
December 10-11 the Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania arranged and hosted – as a part of the My!Europe project supported by the ‘Europe for Citizens’ program – the conference ‘Migration – Refugees and Labor’ in Latvia’s National Library, located in the capital city Riga. The conference gathered 110 participants from 14 different countries representing Baltic and European NGO’s, Governments, Universities, European Institutions including representation from the Commission and the Parliament. The participants engaged in presentations and group discussions about the current migration issues in the EU as seen from a Baltic perspective. The conference thereby engaged a broad range of individuals and institutions from a wide range of countries in a discussion on national, regional and international challenges and common EU solutions and the future of Europe. Besides gathering a broad range of actors to discuss these issues, the results of the discussions are integrated into the framework of the next conference (the Riga conference was one of eight conference under the My!Europe project) through the My!Europe Declaration. Thereby, the work of the conference on Migration – Refugees and Labor is not limited to the scope of the conference but will be passed on in a rely-fashion. Furthermore, the conference utilized social media platforms to reach a broad public, especially in the Baltics. Through the social media sites more than 43.000 individuals where reached and informed of the conference and a direct transmission where set up form the conference through the University of Latvia and broadcasted through the sites. Thereby, a broad public were informed on the topic of discussion and were able to engage in the discussions as well, through the social media platform. Further, the social media platform was connected to the Web Magazine (myeurope.today) so users were encouraged to explore the site and learn about the other conferences and the My!Europe project as a whole.
The report that sums up the conference on ‘Migration – Refugees and Labor’ is available for download here: MyEurope report, DKI