by Marhabo Saparova.
On 28th February 2025, we welcomed a diverse group of participants to our knowledge exchange workshop, Migration and Arrival Infrastructure: Seeing Integration Otherwise. Hosted at Sabancı University’s Minerva Han and held as part of the EU Horizon 2020 project ReROOT. The workshop brought together 20 people working at the intersection of migration, integration and local infrastructures – from NGOs, municipalities, academia, public institutions and community-based initiatives across Turkey.
Workshop participants at Sabançi University's Minerva Han.
Our main goal was to share the Integration Otherwise Inspiration Kit – a set of tools developed through extensive fieldwork, collaborative design and active engagement with local actors in nine European sites. Moreover, we wished to create a space for collective reflection, curiosity and exchange on new ways of thinking about integration – beyond policy frameworks and institutional boundaries.
We started the day with two tools from the kit—Tool 6 (Visualising Multiple Identities) and Tool 11 (Mapping Roles and Relations in Social Activism). These toolshelped participants get to know each other by sharing their personal and professional stories, highlighting how many of us carry different overlapping roles and identities – as researchers, practitioners, activists, and migrants. These warm-up activities also set up the tone for collaboration and open exchange of diverse experiences and expertise.
Workshop participants reading material from the Integration Otherwise Inspiration Kit: A guide for practitioners, policymakers, and community builders.
Next, we used Tool 4 (Identifying Unexpected Barriers in Everyday Life Tasks) and Tool 8 (Visualising Obstacles to Service Access) to explore everyday struggles faced by migrants. The group talked about real-life challenges—like migrant parents not being able to help their children with homework due to language barriers and unfamiliarity with education system, or the confusion of shopping in a new country. The discussions also touched the larger systematic barriers such as the lack of guidance for migrants trying to enter higher education in Turkey. The discussions shed light on the need for context-sensitive locally grounded approaches to integration.
An illustration from Tool 8: Visualising Obstacles to Service Access, from the book Integration Otherwise Inspiration Kit: A guide for practitioners, policymakers, and community builders.
In the final session, we invited participants to use Tool 23 (Dragon Dreaming) – a participatory method for collective imagination and strategic planning – to think about and design “successful” arrival infrastructures related to health, employment, education and housing. Participants came up with such creative solutions like educating and integrating Artificial Intelligence to help migrants access healthcare, and a city-planning project called Cities for All – focused on inclusive and non-profit housing. This part of the day stood out: the energy in the room shifted as participants envisioned new initiatives and collaborations and started to think beyond the limits of their works and disciplines.
ReROOT Istanbul site researcher Marhabo Saparova presents tools at the workshop.
This knowledge exchange workshop was more than a mere workshop – it was a moment of connection and reflection. It reminded us that integration is not a destination but a process and when seen otherwise can be radically hopeful.
Learn more about the Integration Otherwise Inspiration Kit here.
Learn more about the Integration Otherwise Inspiration Kit here.
