2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"
17th Edition
The Valencian Return Strategy was drawn up at the request of the regional parliament, which urged the Valencian government not to forget those people who were far from their homeland and to encourage their return to the Valencian Community.
The process began in June 2022, when the Return Forum, a consultative body made up of the regional and local government, social agents and associated and individual citizens, was set up to promote the drafting process and to propose any measures deemed necessary to achieve an optimal result. The Forum was committed to the Strategy being co-designed, that is to say, that not only the authorities should take part in its elaboration, but that it should be done jointly with the citizens, in particular with those to whom the Strategy was addressed: Valencian people living abroad. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was set up asking about the reasons why they left and what they need to return, and it was decided to hold a series of online workshops open to anyone, focusing on aspects of immigration and return.
The workshops were held in June, November and December 2022, and dealt with the situation of Valencians abroad and what measures they considered appropriate to help them return and re-establish themselves in the Valencian Community.
One of the conclusions of the workshops that has conditioned the spirit of the final document is the one related to the conditions in which many of the people who decide to return find themselves. The return is a complicated reality, full of heartaches and difficult experiences that make returnees a particularly vulnerable group compared to the resident population.
Despite the fact that return is a personal and individual episode, people who undertake the return journey usually face situations that have certain aspects in common, such as those related to their inclusion.
Many of these obstacles, included in the strategy as problems to be solved, were discovered thanks to citizen participation, since it was the residents abroad and their Valencian relatives who helped us to understand the circumstances surrounding the return.
The process also showed that returnees bring added value to the territory, in terms of experience, languages and perspective. And it has allowed to put in communication and the generation of links between the different Valencian people abroad who have participated and between them and the Valencian institutions.
With the results obtained both in the workshops and in the survey, those responsible for the drafting gave the Strategy its final form, with 40 concrete and precise measures that respond to the demands of the Valencian citizens abroad.
It is a flexible document, evaluable and adaptable according to the new needs that become evident with the effective implementation of the Strategy.
- Link to the website of the Valencian Return Strategy: https://participem.gva.es/es/estrategia-valenciana-de-retorn
- Link to the survey addressed to Valencian returnees: https://participem.gva.es/es/centres-valencians-a-l-exterior-cevex-questionari
- Link to the website of the participatory process carried out: https://retornogva.es/
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