The REGIN Project is one year old!

During this past year, migration, integration and inclusion have been high on the agenda at the EU level. In relation to the much-awaited New Pact on Migration and Asylum, the European Commission published its Action Plan on the Integration and Inclusion for 2021-2027. The key role of regional and local authorities is highlighted in this plan and is an important step in recognising their needs both in terms of funding as well as effective multi-level governance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has of course dominated this past year and has required the REGIN Project partners to adapt some of the activities, making use of digital tools for outreach activities. Despite these challenges, one year on, the REGIN Project is proud to present some initial results of its work that provide evidence-based tools to assist policy makers and practitioners in the planning, design and implementation of their actions to promote migrant and refugee inclusion.

Highlights of this first year of implementation (February 2020 – January 2021) include:

Outcome indicators and policy indicators known as MIPEX-R (Migrant Integration Policy Regional Index) for the six pilot regions- Azores, Campania, Catalonia, Murcia, Puglia and Skåne – the result of research and analysis led by regional experts and our partners CIDOB and MPG. Datasets and a methodological note are available on the REGIN website: they represent an overview of initial findings of the indicators applied in the six pilot regions. A more in-depth analysis will be made of the data and results, and a comparative report will be produced by the end of year. These initial results are already generating wider interest both in Europe and the international sphere, and there are plans to extend the indicators in the coming months to other regions outside the project consortium.

Instrategies has developed capacity building guidelines and training modules, and our six regions have organised or are preparing dissemination meetings, capacity building sessions with their identified stakeholders as well as training for regional staff. These events have been key in the process of building sustainable multi-level and multi-stakeholder partnerships within each partner region.

Partnership Skåne has successfully completed its testbed providing individualised support to newly-arrived families, with a focus on civic and health communications on mental health, parenting and well-being, and there are already plans to scale up the pilot project based on building supportive local ecosystems. Together with Save the Children Sweden, they also have produced the ‘My Path forward’ guide towards individually tailored support from a child’s perspective.

CPMR and partners from Puglia region finalised the guidelines of its evaluation framework and matrix, together with a short glossary, as part its Integration Lab to collect and build a database of regional integration practices focusing on the learning process.

We are now looking forward to REGIN’s second phase when we will be testing and further developing the different tools for widespread use.