Policy experiments

Experimenting actual practices for the participation of immigrants in local policymaking and in the design of incorporation policies is one of the core aim of our project.
For this reason, in the Work Package 5, we design a policy experiment to implement in each field, starting from the results of other packages and the needs that have been identified within the local contexts.
Each experiment deals with a different topic, but all of them share the focus on immigrants’ participation in the design, implementation and evaluation of incorporation policies, and the aim to create new interesting practices that can fit in the specific context of small and medium-sized towns. In this section, you will find all information and documents regarding the policy experiment we are implementing in Bebra, Fermignano, Ninove and Voios.

Bebra, Germany

Post-migration “Future search conference”

The aim is to develop a participatory, generation-, gender- and age-appropriate urban development policy, that includes vulnerable groups and migrants from different communities, so to enable political participation of migrants. This will be done by applying a post-migration approach, that no longer categorise migrants of any generation as a distinct category.

Fermignano, Italy

Direct and indirect voicing of local immigrant communities through the implementation of voicing tools within a local Immigrant Office

The goal is to create and enhance tools for the direct and indirect participation of groups and associations from an immigrant background via a dedicated desk at the municipal Immigrant Office of Fermignano. This aim should be pursued along two main paths: first, mechanisms to include immigrants’ perspective and voice in the (re-)definition and monitoring of the Office’s tasks should be developed; second, the tasks themselves of the Office should be integrated to consider tools for the upscaling of local immigrant communities’ voice to relevant upper level institutions that are usually hard-to-reach for them. 

Ninove, Belgium

Local policy experiment on participation of young people with a migration background in the local politics of Ninove The city of Ninove wants to conduct a practical study in collaboration with the University of Antwerp into how young people with a migration background can participate in local policy-making. The objective is to get young people with a migrant background to participate in Ninove’s local politics. The secondary school students will soon be eligible to vote and we want to make local politics, policies and their impact on life tangible and concrete, so that they become more aware of the importance to use their right to vote and other opportunities to participate in local politics. Through role-plays, young people are encouraged to delve deeper into the topic and formulate and express their own opinions on it. The objective is for secondary school pupils to acquire new knowledge, skills and attitudes through this policy experiment.

Voios, Greece

Civic orientation and empowerment of teenage migrant girls

The goal of the experiment is to address the needs of the unaccompanied minors in integration, personal development and the public expression of their needs. It will involve inhabitants of the Pentalofos shelter, as well as social workers and NGO representatives from the region, including sessions for the formulation of individual plans and for the detailed assessment of
needs, civic orientation classes and self-advocacy workshops. The structure of the experiment will be further discussed and designed within the second Greek LNPP.