FOCUS is a three years project granted by the European fund Horizon 2020 Migration-08-2018 and articulated in overlapping components including also research and aimed to synergically provide solutions for integration and empowerment of Syrian refugees in the host countries. Particularly, the vision of FOCUS is to increase understanding of, and provide effective and evidence-based solutions for, the challenges of forced migration within host communities and thereby contribute to increased tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and reduced radicalization across Europe and in the Middle East. Based on a comprehensive mapping and trans-disciplinary, multi-site field research conducted in Jordan, Croatia, Germany and Sweden, FOCUS explores the socio-psychological dimensions of refugee- and host-community relations and analyses the socio-economic integration/empowerment of refugees and the consequences of this in host societies. The research sites have been selected to ensure that insights and lessons are derived from medium and long-term experiences with forced displacement and local integration/empowerment. This knowledge is used to transform and strengthen existing promising solutions for social and labour market integration/empowerment. The integration/empowerment solutions will be pilot tested in at least five European countries by governmental and non-governmental end-users. The solutions are finally brought together in the Refugee and Host Community Toolbox resulting as the final outcome of the project, which will support policy makers, municipal actors, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in responding to the needs of both refugees and host communities.
The project is run by a European and not European based consortium. Coordinated by the Danish Red Cross (DRC) FOCUS sees the participation of four research partners including the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb (FFZG), Malmö University (MAU), Charité University Medicine Berlin (CH), Humboldt University (HU). Furthermore, AND, ARTTIC, Q4 will be responsible respectively for ethics and privacy management, communication and dissemination, matching research needs with policy makers necessities.
Donor: European UnionYear: 2020