The MIICT project: wider steps towards ICT-enabled solutions for migrants’ integration

How to turn the relationship among European societies and migrants more inclusive? In order to answer this question, we would like to share with you reliable documents which have been published within MIICT project. Thus, the latter already presented recommendations to various stakeholders – be they decision makers, lobbying groups and other interest groups. Released in March 2020, the first policy brief highlighted nine key policy areas to be addressed in the context of integration of migrants in Europe: starting from employment, social inclusion and anti-racism, to housing, health, education, human trafficking, legal issues as well as information and communication technology. In addition, besides expressing several suggestions regarding these areas, it also underlines country-specific recommendations for Spain, Italy and Cyprus.

Nine key policy areas to be addressed in the context of integration of migrants in Europe

More recently, in March 2021, the MIICT project issued a second policy brief  to present further recommendations on existing policies around migration issues. It is by capitalising on the findings from its first policy brief as well as on those of the Joint Migration Policy Roundtable that the latter has been organised by MIICT in cooperation with H2020-“sister”-projects (REBUILD, NADINE, MICADO, EASYRIGHTS and WELCOME). The roundtable discussions occurred between the 14th and the 16th of October 2020 and led to the publication of a Joint Migration Policy Whitepaper.

The MIICT second policy brief builds on the Whitepaper and expresses further MIICT-related recommendations. It emphasises:

• the relevance of the cooperation and coordination among stakeholders and organisations rather than individuals;
• the momentum of digitalisation of public services related to COVID-19 pandemic.

It focuses on how digital transformation and existing technological solutions (e.g. translation services) could result in multi-faceted ICT solutions that respect cultural diversity among final users. In this context, it also addresses the issue of funding and other options for the sustainability of solutions. The document concludes that the European Commission needs to play a pivotal role for supporting the sustainability and roll-out. Finally, the second policy brief mapped out possible obstacles and challenges that have to be taken into consideration for further policy development.

The next step will focus on the distribution and dissemination of the policy recommendations. Future local and European Policy Roundtables will be implemented during 2021 for revising and extending the recommendations against the background of the extended ICT-solution piloting.

To know more on the Policy Paper, read our previous news

Find out more: https://www.miict.eu