What makes migrant youth feel at home?
The main focus of interest in the Tresegy project was the influence of social factors in creating inequalities in European societies as related to second-generation migrant teenagers. Researchers took a comparative approach by studying the target population in nine local urban areas in six national contexts. They aimed to better understand how the youngsters perceive and access resources, both material and non-material, available in the public sphere. Tresegy partners therefore set out to evaluate and compare the structural, cultural, economic and sociopolitical factors contributing to the organisation and orientation of socioeconomic exclusion or inclusion phenomena. A European perspective was used to further explore and compare perceptions regarding degrees of inclusion in or belonging to the host society, as well as in relation to EU-oriented values and principles. Focusing on the perspectives of social actors allowed insight into institutional dimensions and also into teenagers' perceptions and expectations concerning access to public material and non-material resources. The project investigators were also able to compare and assess how national contexts offer better insight into positive and negative factors leading to either participation and integration, or exclusion and marginalisation. The results of all research work were gathered and summarily presented in a documentary, 'In between - nine takes from the European scene'. Here, youth express their top concerns and perspectives regarding the Tresegy project, with the nine locales featured through one or more individual and respective communities. The production is the project's main dissemination tool for reaching out to a wider public audience. A final dissemination conference, held in Spain in 2009, provided a forum for discussing the topic of exclusion and inclusion among second-generation migrant origin youths. The event's open structure hosted institution and public body representatives as well as youths from areas that participated in the project. A group of youths from Lisbon presented a declaration letter claiming a more proactive role in relevant decision-making processes and policy planning tresegy project activities succeeded in creating a new working framework that also gives voice to individuals that are not only a part of Europe's societies, but also represent their future composition.
