September 2025

High-Level Municipal Advocacy Event at the European Parliament

A cross-party initiative from 5 MEPs in collaboration with FS2C. Mayors and local representatives from 19 municipalities, several civil society organisations.

More information soon.

April – September 2025

Cross-community journalism pilot project: Building bridges between refugee and host communities through local journalism – Thessaloniki

Led by Dorina Achelaritei, activist and journalist representing FS2C and Florian Schmitz from the Migration and Technology Monitor, the pilot focusing on local journalism entails a workshop week in Thessaloniki with 2 participants, Costas Kehagias and Michael Awad. Followed by regular online meetings and the production of a series of 6 news articles. Τhe idea is to create new and more constructive narratives through a guided collaboration between a local Greek journalist and a migrant journalist that offers an alternative to the biased approach of the media, largely rooting in the lack of communication between guest and host communities.

The focus on local media and local communities attempts to break away from an overly generalized debate on migration and cultural differences on a national level, but intentionally turn towards concrete issues that occur when living in the same city – issues that are directly connected to the everyday life of people. We expect the project to have some influence in public opinion at the local level.

This pilot project will serve a specific purpose which can be scalable, depending on the results. We keep such discussions alive in our consortium, in order to possibly channel funding to the extension of this journalistic approach.

February 2025

Annual strategic meeting in Athens

As every year, we meet to strategise for the year(s) to come. This time, we were hosted by Nikos Papakostas and Martina Tresca from Inter Alia in Athens and reconvened during three intense days of collective work and deliberation. We started with an evening round table between local/national civil society actors and local representatives. The discussions are usually rich, as representatives of organisations, researchers and activists from all over Europe and beyond bring in their perspectives. 

Present on this occasion were:

Mr. Thanasis Cheimonas, Deputy Mayor for Social Integration of Migrants and Refugees and Dr. Dionysia Lampiri, Project Coordinator at Athens Coordination Center for Migrants and Refugees (ACCMR)

  • Greek Council for Refugees (Lefteris Papagiannakis) – legal support and casework for asylum seekers and refugees. They have just obtained the condemnation of Greece for push backs in a case before the ECtHR. 
  • Refugee Legal Support (Lucy Alper and Artemis Tsiakka) – provide legal support to refugees and people applying for asylum, advocating in Greece and the EU. Their most recent project focuses on accountability in border violence cases.
  • Greek Forum of Refugees (Younous Muhammadi) – intermediary between organised and non-organised migrant and refugee communities, the State, and civil society. The organisation works for the incorporation, integration and inclusion of all people on the move in Greek and European societies. 
  • Greek Forum of Migrants (Adla Shashati) – network of migrant organisations and communities in Greece promoting equal rights and social cohesion, fighting discrimination and empowering migrants and their organisations. 
  • Second Tree, Ioannina (Aaron Kunaseelan and Giovanni Fontana) – tackles stereotypes around migration by advancing transformative narratives and addressing the distinction between refugees and humanitarian service providers. Ongoing partnerships with municipalities and other CSOs.

This year was especially meaningful, for we decided to consolidate the shift from the political context that shaped our consortium and advocacy strategies around sea rescue and arrivals towards the movement of people to and within Southeast Europe. This decision was a personal and professional breakthrough for us as individuals and our network, for it brought to the fore the blindspots we have among activists and organisations. It brought us closer and more determined towards a common goal.

The EU is advancing its fortress project, being implemented with less and less regard for human rights and international refugee law. According to our assessment and a prior outreach process carried out in Fall 2024, Southeast Europe (Greece, Italy, the balkan States in and outside the EU) is the most relevant and significant region when it comes to the negative consequences of the CEAS and the new Pact cementing it. EU accession also plays a major role for non-EU countries through which people on the move pass in their migration routes.

The second and third day of our strategic meeting were dedicated to discussing the pressing issues above. Another major question was debated: the formalisation of FS2C as a legal entity. We decided to take the necessary steps toward the consolidation of our work as a network with a track record of over 5 years of advocacy and local political strategy.

We were joined this time by Ines Tanović Sijerčić from Kompas 071 from Sarajevo; Desislava Todorova from Legal Aid Voice in Bulgaria from Sofia; a new colleague from Zagreb Solidarity Line/City, Maya Nikolandić; Giorgia Pintus from ARCI Italy; Giovanni Fontana and Aaron Kunaseelan from The Second Tree – Ioannina.

