Armed conflict, poor country conditions, and climate disasters have long forced people to leave their homes in search of safety and opportunity elsewhere. In recent years, global migrations patterns have increasingly captured headlines across the world. As these patterns continue to evolve, there is an urgent need for receiving countries and cities to adopt migrant inclusion policies that recognize migrants’ dignity and as contributors to their communities’ cultural, economic, and social fabric. 

Rather than focusing on “migrant integration,” Somos Comunidad emphasizes “migrant inclusion.” While integration policies promote migrants’ social incorporation and participation in their new homes, they often place much of the burden to adapt on migrants themselves and tend to apply selectively to certain migrants. By contrast, inclusion recognizes the responsibility of elected and appointed officials to ensure that all persons, regardless of immigration status, have equitable access to services, rights, and opportunities for participation.

Around the world, many countries and local governments – many of them in the global south – implement innovative migrant inclusion policies, but their efforts are often been overlooked or not as widely documented. Somos Comunidad brings together practitioners, civil society, and public officials from different countries to discuss migrant inclusion, examine successful policies and strategies, and promote their adoption. 

Goals: 

1. Create a space for dialogue on innovative and successful inclusion programs and policies. 
2. Identify tools for evaluating the success of inclusion programs and policies.  
3. Deepen the relationships between civil society organizations and local governments and foster opportunities for cross-border partnerships.
4. Redefine migration policy narratives to center inclusion in an effort to build a better society for all.

Activities:

Through a series of live virtual conversations, case-study presentations and round table discussions on topics such as language access, discrimination and xenophobia, child welfare, and sustainability, Somos Comunidad hopes to bring migrant inclusion to the forefront of the discourse on migration governance.

• Live virtual conversations: