The Portuguese Immigration Observatory (IO) project (NEW UPDATE)
The research project ‘UP2YOUTH- Youth: actor of social change’ is a European project which presents a collection policies for young people in Europe. The idea behind this collection is to indicate how current practices and policies relate to young people as active agents in shaping their lives.
An specific example of a practice is the Portuguese Immigration Observatory (IO) project. The main aim of the IO is to understand immigration flows in Portugal. For this reason the IO has been collecting and disseminating data and research on the topic of immigration. The IO also financed research projects . With this insight and research IO wants to support the process op policy making regarding immigrants or people with an ethnic background. Besides this support the IO also aims to help demystifying stereotypes and prejudiced images regarding specific migrant and ethnic minority groups.
Immigration specified:
Immigration is a broad topic and therefore the IO project focuses on different topics on immigration. Some examples:
- Attitudes and values regarding immigration;
- Rights and citizenship;
- Images and representatives;
- Media and integration;
- Traffic of immigrants;
- Family reunification
- Young people and immigration.
The IO competences:
To provide support on the process of policymaking and demystifying stereotypes the IO has developed several competences, the most important are the following:
- Gather, process and make information resources on the issue of immigration in Portugal available at any moment;
- Encourage the collection of supplementary data or information not directly accessible from primary sources;
- Built up files, studies and research in collaboration with experts and academic studies;
- Publish and distribute publications.