The ‘Trust across borders project’ is led by PRIO, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Gdańsk, who are jointly facilitating the workshops. The December workshop in Oslo thus included presentations providing insights into existing knowledge and data on trust, both social and political trust, among migrants and the population at large. A broader backdrop on migration and migration-related diversity, in both Poland and Norway, was also presented. The research team is interdisciplinary, including two psychologists, a sociologist and a geographer, all of whom have longstanding experience in facilitating workshops, exchanges and dialogue with mixed stakeholder groups.
The ‘Trust Across Borders’ project is funded by the EEA bilateral fund Poland-Norway and was solicited on the backdrop of what can be described as a longstanding crisis of trust in the child welfare services in Norway, among sections of Polish migrants living in Norway. These challenges related to migration and trust have severe implications, for the work of the Child Welfare Services, for migrant children and families, but also at the level of international cooperation. Given the shared commitment to the same international legal instruments, not least the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the potential for enhancing trust – through dialogue – is the scope of action for the ‘Trust across borders’ project.
During the workshop participants (please see the full list attached below as a PDF) worked intensively using their professional hands-on experience. An overview of challenges to building cross-cultural trust and a list of success factors to build trust were identified. As cross-border child welfare legal cases require cooperation between Norwegian and Polish government institutions, input from participants representing relevant ministries, embassies, directorates and the ombudsman office was crucial for the workshop to start to achieve its aims.
An important aspect of the 'Trust Across Borders’ project is the networking potential for the involved organizations, government institutions and individuals in order to strengthen bilateral links between Poland and Norway, and also internally between organizations in the two countries, to enhance further development of good practices.
The second workshop of the ‘Trust across borders’ project will take place in Poland in March 2019, where the same group of participants will continue to work on developing recommendations for enhancing trust in institutions, specifically within the areas of child and social welfare services, among migrants in Poland and in Norway. Selected output from the workshops will be shared in April 2019, among other in the form of a PRIO Policy Brief with key insights, dilemmas and recommendations.
This project is funded by the EEA bilateral fund Poland, working together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.
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For additional information please contact Marta Bivand Erdal here.
For the full participant list click here.
