BRIDGES aims to understand the causes and consequences of migration narratives in a context of increasing politicisation and polarisation. By focusing on six current/former EU countries (FR, GE, HU, IT, SP, and UK), it has a three-fold objective. First, at the academic level, it aims to understand the processes of narrative production and impact and their mutual interaction. This entails analysing: a) why some narratives have become dominant over others in public and political debates from a historical perspective; b) how narratives shape individual attitudes in Europe and potential migrants’ decisions in countries of origin and transit; c) how narratives impact policy decisions and outputs both at the national and EU levels; and d) how individuals and policymakers become in turn narrative producers (‘shaped shapers’) and influence each other. Second, at the policy level, it aims to foster evidence-based policies. By developing a typology of government strategies for responding to populist narratives, we will provide policymakers with recommendations on how to redress a tendency towards increasingly symbolic policies in the field of migration and integration. Third, at the societal level, our objective is to create spaces for dialogue between actors involved in narrative production as well as to exchange innovative good practices among artistic communities, civil society organisations and migrant communities focused on how to build more inclusive accounts. The project objectives can only be achieved if we bridge – hence the name BRIDGES – several critical gaps between disciplines and between research and practice. A key added value of the project is its interdisciplinarity and co-production approaches, including three interactive workshops with policy, media and civil society actors, an itinerant photojournalism exhibition and two hip hop contests to reflect on the challenges of multicultural and increasingly diverse societies.

The project investigates the living and working conditions of irregularised migrant households in Europe from an intersectional perspective. It aims to reveal the spectrum of irregularity in contemporary Europe and cast light on the everyday experiences of migrants with irregular, unstable and/or precarious legal status. I-CLAIM develops the concept of ‘irregularity assemblages’ to capture how migrants’ ‘irregular condition’ is produced by the interplay of immigration and asylum laws, policies and practice, wider labour market and welfare regimes, and political, media and public narratives. The irregular condition is shaped by migrants’ social position and positionality as well as by processes that occur at international, European, regional and local levels. This approach will inform our theoretical understanding, methodology and analytical framework and how the consortium organises its work. Moreover, it enables us to design, assess and validate detailed policy options and public interventions targeted at place-specific, sectoral, and intersectional criticalities and vulnerabilities experienced by a range of people in irregular situations in Europe. To achieve its overarching ambition, we will engage at all stages of the project cycle with relevant European, national, local and sectoral actors in six countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherland, Poland and the UK) through Country Stakeholder Groups (CSG) and a European Stakeholder Group (EISG). Moreover, we will organise a series of consultative and participatory initiatives to produce new knowledge, inform public and political debate, validate key research findings, and design policy recommendations.