
Creating OpportunitieS for Migrant InClusion
Project Code: 2019-3-DE04-KA205-018532
EU Grant: 86.094.00 EUR
Programme: Erasmus+
Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for youth
Coordinating Organization: JUGEND, BILDUNG UND KULTUR EV [De]
Participating Countries:
MV INTERNATIONAL [IT]
ASOCIACION JUVENIL INTERCAMBIA [ES]
Project Dates: Start: 01-02-2020 End: 31-01-2022
Creating Opportunities for Migrant Inclusion (COSMIC) was a Strategic Partnership lasting 24 months focused on promoting youth volunteering as an instrument to contrast discrimination against migrants and refugees among the youth categories and within the hosting societies at large.
The surge in intolerance, stereotyping, and discrimination against migrants and refugees represented one of the most glaring realities influencing political and civil society debate, particularly in the European polities most sensibly hit by the massive migrant and refugee flows from Africa and the Middle Eastern region. Eurostat quantified in 164,300 the number of extra-EU nationals who sought asylum in the EU-28 during the third quarter of 2017.
In its Report covering the period between 2015 and 2016, the European Network Against Racism highlighted a concerning upward trend in episodes of racism, discrimination, and aggression against migrants, coinciding with the intensification of the migration crisis and the resulting spike in anti-migration political discourse and exclusionary migration policies across the European Union. The Report also identified a statistical increase in direct violence against refugees and asylum seekers in Europe.
This pattern of discrimination, stereotyping, and attack (physical as well as verbal) was fueled by and fed a sliding of public debate over migrants and migration towards a subalternity to the dichotomic categorizations and confrontational positions expressed by populist, extremist, and generally far-right movements, which increasingly gained access to the mainstream public debate and realm of policies. Young people were particularly vulnerable to racist and discriminatory propaganda and messages, in particular considering their preferential use of Social Media, wherein this type of aggressive and discriminatory speech was ever more circulated. The necessity of setting the conditions for youth awareness about racism and discrimination as well as of the active contrast thereof in the field of youth was stressed by the European Youth Strategy, which set the objective of supporting the development of cultural awareness and the contrast of prejudice among the youth. COSMIC pursued these objectives by means of selecting and training a cluster of youth volunteers actively committed to contrasting feelings and practices of discrimination among young people as well as promoting the positive values of tolerance and respect of diversity enshrined in European identity and citizenship.
COSMIC activities were:
- Research and identification of European good practices in contrasting radicalization and prejudice among young people through Storytelling, Art, and Sport.
- Selection of a cluster of 10 young people per partner country (5 of local and 5 of migrant origins) to take part in the process of educational empowerment delivered in the project.
- Implementation of 3 Blended Youth Mobilities (1 per partner country) wherein partners developed the knowledge, skills, and competences of selected youngsters in employing unconventional instruments of Non-Formal Education (Storytelling, Art, and Sport) as tools for contrasting phenomena of racism and xenophobia among their fellow young people, as well as spreading positive values of inclusion and tolerance.
- Implementing a set of local activities delivered by participating youngsters in each partner country towards an audience of their own peers (locals and migrants). The focus of the activities was to convey the educational message of the project to youngsters in local realities.
- Developing educational resources (Research Reports, Manual, and Blog) in multiple languages allowing wide accessibility and disclosure of project results and thereby producing a direct impact on the audience of youngsters and youth operators in partner countries and in Europe at large.
Events and Project target groups:
Transnational Project Meeting:
- Number of participants: Total of 6 (2 per country).
- Age: 25+
- Profile: Project leaders from each partner organization taking part in the project.
Blended Mobility:
- Number of participants: 10 participants per each of the 3 Blended, total of 30 participants (5 of local and 5 of migrant origins per country).
- Age: 18-25
- Profile: Young people playing an active role in contrasting stereotyping and discrimination against migrants and refugees among their fellow youngsters.
Local Phase:
- Number of participants: 10 participants per partner, total of 30 participants (5 of local and 5 of migrant origins per country).
- Age: 18-25
- Profile: Young people playing an active role in contrasting stereotyping and discrimination against migrants and refugees among their fellow youngsters. Activities were led by participants of the Blended Mobilities.
Project objectives supported the identified priorities as follows:
- Promoted youth volunteering as an instrument to contrast discrimination against migrants and refugees among the youth categories and within the hosting societies at large.
- Researched and identified European good practices in contrasting radicalization and prejudice among young people through Storytelling, Art, and Sport.
- Implemented 3 Blended Youth Mobilities (1 per partner country) wherein partners developed the knowledge, skills, and competences of selected youngsters in employing unconventional instruments of Non-Formal Education (Storytelling, Art, and Sport) as tools for contrasting phenomena of racism and xenophobia.
- Implemented a set of local activities delivered by participating youngsters in each partner country towards an audience of their own peers (locals and migrants).
- Developed educational resources (Research Reports and Manual) in multiple languages allowing wide accessibility and disclosure of project results and thereby producing a direct impact on the audience of youngsters and youth operators in partner countries and in Europe at large.
Blended Youth Mobility, San Teodoro, Sardegna, 17th to the 25th August 2020


Blended Youth Mobility, Velbert, Germany, 31th July –08th of August 2021


Blended Youth Mobility, Malaga, Spain, 17th to 25th March 2022

Dissemination Conferences

