Being and Belonging

Being and Belonging is a youth solidarity project led by young people to engage our peers, decision-makers and influencers in discussions around migrant integration by posing two simple questions: Who am I to you? Who are you to me?

We want to give other young people the chance to share as we reflect on our own identities, and overcome how we categorise ourselves and others as good, bad or non-migrants. We want to create initiatives, policies and campaigns where we lead people to view migrants – and each other – as individual human beings, instead of as a part of a fixed classification.

Current policies often place the burden of “integration” solely upon migrants. In doing so, these policies ignore the difficulties national populations face in high-churn areas. This one-dimensionally outlines integration as the ability to function, as opposed to flourish, in a society. The diverse experience of migrants and other populations affected by migration are not appropriately reflected.

The Being and Belonging project aims to address this problem by empowering young people affected by migration (which is most of us!) to successfully use our voices to affect change.

From climate change to racial equality, this year has seen an unprecedented rise of social justice movements led by young people. The WONDER Foundation, along with Sursum (Slovenia), Na Reja (Poland), Canfranc (Spain) and KIB (Latvia) are dedicated to ensuring that young people’s voices in the issues that matter remains effective and bolstered— and we believe that this project is the cornerstone of this commitment.