Enhancing the participation of migrants through the creation of migrant councils

MigrationVoicesHeard aims to promote refugee and migrant participation in the design and implementation of integration and related policies at local, regional, and national level in seven EU countries.

Grant Agreement Number: 101038656

Funded by: AMIF Duration: 1/10/2022 – 01/10/2024

Challenge

One of the criticisms on the national strategies for migrant integration in the EU, particularly in Eastern Europe (BG, HU, RO) is that they are focusing too much on border control and illegal immigration, overlooking other important aspects of integration, such as migrant participation in developing and implementing policies, which directly concern them.

The lack of representation of migrants in local decision-making is a crucial factor, which leads to the institutional negligence of migrant needs and inadequate operationalization of the existing central policies for migrant integration. Additionally, the negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic were disproportionately high for some vulnerable groups of migrants whose voices are muffled by the lack of empowerment within the migrant communities.

Innovation

ΜigrationVoiceHeard is to promote refugee and migrant participation in the design and implementation of integration and related policies regarding education, employment, housing health at the local, regional, and national levels through the creation of migrant councils.

Action

This activity aims to identify best practices in setting up migrants councils by/with the support of local/regional level public administration, to strengthen the capacity of the local/regionals governments involved in the process of setting-up a local migrants Furthermore, a Moodle platform operates as a pool of resources, accessible by local & regional public administrations.

The capacity building program and the training modules aim to help the migrant leaders engage more effectively with local government, deliver messages that correspond to the needs of the migrant communities and participate in setting up the local migrant councils. The topics covered by the capacity building program include the following: How to organize Participatory Community Action Planning; Familiarization with the Host Country Legal System and Policy Development Process, Advocacy, Gender Equality, Strategic Communication.

This activity aims to make the migrant councils official. The national co-implementing partners provides support for the legal registration when the migrant council is set up as an independent private entity (creation of bylaws, etc.), and may provide support upon request to the local governments which are going to issue legally binding orders for the creation of the councils.

The “Community Talks” supports the community mobilization process. Their goal is to bring together migrants and participants from the host communities to exchange views on issues that affect the quality of life in the communities, and help to build in a common understanding about the benefits from migrant participation in the process of integration, and the ways to achieve it.

The cultural markets events bring together migrants and host country nationals to experience each other’s cultures. They are a field-tested way for improving the public attitude to migrants.