Bulgaria - final NIEM conference

On 16 June, the Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants and the Multi-Culti Collective, in partnership with the UNHCR Representation in Bulgaria, held a final conference on the National Integration Evaluation Mechanism (NIEM) project.

On the eve of 20 June – International Refugee Day, the conference provided a forum to examine Bulgaria’s challenges and progress in refugee integration in a European context. A summary of the comparative evaluation report on integration in the 14 European countries participating in the project was presented. The event provided an opportunity to present proposals and outline next steps and measures to support refugees for inclusion and real integration in Bulgaria.
The National Integration Evaluation Mechanism (NIEM) is a major research project in Europe on the topic of refugees with a duration of 6 years, which aims to prepare key actors in the field of integration in 15 EU Member States to better address current challenges and improve integration outcomes for beneficiaries of international protection.

Over the years of implementation, NIEM project partners have worked to establish a mechanism to comprehensively assess the integration of beneficiaries of international protection, provided evidence of gaps in integration standards, identified promising practices, and assessed the impact of changes to legislation and policies.