January 2025

A series of working meetings with IASH

November 2024

NALAS Conference in Skopje

„Enhancing Local Capacity and Regional Cooperation for Effective Migration Management“

A joint project of NALAS: Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. 

Our coordinator, Tiago da Cruz shared the panel „Multilevel perceptions toward the implementation of the new EU Pact – Context, challenges and limitations related to local governments“ with Tihomir Sabchev, Ivana Milanović Dukić, moderated by Gülay Ugur Göksel. A very insightful discussion right after a panel with local representatives Nebojša Ilić from Šid, Dragan Mladenović from Obrenovac, Mirela Dupovac from Hadzići, and Elmedin Mehadzić from Bihać explaining the reality in their municipalities and the uncertainties the EU Pact generates in non-EU territories.

A region marked by emigration and a difficult position between the EU and its fortress project. Strategic vision for the years to come regarding migration in and to Europe necessarily goes through the reality in the Balkans. Building relationships between municipalities and civil society in the region is key.

Eurocities Conference in Bologna

We were in Bologna with the colleagues from Moving Cities and Seebrücke at the Eurocities conference to continue to build up democratic robustness against hostile national stances towards people on the move.

At a workshop on „Homelessness and migrants with a precarious status – an overview from the local level“ we have learned from the experiences of Milan, Utrecht and Manchester. The intersection between homelessness and having irregular status needs close attention and response from public authorities. A second session was held on safer spaces and the importance of creating the conditions for full participation of vulnerable people or those who are denied rights for their administrative status in society. Examples from Bologna, Vilnius, Rotterdam and two civil society organisations working against racism on co-designing narratives to foster inclusive societies was another informative source for our advocacy work.

We welcome Eurocities’ efforts to take a more political stance again and will keep working on synergies to advance our common goals.

October 2024

C4R final conference in Berlin: Cities as Change Makers in European Asylum and Migration Policy

The final Cities4Refugees conference brought together representatives and experts from municipalities, EU institutions, civil society, city networks and academia in Berlin. It shed light on the impact of the Common European Asylum System on European municipalities (CEAS), their role in implementing the new regulations and their responsibilities in holding up a humanitarian and human rights based approach.

The conference panels focused on:

  • the status quo and the way forward in implementing the CEAS regulations,
  • the potential influence of municipalities in the solidarity mechanism and relocation of refugees,
  • the financial support mechanisms for municipalities willing to host additional refugees,
  • the potential increase of undocumented migrants and refugees in cities and possible support measures such as the city-ID-card concept,
  • the situation of children, young people and families in the border procedures and
  • the potential of collaborative and participatory approaches between municipalities and civil society.

Representing From the Sea to the City, our coordinator Tiago da Cruz shared a panel with Léa ENON-BARON, co-director of the French network of welcoming territories, ANVITA; Clara Easthill, Policy Advisor to the Mayor of Marburg and part of the German Alliance of Safe Harbours; Niels Tubbing, Chair of Eurocities Working Group on Migration and Integration, Advisor to the (Deputy) Mayor of Amsterdam; moderated by Maria Prsa, Policy Advisor in the Department of Housing and Migration of Munich.

Another panel on “Cooperation Between Civil Society and Administration in City Networks – Participatory Administrative Approaches” was moderated by Lea Rau, with the participation of Nick Dreher, Researcher, Toronto Metropolitan University, Soli*City; Effie Thanou, HIAS Greece: Nini Farrokhi, Seebrücke / FS2C; Nikos Papakostas, Inter Alia / FS2C; Meike Karasiewicz-Maouloudi and Betül Gülsen, Policy Advisor, Berlin Senate Department for Labour, Social Services, Gender Equality, Integration, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination

After two years of articulation, we are prepared to critically engage in the implementation of the CEAS reform through our transnational networks, where the voices of cities, civil society and people on the move themselves will need to be heard. We have the tools, we have committed and competent people working in political settings and on the ground, we have a common democratic responsibility to welcome people seeking protection and better life conditions.

SABIR Festival in Rome

The Sabir Festival was born in 2014, one year after the Lampedusa massacre of October 3, 2013, on the Pelagie island, with the aim of rebuilding a common language of the Mediterranean starting from the bottom, from the territories and from civil society. Its tenth edition is supported by the idea that a vast alliance of local communities, territories, movements, associations and trade unions of the countries bordering the Mediterranean is necessary, and that the clock of history must be turned back in terms of freedom and fundamental rights.

