Online conference “Migrant Children and Communities in Transforming Europe”

On the 22nd of June, DYPALL Network hosted an online conference ” Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe,” which was the final international dissemination activity of the project under the same title (acronym: MiCreate). 

Although an online international dissemination event was not initially planned as part of the project, knowing the importance of the topic of migrant children’s inclusion, DYPALL Network proposed to create an opportunity for the international community from all over the world to take part and learn about the outcomes of the project. Over 900 registrations from 48 countries from all over the world and over 260 participants in peak moments confirmed, that an online dissemination activity can create a great added value to the usual, in-person dissemination strategy.

The conference was opened by António Palma from TAIPA Odemira, who presented the work of his organisation with migrant children, as well as the challenges and opportunities that arise in schools in Odemira, Portugal. Subsequently, Vincent Catot from the Unit Legal pathways and integration of DG Migration and Home Affairs presented the EU Action Plan on integration and inclusion. This introduction set a great background for the later introduction to the project and key project outcomes by dr Mateja Sedmak, an Academic Coordinator of the MiCreate project.

Later on, the participants could choose between more practical, parallel workshops:

• WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS, during which dr Nektaria Palaiologou and Victoria Prekate shared good practices in refugee education: the case of Skaramagas refugee camp, and participants could learn about the Handbook for teachers: Living in Multicultural Schools, which is one of the key and most practical outcomes of the project. It consists of tens of good practices in different areas of migrant children inclusion in school environments, and practical digital tools, which ease these processes.
• WORKSHOP FOR STAKEHOLDERS, during which we shared the key policy recommendations for promoting child-centered integration of migrant children at schools. Later on, dr Adam Bulandra (Poland) and Ieva Johansson (Latvia) shared their experience in terms of the impact of the Ukrainian conflict on school education in their countries, and the local and national strategies to assess this crisis.

The overall objective of the MiCreate project was to stimulate the inclusion of diverse groups of migrant children by adopting a child-centred approach to migrant children’s integration at the educational and policy levels. Stemming from the need to revisit the existing integration policies, the research project aimed at a comprehensive examination of the contemporary integration processes of migrant children in order to empower them. The MiCREATE research team has conducted research activities with newly arrived, longterm migrant and local children in Slovenia, Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom, Austria and Poland. In the multi-method research that lasted from September 2019 to September 2021 more than 6,000 children were involved. Especially now, teachers and policy-makers face significant challenges in integrating migrant children into local communities and schools, because of a lack of effective materials and quality information. As a member of the project consortium led by the Science and Research Centre Koper (Slovenia), DYPALL Network was responsible for the implementation of dissemination activities in Portugal, Latvia, North Macedonia and the Netherlands.

Learn more about the project and its outcomes from this website or the video below.