Sara Nathan ● 2919d