This report compares local realities of migration in Europe. Counterpoint explored local and personal experiences of migration in communities across four European countries (France, Germany, Sweden and Italy), and here we set out some of the key insights policy-makers might take away from what is an intense emotional experience from the point of view of both host communities and newcomers.
For eighteen months, we delved into communities across Europe to explore their local and personal experiences of migration: of welcoming strangers to their communities, of successes, challenges and hopes. We asked members of these communities in France, Germany, Italy and Sweden questions they are not usually faced with, so that we might gain a more nuanced understanding of how these communities shape and re-shape themselves according to the arrival and integration of newcomers. We inquired into experiences such as loss, trauma, ambivalence, conflict, cooperation, transition and belonging to make sense of the phenomenon we call ‘migration’.
