Building structured pathways for inclusive civic participation in local decision-making
People with a migration background are often excluded from the spaces where local decisions are shaped and taken. While many municipalities are willing to engage with migrant communities, participation often remains limited to one-off consultations, informal relationships, or isolated initiatives disconnected from decision-making processes.
MigrantEngage bridges this gap by supporting municipalities and communities to co-develop more structured, accessible, and sustainable mechanisms for civic engagement. Building on the experience and lessons of PLACE Network’s Resilient Cities programme (2023-2026), the project brings together people with a migration background and local actors to identify barriers, explore existing practices, and co-design solutions adapted to their territories.
How does it work?
MigrantEngage follows a participatory process that connects community experience with institutional practice. Rather than introducing a one-size-fits-all model, the project starts from the realities of each territory and works with local actors to identify what is already working, what is missing, and what can be improved.
The approach combines five interconnected phases:
The goal is to achieve:
- More accessible participation pathways for people with a migration background
- Stronger connections between civic engagement and decision-making
- Better tools and practices for municipalities and local actors
- More meaningful use of lived experience in local policy processes
- Transferable models and lessons that can be adapted across territories
Who is it for
Why get involved?
REMAP offers an opportunity to explore how histories of colonisation, migration and displacement continue to shape European societies and to contribute to changing how these histories are understood and addressed.
Whether you have a personal experience of migration, work with migrant communities, develop integration policies or are interested in these questions, you can contribute through discussions, research, mapping, storytelling and co-creation activities.
Local organisations & civil society actors
Community organisations, associations and other stakeholders working to strengthen civic participation, representation and connections between communities and institutions.
From participation to shared governance
MigrantEngage starts from a simple principle: people should not only be consulted about decisions that affect them, they should have meaningful opportunities to shape them.
By connecting community knowledge, institutional capacity and practical experimentation, the project aims to contribute to local governance systems where participation is not an isolated activity, but an ongoing part of how decisions are made.
English 
French