Strengthened implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and a focus on inclusion, integration, and health

Expected Outcome

Projects should contribute to either the first and second (combined), or the third and fourth (combined) of the following expected outcomes:

• Improved implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum through evidence-based insights in asylum and migration management, age assessment of minors, and resettlement frameworks, ensuring fair and efficient migration governance.
• Insight into legal pathways addressing both EU Member States’ needs and potential offers of circular and permanent migration schemes in selected partner countries.
• Enhanced health equity for migrants, including refugees by integrating robust health data into national systems, addressing governance barriers, and tackling intersectional inequities in healthcare access, identifying data/indicators on basic needs in health and sanitation, including as compared to adequate treatment.
• Comprehensive evaluation of long-term social inclusion and integration strategies, providing evidence-based policy recommendations for labour market access, housing, education, health (including mental health), recognition of qualifications and validation of skills, youth participation, and social, political, and cultural inclusion.

Proposals should state clearly which expected outcomes their proposed research will contribute to.

Scope

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum[1] has introduced several key mechanisms requiring robust evidence to support their effective implementation. Proposals should conduct a comprehensive analysis of the Pact’s components, including, for instance, the solidarity mechanism, the age assessment framework for minors, crisis and force majeure migration management, the EU externalisation policies on global migration patterns and the Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Framework. This analysis should account for diverse national institutional landscapes and propose tailored policy recommendations that uphold human rights and enhance practical implementation.

The landscape of health data concerning migrants, including refugees is fragmented, incomplete, and often of low quality. This situation is compound by political, governance, legal and structural aspects that challenge the effective integration and utilisation of available data.

Proposals should map the existing landscape of health data integration for migrants, including refugees across national health information systems, evaluating existing data collection frameworks, methodologies, and technologies used to gather and integrate health information on migrant populations, highlighting potential systemic and organisational barriers. They should identify challenges and best practices that have successfully facilitated data integration while maintain high standard of data privacy and security and provide policy recommendations.

Moreover, there is a lack of research exploring how intersecting factors such as age, gender, disability and legal status influence health outcomes among migrant and refugee populations, including older migrants. Addressing these gaps (including through a contribution of SSH disciplines) is essential for the development of informed policies that ensure equitable health care access and improve overall health outcomes with special consideration to persons in a vulnerable situation. Proposals should incorporate analysis of the impact of intersectional factors in access to health for migrant and refugees' populations.

Beyond health, understanding the long-term impact of social inclusion and integration[2] strategies, is critical. Proposals should develop comprehensive and comparative evaluation frameworks to measure the effectiveness of existing strategies at the EU, national and local levels, identifying best practices at all levels (EU, national, local) and particularly the role of small and medium-sized towns; municipalities and recommending innovative policy adjustments. Areas of focus should include labour market access, mobility options of asylum seekers within the Dublin framework, housing, youth and women participation, the contribution of private sector and non-state actors and the broader social, political, and cultural inclusion of migrants, including refugee communities, including the role of education, as well as linguistic competence in the language of the receiving country. Proposals are encouraged to explore the biographical dimensions of integration, acknowledging the personal trajectories of migrants, including refugees. Research should also explore the relationship between migratory movements and social identity formation, ensuring that integration policies are adaptable to evolving societal dynamics and sustainable over time. Proposals should incorporate quantitative data and sound methodologies to identify effective practices, target groups, and enabling conditions to assess integration policies and in particular labour market integration outcomes. Wherever relevant proposals are encouraged to include migrants and/or refugees as participants in their research assessing first-hand their experiences, needs, attitudes and opinions.

Proposals may envisage JRC participation, drawing on its cross-cutting expertise in migration governance, social inclusion, and integration including from a health aspect. The JRC could, for example, contribute to comparative policy analysis, harmonised data collection across Member States, and evidence-based support to EU-level decision-making, utilising its experience in modelling policy mechanisms, analysing data and developing indicators, analysing inequalities, and providing forecasting and foresight on migration trends.

Where relevant, proposals may consider citizen engagement and dialogue beyond migrants, including refugees, with a view to collecting broader input.

[1] https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/pact-migration-and-asylum_en

[2] Integration should be understood as a two-way process.