In a time of crisis in politics and institutions, creating another meeting space between the civil society of the Mediterranean, local institutions, cities, places of study and research, journalists, legal operators, activists and people with migratory experiences and people who have taken refuge in Europe, can be an important concrete objective to indicate an alternative path and not give up on the one that today, also with the tragic European Pact on Migration and Asylum, the European Union has decided to undertake.

Laura Colini, one of the founders of FS2C moderating the panel “Local Hospitality and Solidarity Cities” in collaboration with Tavolo Asilo e Immigrazione (TAI), IASH and Mimetis with Leoluca Orlando, former mayor of Palermo and co-founder of IASH, and Céline Barré, Co-director of ANVITA. They were joined by Utrecht Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor, Jan Braat and our coordinator Tiago da Cruz from the simultaneous conference in Berlin (see above).

September 2024

Outreach process in Southeast Europe

Between September and October 2024 we spoke with 8 organisations from 7 different cities/countries. Kompas 071 from Sarajevo, Bosnia; Legal Aid Voice in Bulgaria from Sofia, Bulgaria; Are You Syrious and Centre for Peace Studies from Zagreb, Croatia; Legis NGO from Skopje, Macedonia; KlikAktiv from Belgrade, Serbia; Infokolpa from Ljubljana, Slovenia; No Name Kitchen operating transnationally (Balkans, Italian/French border and Spanish enclaves).

Our aim was to have an overview of the situation of people on the move and organisations working alongside them in Southeast Europe. We have a representative sample of the work being carried out on the ground and the articulation we started with this first round of talks generated material for joint activities, such as a series of webinars in collaboration with these and further organisations and/or working meetings that could create the conditions for collaboration projects.

The talks were semi structured and an opportunity for us to listen and learn about their work and main needs, as well as have an open conversation about each specific context, trying to explore opportunities to enhance existing efforts through common goals or build upon synergies to advance our work with municipalities in the region. A more specific aim being to work on bridging the gap between “destination” municipalities where integration is the main focus and arrival or transit municipalities where the needs of PoM differ greatly.

These different realities are currently part of the same system. The external dimension of the Pact implementation (eg. externalisation of asylum procedure, fiction of non-entry) and EU accession negotiations combined, can be interpreted as an informal extension of the Dublin regulation to non-EU States. In this sense, we can expect more bilateral MoU like the Italian-Albanian. Turning transit places into external border traps, will change the length and nature of the stay of PoM in certain localities.

A first assessment paper should guide our upcoming efforts liaising between activism and local authorities. The activities we develop together will then take our advocacy efforts to a new level, concomitant with the processes described above.

June 2024

Webinar in cooperation with Eurocities: „Amplifying Local Voices, Shaping CEAS Implementation Plans“

How will the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum impact the local level – first and foremost cities‘ and civil society’s ability to welcome people who seek protection in the EU? And what can cities now do about it? This is what we explained and discussed in our latest The webinar is available here.

Local perspectives were not heard in the development of the New Pact. However, now that it is the member States‘ turn to translate the Pact into national policies and practices by December 2024, we seized another window of opportunity to raise our concerns loudly and to demand that cities and civil society have a say in drafting these national implementation plans. Our event is yet another step toward making this clear and prompting much-needed action from local authorities to engage in solidarity with those who urgently need to feel safe and a life in dignity.
Katharina Bamberg hosted this webinar with us on behalf of Eurocities. Speakers Maria Prsa, from the Munich city administration & International Alliance of Safe Harbours, Niels Tubbing (Eurocities Working Group on Migration and Integration / EU Urban Partnership on the Inclusion of Migrants), Michele LeVoy (Platform for Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), Lefteris Papagiannakis (Greek Council for Refugees), our coordinator Tiago da Cruz and MEP Birgit Sippel analysed the New Pact in more detail and shared their/our assessments.

April 2024

The Left event at the European Parliament

We were represented by our coordinator Tiago da Cruz at The Left’s event on the new Pact adoption. We shared our resistance experience to closed ports policy & presented our biggest concerns on the Pact’s narrative and implementation at local level. We vowed municipalities & civil society will continue to mobilise for dignified reception and participation of refugees and undocumented migrants.

