Background

Especially since 2015, migratory flows of third-country nationals to Europe have driven EU member states to adopt different national strategies regarding integration efforts and policies. Moreover, in the context of societies with an ageing population and labour forces lacking certain professional skills, migrants, of which a large proportion are young people, may represent an important economic contribution to these countries. Therefore, European societies need to find new ways to tackle the challenges arising from integration of young third-country nationals and to avoid social exclusion. Successful integration will make migration an opportunity for both migrants and host societies.

Why do we focus on young migrants in vulnerable conditions?

Young migrants in vulnerable conditions are a group which is at high risk to be exposed to exclusionary practices of individuals, local social processes, institutions and policies.

What does liquid integration mean?

Most existing concepts of integration assume that after a certain time, different actors (persons, groups or even nations) somehow resemble one another and become integrated in a common social body – often called “group, “nation”, “society” or “global network”. In MIMY, we work with a concept of integration as a dynamic, never-ending open process of change and adaption during the life course. In this sense, integration depends on temporal stability, order and change of institutional and structural constraints on the one side and life-long individual adjustment to these changes on the other side. We call this process “liquid integration”, taking into account that habits, routines, actions and practices are constantly adjusted to change and they themselves stimulate further (unpredicted) change on the individual, institutional and structural level.