From January to August 2021 around 97,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe. Prior to that, Europe had already seen waves of refugees and migrants due to various political and climate crises (UNICEF). Leading up to 2022, the EU had prioritized supporting national governments to receive refugees, and a great deal of progress had been made to create a common European response. In February 2022, the escalation of violence in Ukraine created an entirely new situation and Europe came together to react quickly to accommodate Ukrainian refugees across Europe. Alongside asylum policies, border protection programmes and humanitarian aid, the EU is supporting the integration of refugees in European societies, for instance through the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). Although the EU supports the development of effective integration strategies, the situation on the ground is very uneven across Member States. These problems sometimes get worse when young refugees turn 18 and the support networks they previously relied on disappear overnight. Furthermore the level of experience on integration issues differs across Member States. The situation of migrants is also difficult. Evidence shows that migrants are disproportionately affected by unfavourable outcomes in terms of education, employment and access to basic services such as healthcare and decent housing (you can read more about this in the EU Youth Report 2015, in the section on inclusion). In times when discrimination, prejudice, racism and xenophobia are rising, there are legal, moral and economic imperatives to uphold the EU's fundamental rights, values and freedoms and to work for more cohesive societies. From the perspective of social inclusion and social cohesion, the integration and education of children and adolescents with migrant backgrounds are among the most urgent challenges facing the European Commission and Council of Europe member states. According to the EU Commission, Youth work and non-formal learning respond to the opportunities and challenges raised by the increasing numbers of young migrants and refugees in the EU by encouraging intercultural dialogue and building mutual understanding between new arrivals and the receiving communities. While these issues can be tackled from many different sides, we have chosen with this particular project to take on the current European situation sparked by the recent refugee/migrant crisis through the lens of stereotyping. This project is organized within the E+ respond to fighting against discrimination and hate speech related and caused by pandemic or wars and conflicts. The project target group were young people from 10 different countries. Each country had their own, unique perspective to share in regards to the topic, providing a rich basis for exchange of learning between participants. The core activity of the project was an youth exchange, taking place in Denmark in July, 2022. The more long term goal was that participants would bring the learning outcomes from the exchange back to their home countries, so as to influence and be change-agents in their local communities. Objectives: - To increase the empathy of the participants towards the refugee/migrant issues - To provide participants the space for sharing refugee/migrant practice of the countries they represent and their personal experience - To strengthen knowledge of participants on diversity and equality - To raise young people’s awareness about challenges that refugees/migrants face - To develop a larger sense of understanding and solidarity among countries