Learning to live in a new country – Civil society and integration – Nordic rural perspective
Integrering
17 jun 2020
The Nordic countries have varying experience of receiving and integrating refugees and other immigrants into our societies. Settling in a new country is a learning process that can be greatly facilitated by the help of civil society. This report focuses on the role of civil society in the everyday lives of immigrants and refugees.
The report has a rural and small community perspective throughout.
In the first part different civil society actors such as aid organisations, mentorship programmes, sports clubs, and religious communities are in focus.
The second part of the report describes the potential and challenges of multi-sectoral cooperation between municipalities and civil society organisations.
Alongside the report a series of events on integration and the role of civil society were arranged during 2019. A Nordic network meeting with civil society initiative actors and a webinar on the role of civil society and labour market informed the work of this report. A Nordic conference on social inclusion was held with representatives from civil society organisations and initiatives trying to answer the question: How do we increase social inclusion of refugees and newly arrived migrants by improving the conditions for civil society?