"<< Background >>The integration and full inclusion of migrants is one of the key challenges of Europe and one that might bring about despicable consequences, in case it is not successfully attained by a united Europe. This effort is echoed also by the United Nations. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, has stated that ""to make diversity a success, we need to invest in social cohesion so that all people feel that their identities are respected and that they have a stake in the community as a whole”.The UNESCO report “Cities Welcoming Refugees and Migrants” recommends considering migrants as political agents capable of offering solutions and new ideas to the problems that directly affect them, but also those of the whole community and including them as active participants in the implementation of local policies. While the challenges migrants face are varied and numerous, one of the questions that often gets overlooked is their (lack of) participation in the decision-making processes, particularly young migrants who might face a double-discrimination, related to their age and their background.The partners of the project have been working for several years on the empowerment of young migrants and local disadvantaged and disengaged youth throughout Europe and thus joined to implement this project.""Cities of Welcome - Improving the Participation of Young Migrants at Local Level"" is Key Action 2 Project between Migrafrica (Germany), DYPALL Network (European Network based in Portugal), Fundació Catalunya Voluntària (Spain) and Citizen Association United Youth (North Macedonia) which aims to improve the conditions, overall integration and participant of young migrants and youngsters of migrant background in their local communities by sharing good practices and examples of integration and collectively trying to find better solutions together with and for this target group.This project will allow municipalities in partner countries to exchange best practices and models coming from the South, North and East Europe, and compile experiences and integrated ways to facilitate and support the participation of young migrants and youth with migrant backgrounds and thus easen their integration in society. The main need is alleviating some of the challenges that municipalities are facing when it comes to integrating the participation of migrant young people, such as structural and social barriers. Project partners consider that the specific needs of target groups regarding civic and political participation fall between the cracks of existing youth and inclusion policies. This project will also allow local authorities and youth workers to avoid the “tokenization” of young migrants, ensuring that their inclusion in participation is meaningful, which is a requirement for their full integration.<< Objectives >>We believe that the target group of the project – young migrants and young people with migrant background - can benefit from its boost in participation mechanisms, but also their participation can benefit the communities they are in. In line with the Renewed EU Youth Strategy and Youth Goal #3, this project aims to improve the meaningful participation of young migrants and youngsters of migrant background in decision-making processes by ensuring that the youth and municipal workers are aware of their unique situation and challenges and have competencies to serve and support this target group. It will also touch upon the limited participation of migrant youth in the European elections.The project will have the following specific objectives:• Build a network of organizations supporting migrant youth participation in decision making.• Map and identify good practices of inclusion and participation on decision-making at the local level of youth with a migrant background and young migrants that support their integration and inclusion in their communities; • Identify and document quality indicators that will allow local authorities to assess the impact of their practices of youth migrant participation in decision-making;• Identify and document guidelines containing the actions that CSO and local public bodies can undertake in order to improve their policies towards the participation of youngsters with migrant background;• Encourage active citizenship of youth with migrant background, developing their sense of belonging at local level by promoting their participation in decision-making.As a result of the project, local stakeholders involved in facilitating the integration and participation of young migrants and young people with migrant background, such as local authorities or CSOs, will be able to assess their local integration policies, practices and spaces for participation of young migrants in their municipalities and improve them by following the guidelines and examples of good practices mapped on the international level.<< Implementation >>This 2-years long project will include the following project activities:- Study Visit “Welcoming Cities: Good practices of Participation of Youngsters with migrant background"" (20 participants)- Training Course “Training on practices and guidelines on young migrants participation at Local Level” (16 participants)- 3 Transnational partners’ meetings (TPM) (24 pax) - 5 multiplier events (160 pax)The Study Visit in Lisbon will be a space for the development of competencies, dialogue and sharing of experiences of integration and participation of migrant youth, particularly by discovering, seeing and hearing the local good examples of participation of this target group to be found in Lisbon - Portugal, considered one good example of ""welcoming cities"" to migrants in the UNESCO report “Cities Welcoming Refugees and Migrants”. It will allow to build trust between different local stakeholders and learn first hand about the barriers young people experience in participation.The Training Course in Germany will serve a purpose to train representatives of local authorities and CSOs on how to effectively use the main outcome of the project: publication “Models and strategies of involvement of young migrants in decision-making processes at the local level” (IO1) that includes (a) good practices, models and policies of young migrant participation at the local level, (b) quality indicators to assess their local practices and (c) guidelines on how to improve or how to implement new ones.The Transnational Project Meetings (I-III) will take place in Lisbon (PT, TPM1), Köln (DE, TPM2) and Ohrid (NM, TPM3). They will allow overall management of the project, development of intellectual outputs, continuous evaluation and monitoring of the project, as well as planning different steps of the project. During the last TPM, partners will plan the follow-up of the project and agree on the final project report.The Multiplier events will be implemented locally by each of the partners close to the end of the project, with the intention to disseminate the project outcomes among different stakeholders at their national level. These efforts will be supplemented by an international online conference organised by DYPALL Network, that will reach over 80 participants from all over Europe to learn first hand about the project results and innovative tools, that can benefit the participation and integration of young migrants and young people with migrant background in their communities.<< Results >>When young migrants are active at local level (in different areas), they are more likely to develop a sense of belonging not only to the local communities, but to the European project as well, thereby enhancing their sense of European citizenship and contributing to the development of their societies. This active participation will be the core aim of the project itself, which will involve said target groups in all phases, empowering them in having a voice, participating in decision-making processes, and developing a sense of initiative.The main result we aim to achieve is to draw attention and raise awareness in those supporting young migrants that their participation in decision-making processes (and their participation in general) is valuable and key to their integration in the hosting society. We also aim to stress the fact that inclusion and youth policies at the local level often leave out the needs of migrant youth or youth of a migrant background and thus their specific needs are made invisible in both fields, as is their existence as a target group that needs special attention from the policy-makers and youth workers. With the publication publication “Models and strategies of involvement of young migrants in decision-making processes at the local level” (IO1) that includes (a) good practices, models and policies of young migrant participation at the local level, (b) quality indicators to assess their local practices and (c) guidelines on how to improve or how to implement new ones, as well as with the Study Visit and the Training, we want to achieve these goals, and show that it is possible to have harmonious and meaningful participation of this target group while improving the competencies of youth workers involved in the project.This project will not only affect those target groups but also local residents, who will have more opportunities for interaction, feeling more comfortable in having social relations with migrants and refugees and therefore considering them more as a resource than as a problem.It will also allow local authorities and youth workers to avoid the process of “tokenization” of migrants and refugees, ensuring their inclusion in decision making, participatory processes and opportunities, and improving their recruitment networks, which are considered to be one of the main causes of lack of participation of said target groups (together with lack of resources and of psychological engagement).Finally, for the project consortium, this project will strengthen the cooperation between Migrafrica and the project partners will allow them to act as experts and consultants in their local communities and in their national context regarding the improvement of policies and practices to support the integration via participation in decision-making processes of young migrants and thus increase their profile, visibility and internal competencies. In addition, the partners want to reach different public authorities and reinforce or start their cooperation with the youth sector, facilitating the support mechanisms for young migrants and refugees in the long run.Project partners will use participatory and inclusive methods, as well as non-formal learning to gather results and conduct project activities in order to achieve better and more welcoming cities to youngsters of migrant background, under the belief that the betterment of conditions for this target group will lead to better, more cohesive and stronger communities, and not the other way around. We hope also in the future to continue cooperation with the project partners and produce even more innovative, incisive and impactful. The results will then be disseminated local, nationally and EU wide so others can learn from our experience"