Webinar with the Council of Europe Development Bank

Together with IASH and in collaboration with the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB); we discussed funding possibilities via loans, grants or technical support for municipal infrastructure and services for the reception and socioeconomic participation of migrants and refugees. We remain in contact with the CEB for future opportunities.

March 2024

C4R online Event: „Local Innovation in Migration Governance: Sharing Best Practices in Cities“

It is in municipalities that protection seekers are welcomed, fostering environments where successful integration thrives. To lay the groundwork for a shared future, municipalities in all member States develop best practices based on their unique expertise and proximity to civil society, despite lack of direct and secured funding for reception, integration and participation. These practices are of significant to migration governance and should therefore guide national and EU policy-making.

The event comprised the following breakout sessions, in which city officials and partners presented best practices and an exchange on these practices was facilitated.

  • „Paving the way into a shared future: Re:Match facilitates municipal and protection seeker participation in distribution decisions“
  • „Supporting refugees through digital streetwork: The „Social Media Bridge“ as part of Berlin’s network for the right to stay“
  • „From the EU to the Civil Society Organisations: Zagreb’s experience with funding integration activities“
  • „Accommodation in context-sensitive asylum centres: Utrecht’s Plan Einstein Overvecht“
  • „Becoming local: Villeurbanne’s citizen card for all city inhabitants“

The event was hosted by the Berlin Governance Platform, representing the EU-funded project Cities4Refugees in cooperation with Moving Cities.

January 2024

Annual strategic meeting in Florence

Our strategic meeting this year was co-hosted by Allegra Salvini from Italy/Florence Must Act and Laura Colini from Tesserae and Mimetis and supported by the Rosa Luxemburg foundation. We reconvened and took it upon ourselves to reorient our goals that had been guided by our origine in the context of civil sea rescue and welcoming municipalities standing against their States closed ports policies.

Sea rescue actors continue to contribute to our work, as the necropolitics-as-deterrence policy of the EU and arrival member States is being consolidated. The arrival of people on the move in Europe will continue to inform our efforts as an essential element of migration governance in the block. Nevertheless, we felt the urge to open ourselves yearly to new activists, researchers and organisations working on the ground, as an effort to keep the network alive.

This time, activists working mostly with origin and transit contexts outside of Europe like those of Libya and Afghanistan were invited to bring in their perspectives as refugees leading initiatives or organisations to advocate for evacuation. Zoya from the Afghan Activist Collective, David Yambio from Refugees in Libya, Dorina Achelaritei from the Alliance with Refugees in Libya have brought in valuable contributions and joined the consortium discussions after the meeting. 

As a result of our deliberation processes, we decided to turn our attention back to civil society across Europe and beyond, which then led to the outreach process we would carry out for most of 2024. The situation in origin or transit territories outside of Europe continues to inform our efforts and we guard a close relationship with the organisations working on solutions.
During the meeting we also had the opportunity to meet with several researchers from MigraMove, the working group on migration, social movements and borders based at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence. We discussed potential avenues for collaboration between academia and From the Sea to the City, including the development of joint projects, think-and-do activities, and tailored arrangements for involving researchers in our ongoing initiatives—such as background research and the preparation of policy briefs.

November 2023

„The right to the city for all: European municipalities daring local citizenship“, Villeurbanne.

The conference in Villeurbanne happened in the context of the Biennale de l’Hospitalité of the Lyon metropolitan area. Villeurbanne has a history of reception and participation policies. The main focus of the conference was to share the decision-making and implementation processes around city ID cards being developed by some municipalities in Europe. Zurich, Utrecht and Berlin presented their own projects, all in different stages, and were able to have an inspiring discussion with our Villeurbanne, regarding the benefits of such an initiative to the neighbours of our cities who often face marginalization and no access to basic rights. We had the chance to visit some of the projects like Le Château and l’Archipel/La Cantina together with the city representatives as a showcase of best practices to inspire their diffusion and implementation elsewhere.

In April in Zagreb, the coordination group of IASH started drafting an updated statement following up on the founding document signed in Palermo two years before. The mayor of Villeurbanne was joined by city representatives of Lyon and other European cities, as well as the metropolitan area of Lyon and the French national network ANVITA representing over 80 municipalities in France to sign it’s second declaration with four main demands:

1. right to asylum and no transit zones at external borders
2. strengthening solidarity between EU member states
3. direct EU funding for host communities
4. legal migration routes for a pragmatic immigration policy

The process of gathering support for the declaration continues until early 2024, when it will be handed over to the relevant EU actors as means of continuing the dialogue we have started before the Pact’s final approval with the underlying intention of informing the pre-campaign of the upcoming EU elections.

