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Restoring Personhood through Peer Hosting: The Peers Immigration Rehabilitation Module (PIRM) as a Scalable Rehabilitation Model for Immigrants and Refugees

Abstract

The contemporary global migration apparatus is currently characterised by a profound administrative and humanitarian flaw: the prolonged, traumatic transit period between leaving a home country and achieving systemic acceptance in a new nation. This institutionalised waiting period, often stretching from 6 to 24 months in bureaucratic limbo, frequently inflicts severe psychological, emotional, and financial damage on immigrants, stripping them of their dignity and autonomy (Portes & DeWind, 2007; WHO, 2021). Conventional state-led rehabilitation models rely on isolationist detention centres or fragmented NGO silos, treating displaced individuals as economic burdens rather than possessing inherent social value. This manuscript introduces the Peers Immigration Rehabilitation Module (PIRM), a core component of the Alam Happy Town (AHT) living laboratory framework, designed to structurally eradicate this transit trauma. Operating on the philosophical and biological principle of "personhood," PIRM bypasses institutional isolation by operationalising a direct, family-to-family sponsorship model. AHT residents can directly sponsor friends, family, or vulnerable individuals who reach out via designated web portals. Because the AHT community’s internal economic engine, the Daily Sustenance Distribution System (DFDS), absorbs 100% of the immigrant’s financial burden upon arrival, the state faces zero economic liability. Consequently, this paper advocates for a policy shift allowing expedited government processing, such as a 1-month visit visa for AHT-sponsored individuals. By synthesising well-being economics, theories of recognition, and rapid housing deployment, this research demonstrates that immediate peer-to-peer integration structurally preserves immigrant personhood, transitioning them from a state of systemic paralysis to immediate communal and economic empowerment.

Keywords

Immigrant rehabilitation, Peer hosting, Institutional isolation, Personhood restoration, Alam Happy Town (AHT), Family to family integration

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