Promoting Evidence-Informed Immigrant Integration Policymaking

In this paper, the authors describe the state of play for evidence-based immigrant integration policymaking in Europe. They note that, in the field of immigrant integration, reliance on evidence-based policy making lags behind other areas of policymaking. The authors give a number of reasons for this, including the fact that much policy in this field is forged in the midst of crises; the difficult politics of migration and resettlement; the range of policy makers involved at various levels of government, as well as nonprofit and private sector organizations; within-group and between-group diversity in migrant populations; lack of resources dedicated to measuring the effectiveness of integration programs; and many other reasons. After describing these challenges, the authors recommend strategies to promote a culture of evidence-based policymaking in the immigrant integration arena. These include cultivating political buy-in for effective strategies and for experimentation; providing tiered funding for integration strategies depending on their proven effectiveness and scalability; engaging stakeholders — including immigrants themselves — at all levels of policy design and implementation; training policymakers and other stakeholders in evidence-informed techniques; and improving collection and dissemination of information about effective policies and lessons learned from policies that have been less than successful. (Maurice Belanger, Maurice Belanger Associates)

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