October 2023

Solidarity cities reshaping migration in Europe, Brussels.

Berlin Governance Platform (BGP) and Moving Cities (MC) are two of the actors that make out our consortium. The lobby event in Brussels was carried out as a collaboration between BGP in the framework of the Cities4Refugees project and MC as an independently funded project of the organization United4Rescue. The event aimed at putting forward a lobby opportunity in Brussels, bringing municipal representatives from Munich, Berlin, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Ghent, Liège, Cascais, Villeurbanne, Wroklaw and Zagreb to voice their perspective and concerns around the Pact of Migration and Asylum. The key note presentation held by our colleague Federico Alagna „Towards the 2024 European elections“ set the tone for a two day event with several panel discussions with practitioners, researchers city officials and EU actors, as well as workshops led by city representatives and ourselves.

10 cities from 7 different EU countries had the opportunity to exchange and articulate a common strategy to face the consequences of the Pact, were it to be passed as it was in October 2023, during the concomitant trialogs between the EU Parliament, Commission and Council. Given the current unfavorable context, our consortium’s assessment is that the event was successful, inasmuch IASH and the articulation around it with non-IASH cities showed that local governments can speak with one voice and become louder in their efforts to be heard by (supra)national authorities. Besides, we are certain that the local perspectives voiced in the form of a cohesive alliance had a positive effect on the positions of certain EU actors that attended the discussions and closed door conversations.

We were also joined by other civil society organizations and researchers in the migration domain for part of the program and the parallel event „Spaces Betweeen Us“ (see program and participants below). An opportunity for us to join efforts in difficult times and envision common strategies to go forward, hand in hand with knowledge production and social action in the different local realities.

SpacesBetweenUs_programHerunterladen

June 2023

Fondazione Rizoma Studio’s – C4R online meeting

Rizoma Studio is one of the organizations that make out our consortium. As such, it applied alongside Berlin Governance Platform and four municipalities (Zagreb, Villeurbanne, Berlin and Barcelona) for the EU subvention that made it possible. The goals established by our organizations together with the participant cities for this project are twofold: 1) exchange best practices and ways to sustain inclusive participation in our cities and 2) promote and project IASH as a political actor.

Participants totaled 145 from a wide variety of countries. The exchanges brought to the fore the cooperation between CSOs and municipal institutions in the migration (reception) field. Interesting inputs pointed at the necessity of developing strategies to guarantee the sustainability of this cooperation and its resilience to political shifts. Networking locally, nationally and transnationally is a powerful tool and investing time in the maintenance and functionality of these networks is of utmost importance.

This interactive event counted on various inputs (see program and speakers), adding value to the next steps of the project.

April 2023

Cities for Refugees (C4R) kick-off meeting, Zagreb.

From April 19th to 21st we gathered in Zagreb for the kick-off meeting of the #Cities4Refugees project. During 2023/2024 we’ll be exchanging on practices of local governments and civil society organizations, articulating a better horizon for the reception and protection of refugees and migrants from the local perspective, while aiming at projecting IASH as a political actor and our collaboration as a dual network of civil society and institutional actors, namely city governments.

City representatives of our host Zagreb, Villeurbanne, Berlin, and Munich as an IASH guest shared interesting presentations on the achievements, current situation and challenges in their municipalities as well as their vision for the future, followed by an input from Open Arms on the reality at sea and causes of forced migration. The discussion was enriched by a panel with one organization of our consortium Solidarity City Zagreb, and by the Center for Peace Studies Zagreb on the situation on the ground in Croatia from the perspective of civil society organizations. A reflection on the transnational relations between people on the move and CSOs from Croatia, Bosnia-Hezergovina and Serbia as a reality check and source of inspiration for the improvement of inter-municipal cooperation in the region. The meeting was closed with a visit to the amazing Women-to-Women project, a source of community building for many people on the move in the Croatian capital.

