MAY, 2015

iii

Eva Froneberg, Joshua Wiebe, Mary Katharine Phillips, Ivan Mannino, Pia Podieh, Alex Ertel

A u g u s t , 2 0 1 5 , V e s a l i u s C o l l e g e , B r u s s e l s

Creating Community: Social Media, a tool for integration

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ....................................................................................... ii

Introduction .................................................................................................... 1

Mapping The Market ...................................................................................... ?

How Will btogether.be Operate? ................................................................... ?

Competitors and Co-operators ..................................................................... ?

Development Plan .......................................................................................... ?

Timeline .......................................................................................................... ?

Bibliography ................................................................................................... ?

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Executive Summary

The integration of immigrants in Europe

has become a heated topic of debate in recent

years. To promote integration, we propose the

development of a platform encouraging locals

and foreigners to interact. We have chosen to

call this website btogehter.be. The “b” in the

name implies both the positive message of

“being together,” and simultaneously stands in

for Brussles.

In order to do this, we will create a

website where both communities can plan and

organize such things as language exchanges,

volunteering groups, and attendance of cultural

events. Users of the site will be offered activities

that encourage them to work alongside

members from different demographics. This will

help to promote integration, by building a

sustainable and open link between these

communities.

Currently we are focusing on Brussels,

Belgium, but we hope to eventually expand our

project to the rest of the European Union. By

starting out with a smaller focus, we can identify

best practices and localize our approach.

What will btogether.be offer?

A social networking website linking locals with migrants.

Locals and migrants can organize and attend events, forging deeper connections between these two communities.

Links and access to important information to facilitate smooth transitions for new migrants.

For more information visit http://www.btogether.be for videos, blogs, and more about our project!

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Introduction

The climate surrounding immigration and migrants is turbulent around

the world, and within the European Union (EU). The unstable economy,

aligned with fears of violence from radicalized migrants, threatens to cloud the

minds of local populations with irrational terrors, that if not checked could lead

to drastic decisions being made. The Economist warns that the Schengen

area, an important feature of the EU that allows Schengen nationals the

freedom to work and travel across a number of member-states, is at risk of

being dissolved, or at least limited, as a response to the increasing number of

refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants traveling and looking for safe living

conditions within its borders1. Although this is an extreme interpretation of

events, it is important to take action to prevent such actions from occurring.

As a group formed of international students from around the globe, all of

whom are migrants in Belgium, we desire, and believe in the inclusion of

migrants into Belgian, and EU, society, and are excited to take part in this

important cause.

Our proposal often uses the terms asylum-seeker, refugee, and

migrant. An asylum-seeker is a person who has submitted a request for

asylum in their host country based on a well-founded fear of persecution in

their country of origin; he or she is not granted asylum unless they follow a

specific legal procedure and their application is approved. A refugee, a legal

definition from the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of

Refugees, is a person fleeing their country because they have a “well-founded

fear of being persecuted” due to their race, religion, nationality, membership

of a particular social group or political opinion2. Finally, a migrant is a person

who makes a conscious decision to leave their country for economic or other

reasons and stays in the new country for a period of 12 months or more,

having previously been resident elsewhere for 12 months or more.

1 (‘Why the Schengen agreement might be under threat’, 2015) 2 (‘Convention relating to the Status of Refugees’, 1951)

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Collectively, we will refer to these categories as ‘foreigners’ in general, but will

base our outreach methods on the individual categories.

Belgium, while not at the levels of Italy or Malta, is facing an asylum-

seeker crisis. In recent weeks, asylum-seekers have been turned away from

filing their official asylum applications because the government office did not

physically have enough room for them. On one day, 50 asylum-seekers were

turned away. But even once asylum applications are accepted, foreigners in

Belgium have a hard time integrating. Recent studies show that the Western

nation that has seen the highest amount of its citizens per capita go to Syria

to become ISIS fighters is Belgium. At a lesser extreme, the Belgian

immigrant population has one of the highest-levels of unemployment and

some of the lowest levels of education in European Union Member States.

We have chosen to use Information Communications Technology

(ICT), as they can be used to foster greater connectivity between people and

groups of people. In addition, rising internet accessibility has led to increased

internet usage for all demographics. Furthermore, increased education can

help migrants learn how to effectively use these services. The use of social

networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, provides further avenues for

increased interconnection.

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Mapping The Market

In order to properly implement

this project, it is important to

clearly understand and analyse

data relating to the situation of

migrants and others of foreign

origin. Belgium, and more so,

Brussels, hosts a large foreign-

born population. Initially, the

focus of this project is limited to

the Brussels-Capital Region

(BCR). Since the focus will be

on the BCR, a proper

demarcation of this area is

important. The BCR is

composed of 19 communes,

covering a total area of 162 km (see figure 1)3. If this project proves successful,

it will be enlarged to the rest of Belgium. Further expansions could see this

project extending to the European Union, or globally.

