Institute for Societal Resilience Refugee Academy - Institute for Societal Resilience (VU Amsterdam)
The Refugee Academy organizes regular meetings that bring together a growing number of practitioners, policymakers, researchers and engaged individuals (with and without a refugee background) to discuss and reflect on different themes connected to the inclusion of refugees in the Netherlands. In the meetings, the refugee perspective is prioritized by connecting policy views and organizational agendas to refugees’ life stories, and by inviting professionals with a refugee background to actively contribute to the debate about refugee inclusion.
The Refugee Academy offers an infrastructure for connecting existing academic, professional and practical knowledge to bring research and practice closer together. Collectively, these different forms of knowledge help people to think and reflect on the necessary societal conditions for making efforts towards integration inclusive in the long term. With its approach, the Refugee Academy makes it possible to establish unorthodox connections, whereby the learning and reflective capacities of those involved are increased and actions can be formulated.
The Refugee Academy’s research is aimed at enhancing the learning abilities and reflective capacities of all parties involved, i.e. policymakers, governmental agencies, businesses, NGOs, civil society and researchers. They frequently organise public meetings on different themes and address some of these themes and research projects in collaboration with societal partners
