paper birds on a pink and blue backgroundMigration Policy Institute Europe-International Organization for Migration has released a new report, “Driving Migrant Inclusion through Social Innovation: Lessons for cities in a pandemic”, which looks into the challenges posed by COVID and national lockdowns on the migrant support infrastructures and suggests that the social innovation systems created in 2015-2016 may be the solution.

The publication is mainly based on research carried out in cities and towns in Southern as well as Central and Eastern Europe that have faced particularly challenging situations. It examines the potential of social innovation to support migrant and refugee inclusion, explores promising practices and persistent challenges, and offers reflections on how these lessons can help diverse cities advance inclusion and social cohesion in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid the associated economic, social and political uncertainty.

The report concludes that “Cities will need to tackle the hard questions of effectiveness, sustainability, efficiency and scalability if social innovation is to turn from a novelty into a robust tool for transforming local government”.

 

For more information, please read the full text of the report.