| From Crisis to Collaboration
The European refugee crisis erupted even before 2016 when a group of twenty-two young career professionals from four South East Asian countries – Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and the Philippines just started their course on social protection as recipients of a German government grant. The scholarship focuses on learning from the German social protection system and largely understanding the social and political dynamics in the European context with the aim of distilling lessons and insights useful for enhancing the systems in their own countries.
Europe then was beset with the challenge of managing the huge influx of refugees escaping for their lives from the highly volatile situation in Syria which also strained the European Union with the impending talks on Brexit. This became a growing dilemma for most EU-member countries who had differing views on how to tackle the issue at hand. It also provided a real-world test case for the very system that the Asian scholars were looking up to for its robust governance structure and efficient administration. The experience with the refugee crisis that besieged Europe until now left the would-be experts with great lessons as they get to grips with the similar predicament back home.
The refugee crisis has thrust the global migration issues at the forefront of the social protection debate. However, it is just one of the many emerging issues that threaten social protection systems around the globe and has contributed to the existing burden of displacement and other vulnerabilities associated with unemployment, disability, sickness, and impoverishment. These issues were expected to be the new norm in a world stricken by conflict, war, and continuous climate disruptions.
| An Alliance Among Friends
Armed with idealism and newfound insights on social protection, an alliance was formed among friends to advocate, mobilize resources and take action at improving social security mechanism in their own countries and beyond their borders. Their commitment to contribute to the ongoing policy discourse on social protection particularly those affecting the marginalized and the disadvantaged, and to provide assistance to vulnerable groups from emerging threats affecting social structures were the impetus that started Friends Across Frontiers (FXF).