During All Europa, focus groups as well as online surveys will take place in order to get to know the most interesting topics of EU migrants as well as their main way to get information about the European Union, for instance.
All Europa is a Migration Policy Group project in collaboration with the European Parliament. Following up on “VoteEuropa” —the first European Parliament targeting EU citizens with diverse migrant backgrounds during the 2019 elections— All Europa aims to provide the European Parliament with the ongoing topics, messages and videos that will better engage EU citizens with a migrant background as well as make them more aware of the work of the EU and of the European Parliament.
To do so, the All Europa planned to learn more about what are the most interesting topics for migrants of 1st and 2nd generation, refugees and mobile EU citizens based in six European Union member States: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Ireland. Furthermore, it was aimed at knowing what the European Union means for them and the tools they would use in order to look for information about it.
In order to gather this information, the All Europa project coordinator has conducted mainly facebook surveys using MPG’s networks, interviews and through online video calls. In conclusion, All Europa compiled around 300 answers and the results obtained are the following:
1) The European Union has been defined in the majority of the answers as a safe space of opportunities, a ‘network’ and union of countries, and some respondents were describing the Union merely as a political and economic one. However, a small percentage of the answers were not so positive towards the European Union, and described it as benefiting some countries only to the detriment of others, and as a structure with too much power and bureaucracy over its Member States.
2) Concerning the topics that appeared as the most important ones when it comes to the European Union, the following ones were highlighted in the great majority of the responses: Climate Change, Human Rights, Migration and the functioning of the European Union institutions.
Besides, some specific topics appeared as relevant only in some countries. For instance: defense and security, in Spain and Italy; the mobility within the EU and its relations with third countries were noted by people based in France; in Germany “integration” and “languages” were mentioned several times; and the economy was highlighted in Italy, Greece and Spain.
3) When it comes to information about the European Union, in our previous VoteEuropa campaign in 2019 it was remarked the fact that citizens lack the necessary knowledge to get involved in EU affairs. Therefore, in All Europa it was considered as fundamental to know what are the sources of information that the citizens rely on when they need to know something about the European Union.
The great majority answered they would trust family and friends, social media accounts and newspapers. Moreover, some specified that they would trust the associations they are in and only few mentioned official websites as their source of information.
Following the results of the surveys, and on the basis of the answers, MPG will work with 5 2d or 3rd generation migrants, refugees or EU mobile citizens from the five countries involved and give them a voice, through videos to share their opinion, concern and information relating to the topics which were the most important for them.
