Strategies for Aiding Migrant Assimilation in Urban European Regions
Here's a lively, informative guide on urban migration in Europe, as revealed by a recent study supported by JPI Urban Europe. The findings offer valuable insights for city actors wanting to comprehend migration complexities, face challenges, and employ effective solutions.
Europe's vibrant cities are magnets for immigrants looking for new lives. But, as our exploration of the challenges associated with migration confirms, integrating isn't a walk in the park.
The JPI Urban Europe-backed research projects propose numerous recommendations for turning the migration integration game around. However, before jumping into action, you'll need to know what you're tackling head-on. That's where these killer tools come in handy.
All of the following tools were used by researchers, partners, or cities in these studies, or offer useful suggestions based on findings. However, not every tool is appropriate for every place, situation, or migrant group. So, for your convenience, we've categorized them into seven groups: research, cultural, digital, structural, academic, community-based, and funding.
Research Tools
Let's start by getting our research on. Aside from the usual suspects - surveys, interviews, and reviews of existing research - anyone interested in learning more about migrant-related topics should explore...
Community Researchers
Some project teams enlisted representatives from various migrant backgrounds to aid their research, with a focus on recruiting women.
The EMPOWER project delved into the impact that community-led infrastructures and place-making strategies have on female residents' ability to establish their (sense of) place in the city. They trained community researchers (CRs) on how to conduct interviews and quantitative surveys with their peers on the projects' behalf. This boosted engagement and openness, making a ton more achievable in a short space of time.
This approach really took off where digital surveys had failed to engage an audience, and the training also formed part of the empowerment process, upskilling CRs in:
- problem-solving as a pathway to community cohesion
- knowledge production, which they can use to improve local migrant housing
- understanding others' situations to inform official decision-making.
This ability to connect with people was actually a big factor in being able to do research and address respondents, as well as conducting workshops.
Testbeds
The MICOLL project investigated the barriers refugees and other migrants encounter to accessing quality and affordable housing. They also explored the potential of collaborative models to establish a new institutional framework for inclusive and sustainable urban housing. This project implemented in-location practice-based 'experiments' to offer ideas and examples of how refugee collaborative housing can be initiated, supported, and sustained.
Rather than relying on theories, testbeds provided opportunities for critical understanding of how various factors affect local conditions, stakeholders, neighborhoods, and target groups, highlighting strengths and weaknesses for potential new initiatives, designs, and strategies, which can inform future urban development and housing plans.
In some cases, these testbeds served as pilot 'anchor organizations' that enabled local actors to interrogate how co-housing addresses issues like inclusivity, loneliness, and cohesion. In the sustainability game, tangible examples like these can spark enthusiasm for new concepts and demonstrate in real terms the "socio-economic benefits for different groups, including refugees" MICOLL website.
Community-Based Tools
Whether used for gathering localized data or fostering a sense of belonging, community-scale instruments can be effective in understanding and changing the way migrants interact or are affected by their socio-urban environment. They're also a great way to involve citizens.
Policy Cafes
Less common than labs are the policy cafes that popped up in studies in Germany, Sweden, and the UK. Not only did they provide community researchers a place to link with key stakeholders, but they also offered migrants, among others, a chance to voice their views on integration, housing, and planning.
They work like this: In a neutral community setting, individuals with power agree to actively listen to attendees, offering them the chance to influence local policy and strategy. Being local and informal, policy cafes are a more inclusive point of access for those willing to participate in participation activities but who find public meetings (e.g., in a city hall) more intimidating or physically difficult to reach (e.g., due to lack of private transportation).
Cultural Tools
Identity is constructed around culture. So it makes sense that a change of cultural surroundings can throw our sense of identity off balance. To make the experience easier and more enriching, some tools can be employed to help foster new cultural connections as part of the integration process.
Cultural Rucksack
Rather than evaluating people by their labor-market potential, the Art of Belonging project took a social approach to viewing participants' experiences. They guided them to fill what they call a Cultural Rucksack.
Conceptually, this consists of helping participants develop a sense of belonging to their new cultural landscape - a sense of being part of the local cultural tapestry. Invited to a program of activities at various artistic institutions, young refugees were supported to learn about their new city's culture through artistic expression.
When creating together, young people found security, allowing them to open up about past traumas - which the group leaders were careful not to instigate - in a demonstration of 'art as therapy'.
Practical activities led to skill development and were designed to engage participants regardless of language barriers, making them extremely popular.
- Community-led research efforts can significantly enhance the understanding of migrant-related topics, as demonstrated by the EMPOWER project, which trained community members as researchers to conduct interviews and surveys.
- Testbeds, such as those used in the MICOLL project, provide practical examples and insights into inclusive and sustainable urban housing solutions for refugees and other migrants.
- Policy cafes, a less common but effective community-based tool, offer migrants and other community members an informal space to voice their views on integration, housing, and planning with key stakeholders.
- The Cultural Rucksack approach, employed by the Art of Belonging project, helps young refugees develop a sense of belonging and connect with their new cultural landscape through artistic activities and experiences.
