Being citizen
Political and social integration of migrant communities: comparative study and training curriculum
Whatever the reason, European citizens are often moving and settling down in European member states other than their country of origin but their participation in the democratic life of their immigration countries remains very low.
This is why the European think tank Pour la Solidarité and 5 other European partners set up the project ‘Access to Rights and Civil Dialogue for All’, co-financed by the DG justice programme “Fundamental rights and citizenship” whose main aim was to address the lack of migrants’ participation to the political life of the host countries.
For this project, the partnership drafter a Comparative study on "Political and Social Integration of Migrant Communities". This study is a comparison of national studies that were conducted in the member states involved in the project. Each of these national studies focused on a specific migrant community: Portuguese migrants living in France, Polish migrants living in Belgium, Bulgarian migrants living in Greece and Romanian migrants living in Italy and Spain.
Dowload the Comparative study in English (full version)
Dowload the short versions of the Comparative study:
- In Greec
The project also lead to the creation of a Training Curriculum, which gather best practices examples and tips for local actors or associations wishing to promote active citizenship in Europe.
Dowload the Training Curriculum
- In Greec
G1000 – an example of « slow politics »
Created in 2011 during the major political crisis in Belgium, the G1000 is a citizens’ summit of one thousand randomly selected residents of this country. It relies on recent scientific research, relevant examples from abroad and new technologies. The G1000 wants to revive democracy in the country.
The G1000 relies on a process that consists of 3 phases; together they function like a funnel. It started last year with a broad online survey, which served to detect relevant topics. During the second phase the G1000 citizens' summit was held; this event took place at Tour&Taxis in Brussels on November 11th, 2011. To conclude the entire participative process, a citizens' panel of 32 people will now be organized, which is the third phase. During the citizens' summit last year no less than 704 people discussed several key themes. From this big group 32 people were selected who will now elaborate the results over the course of three weekends of focused deliberation - their goal is to draw up a number of specific policy recommendations.
The 32 participants of this third phase of the G1000 are fully in charge of their own process; this means that they have been given the freedom to determine the topics on which they will focus during those three weekends. Over the course of the summer, they were asked to chose a main theme from among the topics and subtopics discussed during the G1000 citizens' summit. They had to back up their choice. To help them with this task, the flipcharts with all the ideas that were formulated during the citizens' summit were first analyzed. In this way these ideas could be summarized and presented to the group.
After the analysis and the summary was completed, the 32 participants selected the following main question for their discussions: how to deal with labor issues and unemployment in our society?
More info on : http://www.g1000.org
FORUM ON CIVIL DIALOGUE & PARTICIPATION - synthesis of the day
European Union citizens are often moving and settling in European member states other than their native country. Member states population is increasingly heterogeneous and becomes more European. Nevertheless the participation of these EU migrants in the democratic life of their immigration countries remains very low.
In relation with the opening of the European Year of the Citizens, this event tried to assess the role of public authorities, civil society organizations and political parties in the participation of European citizens residing in another member State than their own, with a special focus on women participation.
The objective of the conference was to present and debate on the “Charter of European citizens’ participation in the EU”. The outcome of the debate completed the results of the project “Access to Rights and Civil Dialogue for ALL”
Access to Rights & Civil Dialogue for ALL
European Union citizens are often moving and settling in European member states other than their native country. Member states population is increasingly heterogeneous and becomes more European. Nevertheless the participation of these EU migrants in the democratic life of their immigration countries remains very low.
Therefore, the project « Access to Rights & Civil Dialogue for ALL » seeks to foster the participation of European Union’s immigrants in the democratic and civil life of their hosting country.
This two years project, coordinated by Pour la Solidarité and five European partners aims at promoting migrant’s active citizenship, with as special focus on women’s participation.
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