On 29 January 2021, MIMY’s National Expert Committee (NEC) for Germany led by our German partners ILS-Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development and HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Art came together for a first meeting.
The aim of NECs is to foster exchange and leverage synergies while ensuring effective dissemination and maximising the impact of MIMY. For that matter, NEC consists of policymakers and organisations involved in integration of young migrants in vulnerable conditions and other stakeholders. Every partner country of MIMY establishes their NECs and the objective is to be in close contact with them and meet at least once a year.
The German NEC consists of seven partners who are involved in various issues related to integration in Germany at different political and organisational levels:
At the political level, Filiz Polat (Federal Parliament Member, Green Party), Konstantin Kuhle(Federal Parliament Member, Free Democratic Party), Marie-Luise Hümpfner (Ministry of Children, Family, Refugees, and Integration of the Federal State of NRW) and Daniel Hartmann (Mayor of the City Höxter) participate. Non-profit organisations are represented by Vicky Germain (Association for Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, BumF e.V.) and Dörthe Hinz (Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen e.V.), and the academic perspective is brought in by Prof. Sabine Meier (University of Siegen).
During the meeting, MIMY and the idea behind was introduced by Prof. Dr. Birte Nienaber and Dr. Jörg Plöger with Dr. Agnes Kriszan moderating this introductory session. Subsequently, Dr. Swantje Penke and Zeynep Aydar explained the empirical backgrounds, methodology, research design and specific work packages that Germany is responsible for with the focus on local populations. Moderated by Prof. Dr. Leonie Wagner, the theoretical grounding of MIMY and the concept of liquid integration was described by Prof. Dr. Jan Skrobanek. This was followed by a discussion round about the different expectations of the individual committee members with regard to MIMY’s activities and expected outcomes.