Involve- Migrants' involvement in voluntary and civic activities as a means for better integration

A European project initated by the European Volunteer Center (EVC), supported by the European Commission in the framework of the INTI Programme , Directorate General Justice and Home Affairs, Direction B : Immigration , asylum and borders. Eight countries involved : Belgium, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For further information, please see : www.involve-europe.eu.

Presentation

The theme of this project is migrants' involvement in voluntary and civic activities as a means for better integration. The project will address the lack of knowledge about migrant volunteering including third country nationals' concepts of, and attitude towards, volunteering and national policies & actions that facilitate these activities) and will nurture a trans-European network; allowing for increased dialogue between stakeholders; identification, exchange and dissemination of knowledge and best practice; and development of recommendations for policy changes.

Initial themes include:

• Role of migrant "self" organisations
• Barriers that prevent migrants from volunteering
• Role of national and EU policies & programmes to support migrant volunteer involvement
• Role of the media
• Role of local host communities
• Partnership models between stakeholders.
• Attitude of migrants towards volunteering and barriers preceived by themselves

Aims

• Increased visibility of third country national volunteers and volunteering organisations;
• Enhanced networking between all stakeholders involved in migrant volunteering and integration of third country nationals;
• Improved dialogue between stakeholders and mutual understanding across European borders on this issue;
• Greater cohesion amongst migrant organisations, and their improved access to mainstream volunteering resources and activities;
• Identification of transferable examples of good practice in this field;
• Increased awareness of all stakeholders of the value of volunteering to integration; and
• Recognition that in order to achieve results, the stakeholders must cooperate.

Working programme

1. Information seminars bringing together all stakeholders in this field : Migrant organisations, host-community organisations, relevant NGOs, public authorities at all levels, the media, representatives of the private sector etc.).
2. These seminars will be the key for the formation of a transnational network : migrants & all other key stakeholders, experts
3. "Action research", which will be carried out throughout the project's duration builds on MEM-VOL research study (DG EMPL; www.mem-volunteering.net) , uses field research to identify attitudes and concepts towards migrant volunteering. The collection of data will be aided by national subgroups set-up in each of the partner countries, and will be responsive to the seminar discussions. This research collection will be realised through the use of existing literature, the Internet, surveys of relevant actors and personal interviews and results in national papers. The latest results and conclusions will be presented at each of the information seminars, through multimedia and traditional presentations, to provoke further constructive discussion

Expected results

• Report on the role of volunteerism in the integration of migrants across Europe identifies transferable models of good practice in policies, programmes, infrastructures & partnerships ; makes policy recommendations for governments and operational recommendations for organisations ; distributed to the national sub-groups and their associated networks, as well as to appropriate EU actors.
• An electronic version of the final report, the research that supports it and the three concise reports from the information seminars will all be available on a special project website that will be kept 'live' for at least 2 years.
• 3 seminars
• website

Partners
Ten organisations in eight countries.

Germany  INBAS - Sozialforschung Susanne Huth Nonnenpfad 14, D-60599 Frankfurt am Main Tel.: +49-69-65302061, Fax: +49-69-655096 www.inbas-sozialforschung.de	Austria Institute for Socilogy, University of Vienna Christoph Reinprecht et Patrizia Gapp Dr Karl Lueger Ring 1 A-1010 Vienna Tel.: +43-1-42770 www.univie.ac.at
Belgium European Volunteer Center Markus Held Rue de la Science 10 B-1000 Brussels Tel.: +32 2 511 75 01, Fax: +32 2 514 59 89 www.cev.be	Spain FSCV Cristina Garcia, Cristina Gomez et Carolina Rodriguez Avenue Louise, 113 Tel.: +32 2 640 12 59, Fax: +32 2 647 73 28 fscv-eu@global-eu.com
France IRIV - Institut for Research and Information on Volunteering Bénédicte Halba 26 boulevard Raspail, F-75007 Paris Tel.: +33-1-42840825, Fax: +33-1-42840825 www.iriv.net	Hungary Menedek Luca Varadi et Andras Kovats Rakoczi ut 80, 1074 Budapest Tel.: +36 1 322 1502, Fax: +36 1 479 0272 www.menedek.hu
The Netherlands   Community Partnership Consultants Angelika Münz et Henk Kinds Huddestr. 3, NL-1018 HB Amsterdam Tel.: +31-20-6261208, Fax: +31-20-6261167 www.community-partnership.net   CIVIQ Willem-Jan de Gast P.O Box 12080 3501 AS Utrecht Tel.: +31-30 750 9070, Fax: +31-30 7509001 www.civiq.nl	United-Kingdom Volunteering England Ruth Wilson et Christopher Spence Regent's Wharf, 8 All Saints Street, GB-London, N1 9RL Tel.: +44-20 7520 8908 www.volunteeringengland.org Institute for Volunteering Research Steven Howlett Regent's Wharf, 8 All Saints Street, GB-London, N1 9RL Tel.: +44-02-75208903 Fax: +44-20-75208910 www.ivr.org.uk

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© IRIV , Paris, 2005