Data-driven migration practice

OpenEmbassy

Data-driven migration practice

Tools that enable organisations and local governments to apply knowledge of migrants, to work on evidence based policies.

Amsterdam, Nederland

Netherlands

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

Migration remains a longstanding global phenomenon, yet local governments often struggle to effectively evaluate their policies. The absence of a standardized assessment approach leads to misinformation, inhibits mutual learning, and hampers cooperation crucial for migration and integration. Many governments and civil society organizations neglect engaging with newcomers to evaluate policy outcomes, resulting in non-evidence-based policies that fail to address actual needs and challenges. This disconnect is evident in European contexts like the Netherlands, where asylum reception policies isolate newcomers from economic and social activities, exacerbating despair and trauma. Similarly, barriers to workforce integration persist due to unfounded fears, contributing to low employment rates among refugees. The lack of evidence-based policy evaluation further perpetuates ineffective integration strategies across Europe, where rising migrant numbers underscore the urgency for robust evaluation models. Current policies influenced by political climates rather than evidence exacerbate integration challenges, fueling far-right rhetoric and threatening democratic stability.

We’ve developed an M&E tool to assess the effectiveness of migration and integration policies. This tool helps governments and CSOs measure impact, adjust policies based on data, and bridge the gap between policy and the perspective of newcomers. It also supports advocacy for policy change at the national and European levels, with plans to scale globally. Our tool is based on the UK’s Indicators of Integration model (Strang et al., 2019), which includes 14 indicators like work, education, housing, and social connections. Policies and programmes can be assessed through this lens within our tool. Through the tool, users (local governments and CSOs) can collect data through culturally sensitive surveys and hire trainers for our “expertpools” method, through which newcomers evaluate policies in focus groups and advise governments or CSOs. This approach empowers newcomers, allowing for democratic civic participation. Through our survey panel, consisting of a representative group of 1.000 newcomers in The Netherlands, we can gather the latest insights. The tool creates data dashboards for users and gives OpenEmbassy insight in overall data so we can facilitate learning sessions to connect governments and CSOs, as well as reporting on the general state of integration within a country.

We support newcomers by giving them agency and civic participation in shaping integration policies. Participants in our monitoring and evaluation activities often report feeling heard and seen for the first time, alleviating the mental burden of invisibility. This sense of respect and inclusion is crucial, as many newcomers in Europe feel overlooked. We are building active communities of newcomers around civic participation and developing community engagement from the moment you arrive in The Netherlands till you can contribute to the work of OpenEmbassy yourself, thus contributing to labour market integration as well. Local governments and CSOs benefit from our data, which helps them become more accountable, improve outcomes, compare results, and collaborate with others. Eventually, this results in policies that fit with better with migrants' needs. For example, when one city improves culturally sensitive psychological support, others can learn from their success. Ultimately, the stability of societies depends on evidence-based integration policies that help newcomers thrive. These policies allow newcomers to contribute to society, moving away from discrimination and exclusion. Migration has been part of Europe for centuries, and we aim to create cities where refugees can feel at home and enrich their new communities.