PREMIUM – An example of a successful project

On 3 July 2017 the concluding workshop of the UM-Macimide PREMIUM project was held.

The project was financed by Macimide, the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development. The project was carried out by Vienna Kooijman (FPN), Mercedes Quammie (FPN), Sarai Suarez Louzao (UNU-Merit) and Harres Yakubi (UNU-Merit), supervised by Natasja Reslow (Law).

The students wrote a report on the implementation of national refugee integration policy at the local level, focusing on education and housing for refugees in Maastricht. At the workshop, they presented their findings to a group of stakeholders, including housing corporations, VluchtelingenWerk, and the municipality of Maastricht. The report shows that refugees are not included in discussions about how to improve integration strategies; that the privatization of language courses means that refugees’ progress in learning Dutch is not monitored; and that teachers are not trained on cultural differences. Several best practices were identified within the municipality of Maastricht, such as the Match project which seeks to increase the social involvement of students at Maastricht University. The presentation of the report was followed by an interactive workshop where participants discussed the findings and possible way forward.

The report is available for download: https://1drv.ms/b/s!As6Q1tuljPJRiV0F4RIyH9K4WZjU