The goal of the project was to find an answer to the question – whether Latvia, Estonia and Poland are going in the right direction with fulfilling the promise of making their societies more welcoming towards migrants, in particular, by providing and establishing opportunities for immigrants to participate in political and social life of the country? This was achieved via analysing:

·         the existing forms of political participation for immigrants in the selected countries (legislation and experience) with regard to issues like the rights to join and create non-governmental organizations, trade unions and political parties, voting rights and consultation mechanisms for policies affecting migrants. This part of research included interviews with immigrant NGOs and/ or other civil society organizations fostering the political participation of immigrants or seeking to promote their rights to political participation in the country. High-level representatives of political parties making up the government coalition in each country were also interviewed regarding the openness/ exclusiveness of the general political environment in the country towards the political participation of immigrants.

·         the projects implemented via the European Fund for the integration of the Third Country Nationals (whether these EU funds implemented via member states but accepted by the European Commission actually address the political participation of immigrants, or the majority of the projects look at immigrants as persons in need of services).

The countries’ performance was measured against the best practice in the EU according to the Migrant Integration Policy Index   (www.MIPEX.eu) that compares all EU countries’ legislation on immigrant integration.

Based on 3 national reports a comparative report was published, available  here (471.50 KB). The findings and recommendations were discussed in national debates in each country and described in national policy briefs. An advocacy event in Brussels will be used to disseminate the comparative research and a policy brief focused on the implementation of the European Fund for the integration of the Third Country Nationals.

The country reports (in English) are available here: Latvian country report, Estonian country report, Polish country report

In addition, video blogs (in the national languages) were published with the opinions of third country nationals on the existing and the necessary participation opportunities.

The advocacy event “Do citizens really know best? Obstacles to Political Participation of Third Country Nationals in Latvia, Estonia and Poland”, on 28 September 2011 in Brusselswas used to disseminate the comparative research and a policy brief focused on the implementation of the European Fund for the integration of the Third Country Nationals.

The policy brief is available here.

The basic assumption of the project comes from the Common basic principles for immigrant integration policy in the EU (adopted in 2004) that includes the principle of political participation. Lisbon Treaty provides the EU with a legal basis to work on immigrant integration, and EU member states have adopted the Stockholm Programme (December 2009) noting that the objective of granting comparable rights, responsibilities, and opportunities for all is at the core of European cooperation in integration, taking into account the necessity of balancing migrants’ rights and duties.

Project partners: Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS (Latvia), Institute of Public Affairs (Poland), Institute of Baltic Studies (Estonia), Migration Policy Group (Belgium).