Alina Lyapina shared current EU migration policies prospects fueling a discussion with Gordan Bosanac, Matthieu Garabedian, Maria Prsa, Janne Grote, Lisa Lorbeer, Francisco Gentico, Tiago da Cruz and our kind host partners Jana Radić and Andrija Petrović and project leaders Claudia Dombrowsky and Ines Friedrich. We also analyzed aspects of the recently approved position of the European Parliament to engage in talks with the Member States and in the trialogue with the Council and the Commission.

February 2023

IASH working meeting

January 2023

Alliance Migrations Conference in Lisbon

We were invited to the conference with the purpose of joining the other participants (hyperlinked) and, apart from networking, contributing to the individual workshops aiming at synergies for future action. IASH was also represented by Berlin’s administration. The collaboration between OCU (Organisation pour une Citoyenneté Universelle) and ANVITA constitute what they decided to call Alliance Migrations, with different actors from all over the world working on humane migration principles and reception systems. This was their second conference, where we had the opportunity to exchange with local governments representatives from Utrecht, Liège, Lyon, Strasbourg, Grenoble and Rouen, as well as with UCLG representatives and other civil society organizations.

First CERV “Cities4Refugees” subvention meeting

In this meeting the initial plan was presented to the participants. A kick-off meeting is planned in Zagreb in April 2023, an online meeting should be held in June and another in-person meeting should be held in Villeurbanne in November. These events and further programming for next year will be discussed in the next opportunity.
Participants: Barcelona, Berlin (took over the leadership from Potsdam), Villeurbanne, Zagreb, Berlin-Brandenburg Auslandsgesellschaft (BBAG) and two organizations of our consortium Berlin Governance Platform and Rizoma Studio + strategic partners and guest municipal governments.

December 2022

IASH working meeting

October 2022

Internal FS2C meeting – Barcelona

Organizations represented in the meeting: Europe Must Act, Europe Must Act Italy, Seebrücke Switzerland, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Inter Alia, Berlin Governance Platform, AlarmPhone.

After the working meeting with IASH municipal governments and potentially new ones in September, it was time for us to regather in our annual meeting, this time in the catalan capital, Barcelona. This was possible thanks to the Rethink grant we received from FundAction.

The main goal behind our strategy for 2023 is to continue our contributions to the development of IASH. By raising their voice jointly against the further development of the migration policies based on deterrence, violence and death, IASH’s can become a rlevant political actor at EU level. FS2C will remain at the negotiating tables to guarantee the political process is informed by expertise from civil society represented by each organization of our consortium. It is still our firm belief that municipal governments, as state actors, have enough (democratic) leverage and know-how to negotiate with their national governments and the relevant EU institutions as mature actors in migration governance. 

We took the opportunity to network with Spanish/Catalan CSOs, having had the chance to exchange with activists from Coordinadora Obrim Fronteres, Emergencia Frontera Sur – Barcelona, Stop Mare Mortum and Solidary Wheels (hyperlink all of them).

September 2022

Mediterranea Saving Humans Festival – Naples

From September 1 to 4th 2022, the first Mediterranea Saving Humans Festival was held in Naples at the famous castle of the Maschio Angioino. Debates, workshops and concerts were crowned with a march to Piazza del Plesbiscito and a series of rallies from fellow activists!

We were invited to participate in one of the debates “Us and the Wars: hospitality, peace and our cities” with the mayor of Bologna Matteo Lepore among other relevant practitioners and activists.

https://www.instagram.com/abordofest/

IASH (International Alliance of Safe Harbours) meeting

On September 21st, over twenty IASH municipalities gathered online to discuss the goals and principles they have vowed to defend and pursue with the statement signed in Palermo in June 2021 and how to translate them into concrete steps and a common political strategy. Apart from the municipalities that were already signatories of the statement, we invited some new, possibly strategic ones. A campaign proposal for the next two years was presented by FS2C and a range of steps we would like to take in order to operationalize the goals and principles of the statement were further articulated.

