This report presents the key findings of the project Complementary pathways for people in need of international protection: Learning from the evidence of pathways in practice (PATHS). The objective of the study was to obtain comprehensive information on what complementary pathways can mean in practice and describe what administrative and legislative solutions have been made by the countries applying these arrangements.

Complementary pathways are safe and regulated avenues for refugees that complement refugee resettlement by providing lawful stay in a third country where the refugees' international protection needs are met. We distinguish between three types of pathways: labour-based, study-based, and other complementary pathways and examine examples of each.

Our main focus in this work is in labour- and study-based complementary pathways. In their contemporary form labour- and study-based pathways are mostly small-scale NGO-led programmes. Many of them are still in a pilot phase.

Complementary pathways have a great potential to offer protection and, at the same time, give an opportunity for skilled refugees to integrate into the receiving country through working or studying. Labour- and study programmes do not target the most vulnerable refugees, however, and cannot replace resettlement.