Co-creation as a strategy for expanding networks and creating a broader collaboration profile for implementing integration policies

Abstract

European studies have identified the difficulties of local collaboration relations as an obstacle to implementing integration measures. This article’s ambition is to explore co-creation as a strategy for expanding networks and creating a broader collaboration profile for implementing integration policies directed at newly arrived refugees. In the analyses, we have studied and interpreted collaborative processes and extracted their efforts and what key elements describe the processes. Our results suggest that the analysed municipalities employ collaboration in the form of co-creation as a strategy for mobilising experiences, resources and ideas from a plurality of actors to highlight, strengthen and prioritise the integration efforts throughout the municipality organisation. The results suggest that key elements of co-creation as a strategy for improving services for refugees are spokespersons for integration issues and interdisciplinary efforts, along with using their planning and governance system to involve more actors in integration efforts. However, their motivation for these actions seems to not be to exclusively increase a collaboration profile regarding integration issues, but rather to respond to some of the challenges the municipality has regarding complex social challenges.

Keywords

• co-creation
• co-production
• policy implementation
• refugee integration
• local government