Participation and Social Innovation as a Compass towards Integration: The Rationale behind the INTE-great Project

Abstract

This paper presents the theoretical and operational approach of the AMIF-funded project INTE-great “Stakeholder Partnership for the Integration of Migrants”, which has the aim of building a stronger integration strategy and ecosystem for migrants, in particular asylum seekers, refugees and migrants with subsidiary protection (women, men, families and LGBTIQ+) at the urban level through cross-sector stakeholder partnerships, developing an innovative integration strategy framework (ISF) according to which five pilot initiatives will be tested through experimentation in five partnering countries (IT, ES, EL, CY and IE). The paper is structured as follows: After retracing the main development of the integration concept in different social sciences, we propose the operational definition of integration adopted in the project. We then concentrate on the role of migrants’ participation in enhancing a more effective integration path, before presenting the way in which we interpret the meaning of social innovation in the five pilot initiatives of the INTE-great project. We conclude by highlighting that a multistakeholder partnership adopting a real participatory migrant approach in the codesign, implementation and evaluation of the pilot initiatives constitutes the added value of social innovation in the field of migrants’ integration services.