European Civic Integration and Common Values: The Experience of a Board Game

In recent years, the so-called refugee crisis has become a structural feature of many European countries. Consequently, the focus of policies towards refugees has shifted from emergency and first reception issues to include policies for their integration. Meanwhile, in the past decade civic integration policies have become fashionable in many European countries. According to civic integration programmes, a key tool for the process of inclusion of migrant populations is classes and training through which migrants learn the language and values of their host country, such as democracy and human rights. However, there is scepticism about civic integration programmes developed at the national level, which have been criticised as unidirectional, disciplinary and exclusionary. This paper is situated at the interplay of these dynamics, presenting the results of the EU-funded project ‘Euroregions, Migration and Integration’ (EUMINT), which aims to develop a Europe-wide civic integration programme for asylum seekers, refugees and local populations, while attempting to address some of the problems attributed to these types of initiatives. Reframing the concept of civic integration, EUMINT employs a bottom-up, participatory and active-learning approach and innovative interactive didactic material in order to organise civic integration encounters where refugees, asylum seekers and members of the local population discuss key values of the European Union (Art. 2 of the Treaty on European Union - TEU). Based on surveys with participants, this article presents the results of such encounters organised in Austria and Italy (Tyrol, South Tyrol and Friuli Venezia Giulia), evaluating to what extent they have been successful in fostering awareness of EU values.