Skip to main content

Cookie settings

We use cookies to ensure the basic functionalities of the website and to enhance your online experience. You can configure and accept the use of the cookies, and modify your consent options, at any time.

Essential

Preferences

Analytics and statistics

Marketing

Constanta County: Empowering Newcomers Agency : Participatory Policy-Design for Integration

Avatar: Official proposal Official proposal

In 2024, the Prefecture of Constanța launched a participatory policy-design process involving newcomers, local decision-makers and professionals, in order to give newcomers agency over their own integration and build trust with local authorities. The practice consists in the local application in Constanța (Romania) of a participatory model for integration developed collaboratively by universities, newcomers, civil society organisations, and municipalities across Europe. At its core, the practice is built on a methodology that sees newcomers as active agents of their own integration, rather than  helpless individuals in need of saving. 

The practice started with two separate focus groups: one with newcomers and one with decision-makers, to identify local integration challenges in areas such as housing, health, education, and employment. Before they start working together, all participants were trained in an engagement framework that treats newcomers as CARE – Capable, Approachable, Reasonable and Equal. These trainings are essential for enabling newcomers to work on equal terms with decision-makers, which helps build trust and fosters participation over time. Participants were then selected for their skills, knowledge of integration processes, and motivation to form mixed working groups of newcomers, decision-makers, non-governmental organisations, and professionals. 

Our discussions helped identify a key issue: how to help newcomers access reliable information so they can understand their rights and integrate more easily. Then, during the participatory policy-design workshop we explored potential solutions and worked together to design actionable steps, assign responsibilities, and set up monitoring tools for implementation. These tools enable participants to take ownership of implementing the co-created solutions. The result is a hybrid integration mechanism, which includes a multi-stakeholder online platform that helps  newcomers access essential services, overcome communication barriers, and increase their civic participation within the local community.

In Constanța and the 10 other territories implementing the practice, one newcomer has been selected to join a research team contributing to a Think Tank in Brussels. This research will build on the insights generated by the local working groups and ensure that the experiences gathered on the ground continue to inform better integration policies in the long term.

Learn more about:  https://www.in-loco.eu/ 

https://www.oidp.net/docs/repo/doc1888.pdf 


QR Code

OIDP's official logo

Constanta County: Empowering Newcomers Agency : Participatory Policy-Design for Integration

QR Code

Confirm

Please log in

The password is too short.