Welcoming cities: Good practices of Participation of Youngsters with a migrant background

As stated in the UNESCO report “Cities Welcoming Refugees and Migrants”, Lisbon is considered a good example of a "welcoming city" to migrants.

The Study Visit in Lisbon will be a space for the development of competencies, dialogue and sharing of experiences of integration and participation of migrant youth, particularly by discovering, seeing and hearing the local good examples of participation of this target group to be found in Lisbon and Sintra. The study visit will allow us to build trust between different local stakeholders and learn firsthand about the barriers young people experience in participation. We also expect that the project will contribute to a better understanding of municipality officers and youth workers on how to support the integration and participation of young migrants and youth from a migrant background even more efficiently.

The specific objectives of the Study visit are to:

❖ Increase knowledge of municipality officers and youth workers in the field of integration and participation of youth from a migrant background;

❖ Develop awareness of the gaps in policy-making directly addressing the participant of migrant youth face to access participation structures;

❖ Disseminate and raise awareness on the need to serve and support the 6 participation of young migrants in decision-making processes and the need for specific policies for this target group;

❖ Develop competencies for local representatives and youth workers to improve the access and the conditions of participation for migrant youth;

❖ Listen directly to the views of participants with fewer opportunities in terms of their needs and wishes to be supported in taking part in decision-making processes in their hosting societies, to be included in the guidelines and quality indicators;

❖ Network and build trust between local and foreign stakeholders taking part in the Study visit.