News

FOCUS policy note: MHPSS as part of dynamic integration

Christiane Abele — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 13:43:23 +0000

As FOCUS concludes its work, we are issuing a series of short policy notes which summarise key findings and outputs.

European and national integration strategies are increasingly acknowledging the importance of mental health and psychosocial support provision within programmes for refugees, with trauma being the principal lens applied to shape activity. The FOCUS Policy note #8 examines this area and recommends the need to take a much wider approach in relation to mental health and psychosocial support and to incorporate action within the various dimensions of integration work.

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FOCUS Triangulation report out

Christiane Abele — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 08:19:22 +0000

The FOCUS Triangulation report is out!

The European Union’s definition of integration as a “dynamic, two-way process of mutual accommodation by all immigrants and residents of Member States” builds the basis of the research conceptual understanding of the term.

FOCUS has used interdisciplinary, multi-dimensional and multi-analytical approaches – constituting the first attempt to operationalise and empirically analyse in the selected countries the concept of dynamic integration as outlined by Ager and Strang (2004, 2008 and 2010; Ndofor-Tah et al., 2019). Various methods were deployed:

quantitative analysis based on the project’s surveys developed following extensive reviews of the pre-existing research base,
secondary data gathering and analysis,
qualitative research in the form of focus group discussions (FGDs), and
policy analysis.

The Triangulation report is the final step of the FOCUS research stream. It integrates and triangulates the findings from the various research methods and sources and translates them into one coherent picture. This exercise involves a careful interpretation of the consistencies and contradictions manifested in the various streams by reflecting on methodological limitations and taking a stronger consideration of context.

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FOCUS approach and case study summaries available in seven languages

Christiane Abele — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 09:53:08 +0000

The FOCUS approach and case study summaries have been translated into seven languages: Croatian, French, German, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Ukrainian and made available in the Living Well Together Resource.

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FOCUS policy note: Findings and policy implications of research in Croatia

Christiane Abele — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:57:03 +0000

The FOCUS research outputs range from detailed field surveys to a structured approach to promoting dynamic integration in this broad and diverse field. Research focused on post-2015 Syrian refugees and members of the communities where they now live. This included the first survey work to address, in a European context, both the socio-economic and socio-psychological dimensions of integration

Policy note #6 provides a general overview of the findings and policy implications of work conducted in Croatia.

Dostupan je i na hrvatskom jeziku.

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FOCUS final video

Christiane Abele — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 09:48:34 +0000

“When we want to, we can cope!”

Watch the summary of our key results and messages in the FOCUS Final Video.

The post FOCUS final video first appeared on FOCUS Refugees.

FOCUS policy note: EU Action Plan on Integration & Inclusion 2021-27

Christiane Abele — Wed, 25 May 2022 13:21:13 +0000

During the progress of the FOCUS project the core integration policy documents of the European Commission and various programme mechanisms were revised. Of these, the most important document is the Action Plan on Integration & Inclusion 2021-27.

Policy note #5 links relevant FOCUS findings to this Action Plan.

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FOCUS policy note: Language and Integration

Christiane Abele — Thu, 19 May 2022 11:09:00 +0000

As FOCUS concludes its work, we are issuing a series of short policy notes which summarise key findings and outputs.

Policy note #4 points to some of the relevant findings and implications for policy and practice in relation to the role of language.

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Implementation Guide to Dynamic Integration released

Christiane Abele — Thu, 12 May 2022 15:12:33 +0000

To support dynamic integration programming, FOCUS has issued the Implementation Guide for Dynamic Integration: a practice-informed guide for policy makers, civil society organizations and communities, developed with the active engagement of end-user organisations and representatives, to help understand important dimensions of dynamic integration and how to implement them at all stages of the project cycle:

Assessment & design
Planning & implementation
Monitoring & evaluation.

The Implementation Guide is part of the Living Well Together Resource and can be accessed here.

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FOCUS policy note: Funding and Programming

Christiane Abele — Fri, 06 May 2022 08:22:51 +0000

As FOCUS concludes its work, we are issuing a series of short policy notes which summarise key findings and outputs.

Policy note #3 details some of the relevant findings and makes recommendations for how to use funding and programme development to promote effective practices.

