On the 30th of April the MovEurope Bus stopped in Maastricht for different activities and events. JEF-Netherlands as well as the local JEF group JEF-Maastricht welcomed the team warmly.
Seminar about migration
The First event was an interesting Seminar about migration at Maastricht University. The speakers Michaella Vanore and Katherine Kuschminder from the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance are experts on the field and informed us about the different kinds of migration and the variety of situations and experiences migrants make. For example: migration can be external but also internal within a country as well as voluntary or involuntary. Michaella Vanore lined out that the most migrants stay – against what is said in most debates about migration in the European Union – in the region of their home country or are internally displaced within their country. She said, Europe does not receive the most migrants nor refugees.
Katherine Kuschminder made a speech about Afghan migrants in the Netherlands. She dealt with the questions: Why do they come to the Netherlands? And what do they do if they are not granted asylum.
The participants and speakers discussed the deficits of the current asylum policies and the speakers pointed out, that the issue is highly political and therefore they do not expect a real change in the nearby future. The intention of the seminar was to give the participants a better understanding of the challenges of Migration in order to propose new policies to the European decision makers.
All in all it was a very interesting, informing seminar. Many thanks to JEF-Maastricht for the organisation!
MovEuropeForward activities
In the afternoon the MovEurope Bus team carried out a series of activities inside the Maastricht University library, recording video statements in which participants gave their policy proposals. Young people who passed by got involved in the bus tour activities and were very active and enthusiastic with the project of the Young European Federalists. The most successful activity was the artistic installation, with two large panels of small pictures in different colours of young people and their wishes for Europe. From 2pm to 5pm the team organised different actions such as an Europe map quiz, an European history quiz and the initiative “I’m going to vote”, where participants committed themselves to vote in the elections by putting their signed flyer in a box, including their ideas for a better Europe.
European Pub Quiz
In the evening JEF-Maastricht organised a well attended European Pub Quiz where teams competed answering questions about Europe. The winning team “Size matters” got free drinks!
Thanks to everybody for the successful day!!!
Check out the photos here: https://www.facebook.com/moveuropeforward/photos_stream