The 3-hour meeting was very productive and one of the main questions raised by the city representatives is that IASH should have a steering board or a coordination group of municipalities to make the alliance operationally sustainable. Steps in this direction were sought to be taken. Subjects city representatives expressed interest in that should shape the agenda of the next meetings:

  • Feedback of the political level from the respective municipal governments to the paper and meeting results
  • Network cooperation, in particular next steps regarding a campaign
  • Exchange knowledge, experiences, challenges, opportunities
  • Defining, setting up different working groups on single topics such as campaign, EU-negotiations, housing etc.
  • National networks and advocacy with national governments
  • Coordination with European city networks, cooperation and synergies with existing alliances and initiatives
  • Situation regarding war in Ukraine, consider the differentiation being made between refugees from the Ukraine and other countries
  • Housing – social participation and partnerships (national advocacy efforts)

Summit of the Peoples – Brussels


The goals of the summit, organized jointly with the ‘March to Brussels’ initiative, were to allow meetings and exchanges between organizations and movements committed to the rights of migrants. Benefitting from a collective space of reflection on the strengthening of international mobilization networks, we worked on alternatives and tools to fight against the violence of current migration policies. FS2C was invited by CRID to make a contribution in one of the plenaries and by joining the split-up groups articulating future visions. Our exchanges with members from the Organization for Universal Citizenship (OCU in French) were fruitful and led to an invitation to participate in the Alliance Migrations conference in January 2023, in order to continue exploring our synergies and aligning our strategies.

August 2022

Approval of the CERV EU grant „Cities4Refugees“ by the EU Commission

At the beginning of 2022 two organizations of the consortium (Berlin Governance Platform and Rizoma Studio) applied to the CERV call along with 4 municipal governments, in order to develop a 2-year program, a build-up campaign through in-person and online conferences and specific advocacy meetings. The further development of IASH and our collaboration will benefit greatly from such activities. The funding was granted to the Cities4Refugees project and the expected kick-off meeting will be held in Zagreb by its city council in April 2023.

Applicants: Berlin, Zagreb, Villeurbanne and Barcelona municipal governments, Berlin-Brandenburg Auslandsgesellschaft (BBAG), Berlin Governance Platform and Studio Rizoma.

July 2022

Transborder Summer Camp

We were invited to participate in two workshops and continue articulating the synergies that brought our organizations together to form a consortium. ‘From the desert through the sea to the cities’ was the name of the first workshop aiming at analyzing more precisely the reality of the corridors of solidarity, while putting our work into a broader perspective. Another workshop called ‘Transnational networking’ aimed at discussing our approaches and challenges in order to continue building up on these efforts. Sea rescue has been surpassed by a reality that goes beyond the Mediterranean. Though our consortium’s name refers to the latter, what we do has developed into a broad political strategy inspired by the solidarity along the ever-shifting routes. Solidarity takes many forms and engages a wide variety of people and organizations across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. One thing that remains constant is the role towns and cities play in all these paths. Our work is informed by the migrant realities on the ground and the TSC is a great opportunity for us to touch base and continue the struggle with our institutional partners.

Trans-Border-Summer-Camp 2019

The Good Lobby – Bilbao

In July 2022 we were invited as guest speakers to the Good Lobby Summer Academy which took place in Bilbao between July 18-21. Thanks to the financial support provided by the Transnational Political Contention in Europe (TraPoCo) network, two members of the Consortium were able to attend the Summer Academy. The Good Lobby Academy takes place every year to gather leading thinkers, practitioners and academics working on new forms and policies of influence, mobilization and lobbying. 
One representative of the Consortium intervened during the panel ‘Opportunities and limits of informal coalitions’ and talked about the importance of informal networks when it comes to lobbying and advocating for a change in European migration policies. From Sea to the City is a good example of how local, national and international actors coming from civil society as well as from the NGOs or institutional realms can get together and create networks and collaborations.

May 2022

Beyond Cities of Refuge Closing Conference – Middelburg

A four year research project has come to an end. Researchers who have dedicated their work to the description and questioning of the reception and asylum systems dealt with by municipal governments gathered in the Dutch town of Middelburg to elucidate their last articles and discuss current perspectives regarding so-called cities of refuge. Their findings constitute a great source of empirical evidence that allows for the theorization around the state sovereignty concept and alternative governance systems. This conference was dedicated to the perspective and shortcomings of a movement that continues despite the stalemate imposed by national states onto their best possible collaboration partners: municipal governments. 
For more information, please visit: https://citiesofrefuge.eu/news

November 2021

Internal FS2C meeting – Milan

Our consortium is composed of several civil society organizations active in different territories and working on a variety of issues around migration and refuge. We met in Milan to set out our strategic plan according to the conference’s results and discuss the project’s continuation. At this meeting we have come to the decision to come together annually as a way to touch base with an intensive program, where our personal bonds would continue to develop.