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[Press release] Research results & Policy implications

Christiane Abele — Tue, 03 May 2022 08:00:40 +0000

Press release, May 2022

Getting to know each other: Quality contact between migrants and longer-term residents is vital for integration – but still too rare

Research conducted by the EU-funded FOCUS project in Jordan, Croatia, Germany and Sweden has shown that migrant and longer-term resident communities are spending way too little quality time together for integration to actually occur.

FOCUS, an international consortium funded by the European Commission (2019-2022), has conducted broad surveys and focus groups with over 5.000 participants which have explored, for the first time in a European context, both the socioeconomic and sociopsychological dimensions of integration.

“With millions of people around the world currently leaving their homes to flee, FOCUS delivers key messages of fostering trust, reciprocity and intergroup relations between arriving and receiving communities”, explains Sabina Dziadecka Gråbæk, who works at the IFRC’s Reference Centre for Psychosocial support in Copenhagen and coordinates the project.

“With millions of people around the world currently leaving their homes to flee, FOCUS delivers key messages of fostering trust, reciprocity and intergroup relations between arriving and receiving communities.”

The good news is: The need for integration (rather than assimilation) is generally accepted among the population. And there are many positive signs which contrast with the gloomy predictions made in 2015 and afterwards. However, while the arriving community – the migrants – acknowledges its active responsibility in the integration process, the receiving community – the longer-term residents – tends to place this responsibility on institutions.

FOCUS has shown that core socioeconomic and legal barriers to integration remain important: legal status and right to employment, recognition of qualifications, family reunion, housing quality and support beyond reception period.

But FOCUS also looked at sociopsychological factors of integration, the relations between migrants and longer-term residents: what they think and feel about each other, how they behave towards each other and how frequently they meet. FOCUS research has shown for example that while migrants showed clearly positive attitudes towards the longer-term residents, the latter in turn tended to have a more neutral or moderately positive stance towards migrants.

While superficial contact in the workplace or in schools does exist, quality social interaction between communities is still rare, but essential for integration. Jana Kiralj from the University of Zagreb, one of the FOCUS research partners, explains: “Migrants experience more contact with the receiving community than vice versa. Receiving community members with more direct contact with migrants have significantly more differentiated opinions about them.”

“Receiving community members with more direct contact with migrants have significantly more differentiated opinions about them.”

The receiving community also tends to have false ideas about the socioeconomic situation of migrants: they underestimate their level of education and employment and overestimate the number of those receiving welfare assistance. Actively promoting engagement between arriving and receiving communities and disseminating information showing both the real situation of the arriving community and the progress of integration therefore need to become core priorities in integration work.

With the help of different partners from civil society organisations, FOCUS has proposed a structured framework: the FOCUS Approach to dynamic integration, with four core elements:

Incorporating mental health and psychosocial support to broadly reduce distress and improve wellbeing in society as a whole;

Establishing and reinforcing quality intergroup contact between arriving and receiving community members, for example through volunteerism;
Actively involving both arriving and receiving communities via co-creative and participatory approaches;
Making institutions, NGOs and communities work together through multi-stakeholder partnerships and coordination.

“A fundamentally relevant framework for dynamic integration that can be easily transferred to and used in other global contexts”, explains Gråbæk. FOCUS proposes that funding and evaluation criteria for integration programmes should be adapted to reflect these key elements.

Learn more here.

Join us at the FOCUS Final conference – Living Well Together on 1-2 June 2022 to learn more about our findings and how they can be implemented in policy and practise.

FOCUS on Twitter

FOCUS on LinkedIn

Download press release here.

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

FOCUS Consortium partners:

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support (PS Centre), Copenhagen, Denmark
AND Consulting Group, Brussels, Belgium
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Malmö University, Sweden
Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan
Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
ARTTIC SAS, Paris, France
Q4 Public Relations, Dublin, Ireland

FOCUS Implementing Partners (case studies):

Danish Red Cross
Austrian Red Cross
German Association of Psychosocial Centres for Refugees and Victims of Torture (BAfF)
Partnership Skåne (PS) Regional Integration Partnership
British Red Cross

Project duration: 01/01/2019 – 30/06/2022

EU financial contribution: 2.999.859,25 €

RIA – Research and Innovation action

Programme: H2020-SC6-MIGRATION-2018

Topic: MIGRATION-08-2018 Addressing the challenge of forced displacement

Media enquiries:

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 822401.

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