YOUMIG partners met for the second time in Belgrade, with the aim of discussing the project’s progress, its main challenges and upcoming tasks. The first day started out with presentations by the LP and work package leaders, bringing everyone up-to-date on each thematic track, as well as administrative and communication tasks.

Miladin Kovačević, the director of the organising partner, the Statistical Office of The Republic of Serbia (SORS), opened the meeting with more than 60 guests in the room from eight countries. Soon after the introductions, partners were already put up to group work, which appears to be a productive method for discussing even very complex issues. YOUMIG researchers and statisticians were working together with local council officials and experts, zooming in on some tricky questions on data collection, availability and comparability connected with youth migration, our project’s theme. The four groups had different focuses for evaluation -- family, education, job market and local services – to make sure that the issues at hand are examined from every angle.

Meanwhile, work package and activity leaders are working hard on creating the theoretical foundations for YOUMIG in a Conceptual Paper, on fine-tuning a thorough list of measurement tools for covering a wide range of topics connected to migration, and on designing interview guides for the analysis of processes at the local level. In further efforts, the leaders of pilot scheme activities, who are thinking about the best ways for capacity building at municipalities shared with partners’ best practices and ideas for possible implementation.

On the second day more group work followed as participants got down to the nitty-gritty details of the task which best falls into their area of expertise. At the same time financial and management experts and communication managers attended sessions packed with practical information and training on how to take the project to success.