Abstract
Multistakeholder Policy Labs are initiatives promoted by the European Parliament to improve citizens’ participation in the elaboration of policies on specific themes, through the collaboration of citizens, stakeholders, and decision-makers, within plenaries and small groups discussions, coordinated by at least two facilitators. This paper concerns a European project in which Policy Labs were set up in six cities with the aim of supporting migrants’ participation in the development of new local policies; this addresses the need to create conditions for active citizenship in migratory contexts, within the framework of global migration flows. Specifically, the study concerns the Policy Labs held in Modena (Italy) and shows both effective and ineffective ways of facilitating migrants’ contributions, voices, and exercise of agency. It is based on (1) the video-recordings of these meetings, in which the different social actors interlaced their narratives, and (2) the participants’ narratives on these meetings produced during interviews and a focus group. The video recordings show that several migrants were active in participating and producing narratives despite language barriers, due to their interest in telling stories about their specific condition as migrants; on the other hand, local stakeholders tried to be helpful in defining problems and proposals, but they amplified the barriers to migrants’ participation, producing long personal narratives or speaking in the place of migrants. These aspects also emerge from the interviews and the focus group: participants state that, despite the role of facilitators, the migrants’ participation was hindered by the contribution of the stakeholders and their epistemic authority.
Presenters
Antonella CapalbiResearch Fellow, Linguistic and Cultural Studies, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
GLOBAL, MIGRATION, RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY, POLICY-LABS
