Join our Welcoming Spaces Roundtable in Saalfeld (Germany) 22-23 September 2022

Agency, entrepreneurship and employment: Learning from each other about and from migrants

Welcoming initiatives can contribute to the further development of shrinking areas while also offering space for the successful social inclusion of non-EU migrants in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (‘leaving no one behind’). Often welcoming initiatives are run by cooperating actors from different societal fields, and their actions and impact depend on the local contexts.

Despite a lot of creative energy and good examples of welcoming culture, the welcome initiatives are experiencing growing challenges, but there are also encouraging practical experiences. That is why we bring together actors of the welcoming initiatives in Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate, besides sharing international experiences from Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Spain. The roundtable is organised in the framework of the international comparative and EU-funded research project ‘Welcoming Spaces in Europe’ (www.welcomingspaces.eu).

Objectives of the Roundtable
The event aims at bringing together politicians, city councilors, public administrators responsible for migration inclusion, social policy workers and development planners at the local, district and state levels, as well as migrants, international researchers, and practitioners from social organisations/NGOs to share experiences, ideas and receive new insights related to the sustainable (long-term) inclusion of migrants and the development of their territories. The underlying question is:

What entails sustainable migrant inclusion?

The roundtable includes many speakers from the field discussing welcoming initiatives, governance and pathways to social inclusion. Please click on the link to open the entire programme of the Roundtable and its speakers.

Co-designing an inclusive Europe: Join our policy roundtable Brussels 1 March 2022

Migrations and migrants in the EU: Changing narratives – modifying practices – influencing policies

Including migrants in the European Union has not been a uniform process and has revealed several obstacles in the path of making the inclusion and integration of people on the move efficient, humane, and dignified. This roundtable aims at sharing the findings from ten Horizon2020 projects on legal protection of refugees and migrants, on the (economic, cultural, political) impact of their presence on local, regional, or European constituencies, on innovative solutions to enhancing integration and cohesion, and on the role of domestic agents.

This roundtable will bring together researchers, practitioners, journalists, and policy-makers to discuss the potential of re-interpreting existing narratives, to present good practices resulting from the ongoing projects, and to inform political decision-making processes.

The programme consists of two parts: The morning session will include two parallel panels dedicated to (i) Economic, legal, and social factors and practices of inclusion, as well as (ii) Fostering exchange and challenging narratives in cultural spaces. Policy recommendations, policy papers, good practices, and innovative solutions of the projects will be shared.

During a following panel discussion in the afternoon, the project representatives will share the floor with stakeholders, addressing questions posed by a moderator and the audience.

This event offers a rare opportunity to engage with various researchers and practitioners from 34 countries including 21 EU countries, representing a total of 135 institutions. Get insights into state-of-the-art fieldwork and practices and learn about solutions that have been tested on the ground.

Please find more information on the event and involved projects on our website.

Due to Covid restrictions, only a limited number of on-site participants is possible. However, the hybrid event will offer both online and on-site audiences the opportunity to pose questions and comments at involved researchers and policy-makers. To join us online, please register here.