The impact of intercultural events on the relations between refugees and local population in borderland environments: the example of the “Dialogue events” in the Euregio Meuse-Rhin.

Within the framework of the Interreg project TREE – Training for Integrating Refugees in the Euregio, some intercultural activities were held in the borderland regions involved by the programme, namely: Wallonia (cities of Liege, Verviers and Namur), the Dutch province of Limbourg (Maastricht), the German district of Aachen and the Rhineland-Palatinate (Bitburg-Prüm district). These events were, in principle, occasions to foster dialogue between local population and refugees in contexts characterized by historical and contemporary trans-borders movements. I studied the impact of these initiatives on the involved participants by applying a “theory of change” methodology elaborated on the basis of the narratives of the organisers concerned the expected results of these actions. Research data were then collected through participant observation at the events and through a multilingual qualitative online survey administrated to the participants of the initiatives in the four sub-regions involved. In this presentation, I will analyse these data and the ways in which they permit to shed light on the impact of these events on the relations between refugees and local population in the considered contexts, as well as on reciprocal representations and opinions. In fact, these initiatives are conceived as spaces of encounter where to acquire knowledge about migration through getting in contact with people that had experienced it, as well as (for migrants) to establish constructive moments of exchange with local population. This is supposed to bring positive change among the people involved, affecting for example each one’s stereotypes and creating new interpersonal connections. This paper will analyse in which terms and under which conditions this may – or not – happen, and whether participants find these initiatives useful to reinforce contextual social cohesion.