Young Migrants in Civic, Social, & Cultural Life

Despite being highly engaged civically, socially and culturally within migrant communities, it is often hard to escape a ‘migrant bubble’. We connected with young people and youth organisations to collect case studies and learning from grassroots migrant initiatives

The Bridges Not Walls project aims to:

EMPOWER

young migrants to lead and create the movements and tools that will overcome their marginalisation

IDENTIFY

the barriers young migrants are facing to political participation through dialogue and outreach led by young migrants

BUILD

sustainable practices and resources for integration of migrants within democratic life.

Let's hear them out!

Voice of Migrants

The whole project changed my life, brought up new friendships and world views to me, I can never be the same again. It’s only Bridges – Not Walls now!

Telma Roque

What we did throughout the project:

Main activities

The project has developed a strong base in identifying young migrants’ perspectives. This helped to work with the needs identified and collaboratively design actions for fostering migrants’ voices and intergroup contact.

Research

Meta analysis, focus groups and participatory research were at the core of all actions.

Youth Exchange

The mobility served as a space for reflection and action piloting on changing perspective on migration.

Joint-staff mobility

In-depth understanding of young migrants' perspective was achieved through study visits, interviews and case studies.

Final Conference

The results were disseminated locally, as well as on EU level to relevant actors.

Focus Groups, Consultations, Kick-Off Activity

CGE Erfurt e.V. and Eurobug ran needs assessment activities in Germany and Ireland with youth and young migrant groups.

This activity drew in 25 young migrants from Erfurt, from 14 different nationalities, including Irish, British, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Romania, Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Venezuelan, French, Italian, and Pakistani young people.

The program included an intercultural networking lunch and dinner, and two hours of consultations on migrant civic, social, and political life in Thuringia.