Background to the research

In 1997, the European Parliament decided to support actions to aid refugee integration in Europe. Between 1997 and 1999, the European Commission provided 63.5 million euros for 180 pilot actions within member states across the European Union (EU), as well as several EU-level projects. Pilot actions were aimed either at improving reception conditions for asylum seekers in individual member states, facilitating voluntary return, or supporting the integration of refugees given permission to settle.

With the aim of finding and disseminating good practice in the various member states with respect to refugee integration, one of the EU-level projects undertaken by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE, 1998, 1999) through the Task Force on Integration (later renamed the Networks for Integration) , lasted for three years. The first year concentrated on actions mainly by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local authorities and governments, and these formed the basis for the six good practice guides on refugee integration produced by the Task Force (ECRE, 1998). The guides contained descriptions and assessments of projects and activities by NGOs, local authorities, government agencies and refugee community organisations that were practical solutions to the main integration themes initially identified – community and culture, housing, health, education, vocational training and employment. However, during the second year of operation, the seven participant organisations decided to focus on refugees’ perceptions while involving as many refugees as possible in its overall actions and project work .

A decision was made to fund two pieces of research on refugee perceptions of integration. One was a qualitative study by Dr Maja Korac of the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, comparing two contrasting ‘models’ of reception and integration and their effects on the socioeconomic situation of refugees from former Yugoslavia settled in Rome and Amsterdam. She focused on refugees as dynamic social actors who have to overcome structural and social barriers hindering their settlement. In these two very different country contexts, policies and provisions influence the development of refugee strategies for integration. Objective problems in the labour market and educational integration exist in both study sites, but refugees’ social roles, personal satisfactions and perceptions of the receiving societies differ as well.