4th Regional Stakeholder Group Meeting - Latvia
On 3 December 2024, the 4th Regional Stakeholder Group Meeting took place, organised by a partner from Latvia. The event took place at the University of Latvia and brought together representatives of Latvian municipalities and experts on refugee and migrant issues. The theme of the meeting was “Socio-economic Integration of Refugees and Migrants in Municipalities”.
Relevant topics covered during the meeting were:
- Solutions applied in other countries, which were presented at the inter-regional meetings held within the SIRM project. Solutions and good practices presented by other partners and their effects were discussed. Participants had the opportunity to learn about good practices applied in Romania, Italy and Poland. The experiences of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia concerning war refugees from Ukraine and the successes achieved in their integration into the labour market were also discussed.
- Results of the study, carried out as part of the ReCOM project. This is a project whose objectives include analysing the integration process of refugees arriving in Latvia and learning about the processes involved and the results achieved. Representatives of this project also attended the meeting and shared the results of the study carried out on “Reception of Migrants in Conditions of Uncertainty: Governance and Local-Level Inclusion”. This provided participants with an insight into the challenges and opportunities faced by municipalities in Latvia in relation to the need to integrate incoming migrants and refugees.
At the end of the meeting, participants took part in a discussion about opportunities and solutions in the integration of foreign arrivals in Latvian municipalities. The meeting made it possible to identify the obstacles and barriers that inhibit integration and which need to be overcome. Participants made suggestions for solutions that could be applied to improve integration processes and make it easier for refugees and migrants to lead a normal and safe life in Latvia.