Role of Youth Work in addressing Refugee and Migration crisis

Aga Byrczek
8 min readJan 28, 2023
Photo by Miko Guziuk on Unsplash

Migration and refugee crisis is a really huge topic, with a lot of things happening within the European youth work and outside. If we check the priorities, number of projects being developed and approved, and simply using a common sense, we can clearly see that there is a need to work on it. Other question is how? I feel it is a time to systematize a bit what is a role of youth work, what are the main direction we should work on and a bit what not to do:)

The starting point for me for the reflection was the realization that youth work will not solve the problem, but we can have an important contribution. In the situation that we are right now I do believe that the small actions that can be implemented matters a lot. And at least for me there are a clear lines of work, what we can do. I have systematized them into 7 points, main directions. I hope it will be useful.

1) We need to work with migrants on issues based on their needs

This statement is very vague, I know, but for me has an important meaning. What I find important is to ask ourselves few questions: are we able to engage ourselves in the direct work with the refugees? Do we have enough competences to do this work? Are there any other institutions close to me, which are already providing the support needed? Do I know what actually…

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Aga Byrczek

I write about social issues, mental health, fat phobia and micro aggressions. My mission is to raise awareness by writing ✊🏼 www.agabyrczek.eu