I Get You – mapping refugee initiatives in Europe

05 October 2016

Brussels, 05 October 2016 – Since being launched on 20 April this year, the I Get You campaign has mapped almost 300 refugee initiatives in the nine European countries taking part: Belgium, Croatia, France, Malta, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

As the mapping phase of the campaign draws to an end this month, data from each country will be analysed and presented on the campaign site. JRS outreach workers will then visit selected initiatives to do qualitative interviews with staff, volunteers and migrants.

If you take part in a community-building initiative with refugees in one of these countries and it does not show on the I Get You map, then please hurry and fill out our online questionnaire today!

Our final report is set to provide answers to the questions we started with: what are the best practices that community building initiatives have found for working with local citizens and migrants? How do these initiatives build understanding and friendship? How do they counter racism and xenophobia?

I Get You is also about stories of friendship and understanding. During the campaign so far we’ve heard about families hosting refugees in France, a bike workshop in Zagreb, a seminar on herbs and flowers in Malta, an archaeological dig in Italy and a refugee walk in Germany amongst many more activities.

The final European report is set to be launched in Brussels on World Refugee Day 2017. A series of video documentaries specially commissioned for the project will highlight the human faces of social inclusion and integration.

Across Europe, local citizens have opened their doors to people in search of safety – migrants and refugees – sharing meals, learning languages and simply being together.

I Get You was started by JRS Europe in 9 European countries with the goal of identifying and bringing together community building initiatives for local citizens and refugees.

This project is co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union.

If you take part in a community-building initiative with refugees in one of these countries and it does not show on the I Get You map, then please hurry and fill out our online questionnaire today!