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.

“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.

NIEM partner organisations and involved institutions:

Institute of Public Affairs (Poland) - leading partner, the Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants, Association Multi Kulti Collective (Bulgaria), ANTIGONE Information and Documentation Centre on Racism, Ecology, Peace and Non Violence (Greece), People in Need (Czech Republic), France Terre d'Asile (France), Menedék - Hungarian Association for Migrants (Hungary), Providus (Latvia) - Diversity Development Group (Lithuania), Peace Institute (Slovenia), CIDOB (Spain), The Foundation for an Open Society, Association Center for Public Innovation (Romania), ISMU Foundation (Italy), Maastricht University (the Netherlands), Centro de Estudos Sociais, University of Coimbra (Portugal), Malmö University (Sweden), Warsaw University (Poland), Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration, Polish Ministryof Family, Labour and Social Policy, UNHCR Representation in Poland, UNHCR Regional Representation for Central Europe, Migration Policy Group. The National Integration Evaluation Mechanism. Monitoring and improving the integration of international protection beneficiaries is co-founded by the National Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. 

More information about the NIEM project: www.forintegration.eu