Matilde (Horizon 2020) – challenging topic (Migration impact assessment to enhance integration and local development in European rural and mountain regions), great team: 10 universities, 6 NGOs, 3 city councils, 3 research centers, 2 governmental agencies, 1 local authority from 10 countries.
#Eurac – project leader; #CERMES – WP leader
MATILDE aims to shed light on the local level interactions stemming from the arrival and settling in of TCNs in rural and mountain areas.
MATILDE brings together 11 research partners based in 10 different countries to provide a transdisciplinary and broad geographical to understand migration impact across countries and regions with different migration experiences and patterns. The second level consortium, involving 14 local partners active in the field of migrant integration with diverse roles, ensure the stakeholder knowledge is fully integrated in research activities as well as in the dissemination plan.
MATILDE aims to shed light on the effects of migration processes directed towards European rural and mountain areas, their upward trend, transformative and redistributive effects. Through local level field-work conducted with action-research methods, it aims to stimulate the engagement of local stakeholders (migrants, policymakers, civil society, transnational networks) to produce new knowledge about the processes and strategies triggered by migration at the local level. It aims to categorize them for potential transfer and for grounding better governance of the potential for local development entailed by TCNs stocks and flows. The project considers “Third Country Nationals” (TCNs) as non-Eu citizens who are the target of the EU integration policies (see EU Integration Action Plan of Third-Country Nationals, June 2016). We include here economic and family migrants, students and researchers, highly skilled migrants as well as asylum seekers, refugees and status holders including vulnerable groups (victims of trafficking, unaccompanied minors and stateless persons). MATILDE improves the understanding of the social and economic impacts of international migration across the EU through a multiscale and multidimensional assessment; it analyses the effectiveness of integration policies across different realms and levels through cross-country comparative research. The project adopts a place-based approach and a mixed methodology in order to:
• Develop and test an innovative toolbox for multi-dimensional and multi-scale assessment of the impacts of migration on the social, economic and spatial dimensions in rural and mountain areas.
• Shed light on the nexus between migration and local development and on the impact of migration on territorial inequalities and regional disparities by assessing the impact of migration on the social and economic dimensions at different territorial scales.
• Co-constructing a local level, participatory assessment of the impact of migration in rural and mountain areas through 12 local case studies .
• Promote place-based governance of migration and socially inclusive growth through strategic and operational recommendations targeting national, regional and local level policy makers and stakeholders.
• Enhance public awareness and stimulate informed debate on the impact of migration, addressing misperceptions through dissemination and communication strategies targeting diverse groups (academia, stakeholders, citizens, migrants) at different levels (EU, national, regional) grounded on the two levels consortium and benefitting from strategic partnership with thematic networks such as MRI, ForAlps, etc.
Anna Krasteva 