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All In for Integration – new social media campaign #AllInForIntegration for the World Refugee Day has been launched


All In for Integration – new social media campaign #AllInForIntegration for the World Refugee Day has been launched
Today, on the World Refugee Day, the organisations working together on the international research project NIEM have begun a social media campaign #AllInForIntegration in order to draw public attention to the need for a more efficient and effective integration policy that better addresses the needs of refugees.

Using the hashtag #AllInForIntegration, activists and researchers supporting the campaign have been posting pictures of themselves holding a white card with the #AllInForIntegration slogan on it.
In Germany, female refugees from Syria, for the first time in their lives, learn how to ride a bicycle, which gives them the sense of dignity and independence. Children of the refugees living in Greece attend IT and coding courses. Refugees from Afghanistan integrate with the Swedish society by playing cricket. In Poland, refugees from conflict regions run a multicultural diner which is, at the same time, a place of social dialogue.

As numerous examples show, integration of refugees in the European Union member states may take place in different ways, bringing more or less lasting effects.
However, in the light of the challenges facing the common European asylum policy and the limited integration-related action in some EU member states, integration would not be possible without the hundreds of non-governmental organisations, public institutions, local communities and private entities involved in grassroots efforts to prevent social marginalisation of refugees.
Therefore today, on the World Refugee Day, civil society organisations and academic centres from 15 European Union member states implementing the NIEM project wish to emphasise even stronger the role of the European community in facilitating the smooth transition of refugees into a new life and in helping them find their own place in the European reality. They state with emphasis: Integration of refugees is a task that we all face – we must all get involved!

“As Eurostat data shows, in 2015 more than one million foreigners applied for refugee status in the European Union. Over 300 thousand applications were approved. However, getting the asylum in the country of destination is only the beginning and not the end of the road to normal and dignified life,” says Justyna Seges Frelak, Head of the Migration Policy Programme at the Institute of Public Affairs, involved in the NIEM project on the Polish side.

The moment of obtaining the refugee status (and sometimes the launch of the procedure itself)) marks the beginning of a more or less lengthy process of adaptation of refugees to life in a new reality, which mainly means meeting the everyday needs and acquiring skills necessary to embark on independent life in European Union countries.
Another migration policy researcher at the Institute of Public Affairs, Karolina Grot, believes that effective integration policy cannot be pursued without cooperation between the refugee community and various entities responsible for implementing public policies.

“It is too often the case that we shift the burden of responsibility for the success of the integration process solely to refugees, by introducing numerous requirements and putting up various barriers. We keep forgetting that effective integration is a two-way process that requires mutual understanding and continuous dialogue,” says Karolina Grot.
The #AllInForIntegration campaign in the social media is also expected to draw the attention of the public to the NIEM research project, implemented since 2016.
The National Integration Evaluation Mechanism (NIEM) is a six-years long transnational project which aims to prepare key actors in the integration field in 15 EU member states to better face the current challenges and improve the integration outcomes of beneficiaries of international protection.

„We want to find out about the possibilities regarding access to citizenship, education, healthcare, labour market or political life that are provided by individual EU member states. However, first of all we wish to check how these issues impact the level of adaptation  of refugees in a given society,” agree Justyna Seges Frelak and Karolina Grot – analysts of the Institute of Public Affairs responsible for the implementation of the project.

More information about the social campaign:
https://twibbon.com/Support/allinforintegration-2