Final report
MATILDE - Migration impact assessment to enhance Integration and Local Development in European rural and mountain regions
(Social and economic impact assessment to enhance integration and local development in European rural and mountain regions)
MATILDE is a three-year EU project funded under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Call H2020- SC6-MIGRATION-2019, Grant Agreement No. 870831. Running from February 2020 to January 2023, this project investigated the impact of migration on local development and territorial cohesion in rural and mountain areas in Europe. The central aim was to improve the integration of third-country nationals and simultaneously promote local development (see: https://bab.gv.at/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=271:bab-039-20-matilde-migration-impact-assessment&catid=110&lang=de&Itemid=412).
The MATILDE project aims to improve knowledge about the social and economic impact of migration processes of third-country nationals moving from countries with high migratory pressure and from European cities towards rural and mountainous areas. A broad spectrum of target groups of EU integration policy was addressed. These include economic and family migrants, students and researchers, highly skilled migrants, asylum seekers, recognized refugees and other vulnerable groups. In order to better understand the economic and social impact of immigration in rural and mountain areas, the project conducted both quantitative and qualitative analyses on the arrival and short- and long-term settlement of third-country nationals.
The two-tier consortium, consisting of research partners and local partners involved in integration work at the regional level, guaranteed a multi-actor perspective. Furthermore, in the case study regions, the great diversity of rural and mountain areas across Europe as well as the different spatial and historical characteristics (e.g. in terms of different migration patterns and governance, social systems, socio-cultural and economic systems) could be mapped and taken into account in the analysis. The close cooperation between researchers and local partners in a case study region made it possible to take into account the different concerns and characteristics of the individual areas. In Austria, in addition to a case study in Carinthia (carried out by the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences with the city of Villach as a local partner), a case study was conducted in Vorarlberg, which was carried out by the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Mountain Farming (BAB) and the local partner okay.zusammen leben - Projektstelle für Zuwanderung und Integration in Vorarlberg.
The BAB was involved in all content-related work packages in the processing of the Austrian perspective (together with the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences) and was responsible in particular for the coordination and processing of the Vorarlberg case study region. The work packages focused on the development of a conceptual and methodological framework, on the analysis of social and economic impacts, and on the development of policy recommendations. The analysis of the social and economic impact of migration at the local level in the Vorarlberg case study aimed to better understand social integration processes of refugees in three rural communities in the Vorarlberg South region. The local service structures of differently structured rural communities were developed with the help of 29 qualitative, problem-centered interviews with local actors. In addition, "social mappings" were carried out with 25 refugees, visualizing the central stations, the most important reference persons and the first steps of arrival since their arrival in Vorarlberg (see BAB Factsheet 004: MATILDE research results). The results were discussed in several focus groups and brought to the attention of a wider regional population (see https://matilde-migration.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/d7-12-roundtables-on-policy-recommendations.pdf (accessed 26.06.2023)). In addition, the BAB was also active in the context of dissemination: BAB employees participated in the MATILDE Summer School, wrote a contribution to the MATILDE massive open online course (MOOC), presented results of the project at various topic-specific conferences and wrote contributions to book projects.
A total of 30 reports and policy briefs were written as part of the project (see: https://matilde-migration.eu/reports-and-policy-briefs/). The BAB was involved as co-author in the following reports, in particular the chapters specific to Austria and Vorarlberg:
Classification of spatial characteristics and distribution of third-country nationals in MATILDE regions (Deliverable 2.1)
Report on the conceptual framework of migration processes and local development in rural and mountain areas (Deliverable 2.4)
Country-specific policy briefings on migration-related social and economic policies (Deliverable 3.1 and 4.1)
10 statistical social impact briefings to provide an in-depth quantitative assessment of the four dimensions that determine the social impact of migration at different levels (Deliverable 3.2)
10 social impact country reports focusing on the qualitative impact of the arrival and settlement of TCNs (Task 3.3)
10 country reports on economic impacts (Deliverable 4.3)
13 action research reports (Deliverable 5.3)
Country reports on challenges, policy recommendations and solutions (deliverable 6.2)
Collection of European best practice examples on the integration of TCNs (Deliverable 6.9
Start of the project: 02/2020
End of the project: 09/2023
