Since 2015 more than a million refugees and asylum seekers have arrived at our continent. Much has been said and written regarding this, and different policies for how to handle what some call a refugee crisis have been laid out. As young liberals, we want to be on the forefront of the policy making and look to the future. The fact is that all these people are already in Europe, and many of them have been or will be granted asylum or other permits to stay. Therefore, we are interested in looking at the next phase of the migration equation: how to make these new Europeans adjust to and feel at home in our countries, how to make them integrate in our societies.

The European Liberal Forum is organizing an event with the support of LYMEC and FNF and with the financial support of the European Parliament at the end of February. The workshop will be discussing the challenges of migration and especially the integration of the new Europeans. The focus will mainly be on solutions to the challenge posed on European countries by the large number of refugees entering the continent over the Mediterranean Sea, but other reasons for migration, i.e. economic, can also be touched upon. Participants will be required to draft a paper on the topic when applying for the workshop, that later will be part of a publication on the topic.

Participants of the seminar should apply with a text of at least 1000 words on a topic related to the theme of the workshop.

Participants will be chosen according to the quality of their papers. We have at least 20 open spots for this event for participants under the age of 35.

GUIDELINES:

Original work, minimum 1000 words.

Word file, rectified margins, Times New Roman 12, space 1.5.

Highly recommended to include references or data research.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

Fill in the form on LYMEC’s website (only valid for LYMEC Member Organisations and Individual Members of LYMEC; members of ELF organisations and ALDE Party individual members should contact their respective offices) and send your essay in Word file to [email protected].

There are no participation fees. Participants will have food and accommodation costs covered during the seminar.

The final texts will be published in a book.

Draft programme:

24 February 2017

16:00     Introduction and Presentations Sissel Kvist, President, European Liberal Youth LYMEC

16:30    Presentation of the papers by each author and short discussion Moderator: Svenja Hahn, Vice President, European Liberal Youth LYMEC

17:45    COFFEE BREAK

18:00     Refugee, asylum seeker, economic migrant – reasons for migration and definition of terminology Danica Vihinen, Secretary General, European Liberal Youth LYMEC

20:00    DINNER

END OF THE FIRST DAY

25 February 2017

09:00     On the ground visit: Welcome Centre for refugees, private shelter and school (TBC) Organised by FNF

14:00    LUNCH

15:00    A European solution to integration – a utopia? Success and failure around Europe Speaker: Moawia Ahmed (TBC), President, the Greek Forum of Migrants Moderator: Kevin Tammearu, Bureau Member, European Liberal Youth LYMEC

16:00    Final debate between the participants Moderator: Svenja Hahn, Vice President, European Liberal Youth LYMEC

20:00    DINNER

END OF THE EVENT

26 February 2017

DEPART OF PARTICIPANTS

Please note that you have to be logged in to register for the event. Individual members can register themselves, members of member organisations have to be registered by their International Officer.

Deadline for applications is Thursday, January 26th. Only registrations accompanied by a paper sent to [email protected] by the deadline for registrations will be considered.

Do not book any travels before receiving a confirmation that your application has been accepted.

If you experience problems with the registration, please contact [email protected]