Migrationlab Social Impact Report 2016

This report offers an overview on the Welcome to the Living Room (WTTLR) activities during the research and development year within the ECF Idea Camp R&D Grant 2016. The results reveal the growth of Migrationlab as an organization as well as the positive impact our activities have for those joining these events. During the research our aim was to rethink public space and build inclusive communities through the organization of WTTLR experiences. The WTTLRs described in this report took place in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. They were co-created spaces of encounter, where migrants, refugees and locals met, befriended and inspired each other through storytelling, social design, art and food. This report does not aim to quantify the experiences of the participants, nor to produce a representative sample of the impact; rather, we sought to explore and unpack the meanings participants gave to their experiences when they participated in the different Migrationlab activities. Our main findings, covered in more depth in this report, are threefold: • the WTTLR experiences are a way to produce public spaces, offering a safe environment by creatively transforming each specific location. • migrants, refugees and locals are willing, eager and have the need to tell their stories and be heard in a safe environment. • the WTTLR experiences offer these communities the possibility. to together build a new language and concepts of how we could look at the world and each other.