Local governments are facing increasing challenges from the inward, outward and return migration of youth, but they often lack the capacities and tools to cope. Most importantly, local services, such as health care and education, are affected. Entering the second half of its lifespan, the YOUMIG project is elaborating and testing new tools to manage the impacts of youth migration identified through previous research. As local contexts differ in the seven countries of the YOUMIG partnership, the interventions also vary across partners. As the leader of the relevant working package, the Maribor Developement Agency has provided a frame to test tailor-made solutions catering to a better governance and an increased well-being of local residents.

As the first step, a collection of existing and tested good practices and actions linked to youth migration in sending and receiving communities has been prepared. Local YOUMIG partners were encouraged to skim through the collection and choose ideas to guide them when designing their own pilot actions. All pilot actions were tailor-made to the local context and their implementation is supported by feedback from stakeholders gained at local migration forums.

The good practice collection points out the utmost importance of local governments and local stakeholders in supporting the social inclusion of migrants with effective policy measures. It presents best practices targeting immigrants in the area of information provision and social inclusion, particularly in the areas of education, work, health care, housing and family reunification. Best practices for emigrants are also listed. These are concerned with engaging diaspora students, promoting labour market opportunities, leveraging remittances for economic development and supporting emigrants’ children. The third set of good practices targets return migrants. These practices mainly cover labour market inclusion and integration, as well as the role of returnees in investment.

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