Periodic Reporting for period 4 - IMMERSE (Integration Mapping of refugee and Migrant Children in Schools and Other Experiential Environments in Europe)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-01-01 do 2023-11-30
Every European country is impacted, either directly or indirectly, as countries of origin, transit, destination or resettlement countries by the recent migration trends towards and within the EU.
One of the most fundamental challenges lying ahead for the EU consists of the successful integration of these recent arrivals, as well as of longer-established migrant populations, and their descendants. As emphasized by the OECD, the ability of societies to maintain social cohesion in the presence of large migration flows depends on their capacity to integrate foreign-born populations (OECD, 2018). Schools, migrant reception centres across Europe and policymakers are in urgent need of policy recommendations in order to support migrant children.
The general objective of IMMERSE is to draw a representative image of national and Europe’s reality on refugee and migrant children’s integration allowing to develop policy papers with specific recommendations for both policymakers and educational institutions to foster diverse and inclusive societies. IMMERSE has relied on a participatory approach that incorporates all relevant stakeholders (children and their families, researchers, NGOs, policymakers, educators or learning institutions) in the co-creation and validation of a Dashboard of indicators for refugee and migrant children’s integration. This has led to the production of data and policy recommendations that best reflects the particular needs and expectations of the relevant stakeholders.
One of the most fundamental challenges lying ahead for the EU consists of the successful integration of these recent arrivals, as well as of longer-established migrant populations, and their descendants. As emphasized by the OECD, the ability of societies to maintain social cohesion in the presence of large migration flows depends on their capacity to integrate foreign-born populations (OECD, 2018). Schools, migrant reception centres across Europe and policymakers are in urgent need of policy recommendations in order to support migrant children.
The general objective of IMMERSE is to draw a representative image of national and Europe’s reality on refugee and migrant children’s integration allowing to develop policy papers with specific recommendations for both policymakers and educational institutions to foster diverse and inclusive societies. IMMERSE has relied on a participatory approach that incorporates all relevant stakeholders (children and their families, researchers, NGOs, policymakers, educators or learning institutions) in the co-creation and validation of a Dashboard of indicators for refugee and migrant children’s integration. This has led to the production of data and policy recommendations that best reflects the particular needs and expectations of the relevant stakeholders.
To meet the project’s objectives, IMMERSE has applied a child-centred and whole-school approach at all stages of the research: from the design of the conceptual and measurement framework and up to the project’s results and their assessment. With this approach, IMMERSE has produced a co-created dashboard of indicators about migrant and refugee children’s integration, ICT solutions for data collection, monitoring and safe database storage and a set of national and EU recommendations. Involving children and other relevant stakeholders, the project has mapped key parameters of integration results, and barriers and facilitators. The project has then strived to obtaining valid and reliable empirical evidence, both from secondary sources and from primary large-scale survey collection that represents a diversity of socio-educational integration experiences across Europe. The collection of quantitative data from over 24,000 children has enabled us to build the largest and most complete database in Europe specialised in migrant children and youths, complemented with qualitative research with harder-to-reach and underrepresented populations. Data analyses have drawn a representative image of National and Europe’s reality on refugee and migrant children’s integration, leading to the development of policy papers with specific recommendations at the national and European level, targeting both policymakers and educational institutions. IMMERSE has also collected, analyzed and shared a collection of best practices at national and EU levels on the integration of refugee and migrant children, currently available in the Open Digital Database (ODD) integrated in the IMMERSE website and HUB, a virtual community of stakeholders dealing with migrant and refugee children.
The Conceptual Framework of IMMERSE has brought together the findings of two main research areas: migration literature on integration and the literature on socio-educational inclusion of children. Contrasting this synthesis with children and stakeholders’ perspectives on integration, IMMERSE has defined five constitutive dimensions of children integration results – legal, language and culture, well-being, social relations, and educational achievements at the micro level – and their key barriers and facilitators at the meso and macro levels.
Besides this synthesis, the central IMMERSE contribution has been the development of a dashboard of 30 indicators to measure integration results (14) and key barriers and facilitators (16). IMMERSE has collected the necessary data and made it available through an interactive Dashboard. The project followed a co-creation stepwise methodology that engaged children, families, and other stakeholders’ voices in the key turning points for decision-making of the indicators’ development process. At the ending of the project, more than 30.000 children, families and other stakeholders have contributed to mapping refugee and migrant’s children integration in Europe and to elaborate a set of policy recommendations addressing the main problems faced by migrant and refugee children. The co-creation strategies implemented during the whole project allowed to incorporate these communities’ voices, recognising their power to identify their own needs and resources as well as to indirectly gain confidence in their own ability to solve some of their challenges.
In parallel, researchers have identified and evaluated a comprehensive collection of positive, innovative, and effective 109 good practices and resources for the socio-educational inclusion of migrant and refugee children. In addition to their identification and description, some strategies to promote their replicability were indicated.
Besides this synthesis, the central IMMERSE contribution has been the development of a dashboard of 30 indicators to measure integration results (14) and key barriers and facilitators (16). IMMERSE has collected the necessary data and made it available through an interactive Dashboard. The project followed a co-creation stepwise methodology that engaged children, families, and other stakeholders’ voices in the key turning points for decision-making of the indicators’ development process. At the ending of the project, more than 30.000 children, families and other stakeholders have contributed to mapping refugee and migrant’s children integration in Europe and to elaborate a set of policy recommendations addressing the main problems faced by migrant and refugee children. The co-creation strategies implemented during the whole project allowed to incorporate these communities’ voices, recognising their power to identify their own needs and resources as well as to indirectly gain confidence in their own ability to solve some of their challenges.
In parallel, researchers have identified and evaluated a comprehensive collection of positive, innovative, and effective 109 good practices and resources for the socio-educational inclusion of migrant and refugee children. In addition to their identification and description, some strategies to promote their replicability were indicated.