Prediction and management of migration are a major challenge for the European Union and also for many different stakeholder groups that provide resources and assistance to migrants along their journey. In order to develop better strategies and instruments among policy makers and practitioners in the field of migration, we still need a deeper understanding of this phenomenon.
With help from Open Cultural Center, a new IT tool is being created within the 3 year, EU-funded ITFLOWS project, that will provide better strategies and instruments for migration policymakers and practitioners, predicting incoming EU migration and better assisting migrants and refugees.
ITFLOWS will generate novel insights on migration through the phases of reception, relocation, settlement and integration. These insights will be provided by an evidence-based ICT enabled solution (the EUMigraTool) and precise models that draw on analysis of a a wide range of human factors using multiple sources of information. The EUMigraTool will provide modular solutions for humanitarian actors and policymakers based on the prediction of migration flows and the identification of risks of tensions between migrants and EU citizens. All solutions will have fitness for purpose continually validated by policy-makers and practitioners in cooperation with civil-society organisations in a dynamic and iterative process.
Open Cultural Center is one of 14 partners in ITFLOWS and provides a critical frontline perspective from its work with migrants and refugees in Spain and Greece. OCC will be supporting definition of indicators, collection of data, testing and validation of the tool, stakeholder engagement, and dissemination, providing a bottom-up approach across the project and valuable inputs as a practitioner.
More information about the project can be found here: http://www.itflows.eu/.
