CHILD-UP Final Conference in Bruxelles

CHILD-UP Final Conference in Bruxelles

The International Institute of Humanitarian Law organised, in collaboration with the University of Liege and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), the international final conference of the EU-funded project “CHILD-UP”. The conference was held in Brussels (Belgium) on 9.10 June 2022 and focused on “Dialogue for Hybrid Integration – Narratives and promotion of agency of children with migrant background”.

The project “Children Hybrid Integration: Learning Dialogue as a way of Upgrading Policies of Participation – CHILD-UP ” was funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union for a period of 3 years, from January 2019 to June 2022, which was extended of 6 months extension due to the impact of the pandemic. The partnership, coordinated by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), included the Center for the Research, Training and Consultancy at the Protestant University of Dresden (ZFWB gGMBH), the Jagiellonian University of Krakow (UJ), the University of Liege (ULIEGE), the University of Northampton Higher Education Corporation (UON), the Malmoe University (MAU), the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (SeAMK), the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL), the European School Heads Association (ESHA), and the Fondation des Régions Européennes pour la Recherche, l’Éducation et la Formation (FREREF). The project researched the social conditions and the degree of migrant children’s integration in 7 selected EU countries through social participation, taking into primary account gender differences, legal status and age groups, with the final aim of proposing an innovative approach to understanding and transforming their social condition through the agency.

The conference was held in Brussels over two days, with the contribution of 41 speakers who discussed, within different thematic sessions, both the research results and the policy-related outcomes of the project.

The welcome addresses – delivered by Claudio Baraldi from UNIMORE (project coordinator), Bernard De Vos, representing the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, and Marco Martinello, from the Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies of the University of Liege – were followed by the presentation of the project results by the representatives of the different research partners of the consortium, namely Claudio Baraldi and Sara Amadasi (UNIMORE), Shannon Damery, (CEDEM, University of Liege), Aino Alaverdyan (Seinäjoki University of Applied Scienze, SeAMK), Justyna Struzik (Jagiellonian University in Krakow), and Federico Farini (University of Northampton UON).

Professor Adrian Holliday, among the most distinguished international experts in the field of applied linguistics and intercultural education, delivered a keynote speech on “The importance of recovering hybrid realities”, followed by three interactive parallel sessions on Research, Practices and Policy-making, aimed at boosting new ideas and exchanging the perspectives of different categories of relevant stakeholders in the field of the integration of migrant children in the European educational systems.

The second day of the conference was devoted to a hackathon session coordinated by the IIHL, ESHA and FREREF, whose results were then elaborated by a final “Ideas Forum” which involved representatives of institutions and organisations active in the field of education, including the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission, the UNHCR Division of Resilience and Solutions, the City of London Corporation, the Lifelong Learning Platform, and SINGA France

If you are interested in the project and its results, please visit the CHILD-UP website here and consult the outcomes: reports, training materials, digital archives and much more tools are available!