By the end of 2019, 79.5 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide and 26 million were refugees. Over the last years migration has become an urgent political issue in Europe and more people are moving and crossing country borders due to wars, poverty and political instability. Migration is currently one of the main driving forces in conflict that increases the tension between communities and countries’ international relations. The refugee crisis has been shaping the political discourse in Europe since the peaceful place refugees were expecting to find when crossing European borders changed to a Eurocentric reality where refugees are seen as a problem affecting the European systems and their stability. This project dives into how the European society thinks and relates to migration and how it affects refugees’ social integration. How will European cities facilitate refugees' social integration in the European cultural identity of 2030? The focus on the integration domain of Social Connection provides the understanding of the relationships between refugees and the host communities in which they are being hosted.
Furthermore, this project aims to understand how the clash between cultures and civilizations will transform the Europe of 2030 and influence the future of migration. The definition of the European context in 10 years from now is supported by the ViP (Vision in Product Design) methodology and its different stages. ViP provides a vision on the context of the future world and a frame of reference for future design interventions. A framework was developed in order to understand how refugees will behave inside this future world. The framework helped to translate the complex domain of migration into a tangible reference by breaking it into nine different directions and types of situations perceived by refugees when arriving in a host country. The direction chosen focuses on the facilitation of the social connections between refugees and host communities in order to break misconceptions and build a more positive and welcoming narrative. This direction removes a non-physical barrier that is preventing refugees to integrate by disrupting current narratives and perceptions and making the transition from refugees to humans where refugees move away from a position where they are perceived as a vulnerable group to a position of strength. A final design intervention was developed as a trigger that instigates critical thinking amongst the host society in order to reformulate misconceptions. A program provided by municipalities was designed with the aim of introducing refugees into the social space of local communities, delivering social connections and increasing community cohesion by encouraging conversations and face-to-face interactions between refugees and host communities at the local markets. The program gives refugees access to capital in order to produce and sell products based on their cultural background. By reverting the way businesses have been done, the concept of profit takes a new shape and morphs into building refugees’ social network inside local communities.