3 (‘Mini-Bru 2015’, 2015: 5)

Figure 1. The Brussels Capital

Region

Figure 2.

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The Brussels Capital Region has a population of 1,163,486. The number

of nationals in the Brussels-capital region is 778,105 (66.88% of

the population), while the number of foreign born people is 385,381(33.12% of

the population)4. Indeed, BCR has a high proportion of people of foreign origin,

as does the country of Belgium when compared to other EU and Organization

for Economic Co-

operation and

Development (OECD)

member states (see figure

2)5. This number can be

further broken down,

indicating that 33.1% of

foreign born people in the

BCR come from non-EU

countries, while the

remaining 66.9% are EU

nationals (see figure 3)6.

However, integration into society has been slow and large gaps in

economic and social equality persist. Within the foreign born group there are

also gaps. While those from EU member states share relatively similar

employment rates as Belgian nationals, those from countries outside of the EU

suffer from low integration rates, and the 33.1% from non-EU countries have

rates substantially below those of EU nationals. This is problematic throughout

the country of Belgium, and is one of the wider gaps amongst EU and OECD

countries (See figure 4)7.

4 (‘Mini-Bru 2015’, 2015: 6) 5 (Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2015 Settling In, 2015: 17) 6 (‘Mini-Bru 2015’, 2015: 6) 7 (“Improving the Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Belgium”, 2015: 7)

Figure 3.

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As can be seen from the data, there is a large number of migrants within

both Brussels, and Belgium. Problematically, employment levels of migrants

are quite low, revealing the need to better integrate migrants into the labour

force. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development’s (OECD) most recent economic survey conducted on

Belgium, “immigrants are under-represented in public sector and white-collar

private sector jobs, and over-represented in the less well-paid blue-collar and

temporary jobs . . . lower employment, lower wages and households with more

children lead to a risk of poverty or social exclusion above 40% among working-

age immigrants”8. These low employment rates only further exacerbate the low

levels of migrant integration with natives.

Indeed, this exclusion from economic equality and social integration

does not end with the first generation, and children of migrants, even though

natives of Belgium, face the same difficulties in terms of economic equality and

social integration as their parents9. In light of this, further integrating migrants

into society and the economy has beneficial effects and must be explored.

Indeed, the largest segment of migrants in Brussels fall within the 18-64 year

age range, at 288,846 people10. This typically young migrant population could

8 (OECD Economic Surveys: Belgium 2015, 2015: 30) 9 (Pina, Corluy, and Verbist, 2015: 7) 10 (‘Mini-Bru 2015’, 2015: 6)

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potentially alleviate the aging national populations within Brussels, Belgium,

and the EU.

While migration and integration is highly debated, and there are myriad

dimensions that must be addressed, our project proposes to “crowdsource”

community. Rather than confronting this issue in a traditional fashion, which

must also be done, btogether.be sets out to utilize ideas set forth by social

media to foster growth and community amongst all populations in BCR.

In order to achieve further integration, this project intends to link foreign

born populations and natives through internet media, enabling them to develop

meaningful relationships. This provides an opportunity for locals and those born

elsewhere to form genuine relationships, increasing positive experiences and

creating a more inclusive community. This is important because “progress in

fighting discrimination and promoting diversity will improve labour market

opportunities for immigrants and hence may increase their incentives to invest

in education”11. This will work on two fronts. Locals will be able to develop real,

unbiased perspectives about migrant communities, leading to normative

changes within the local society resulting in a more open community.

Concurrently, Migrants will develop positive perceptions of the local society,

which is essential in preventing them from turning inward and rejecting the local

culture.

The use of ICT amongst migrants in Brussels and the EU is an area that

is still undergoing research, and there is limited data available. However, a

report done in 2013 by MASELTOV measured that 76% of non-EU born

nationals (those born outside the EU but have since acquired citizenship) are

considered connected (have used the internet in the past 3 months), with 94%

of those users having made regular use of the internet, which the study defined

as at least once a week (see figure 5)12. At the same time, non-EU nationals,

which the paper defined as those living in the EU but with citizenship from a

country outside of the EU, tend to use the internet only 6% less than their non-

11 (Pina, Corluy, and Verbist, 2015: 12) 12 (Kluzer, 2013 : 19)

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EU born peers, but again, 94% of this population tends to use it at least

weekly13.

While these numbers do not apply specifically to Belgium, or Brussels,

they provide a good estimation of the current internet access available to these

populations. This survey indicates a generally high level of internet use by

migrants. If applied to the number of migrants in Brussels we can estimate that

70%, which is 89,293 people, of the 127,561 non-EU migrants in Brussels14

use the internet at least once every 3 months, and 94% of these users, which

is 83,935 people, use the internet at least once weekly. Additionally, we can

further estimate that due to the increasing use and accessibility of technology,

and the rate of increase also demonstrated by Figure 5, that this number has

gone up since this survey was taken.

This means that there are 83,935 migrants in Brussels that are actively

engaged with the internet, which would form part of our target market, along

with the Belgian population. Our goal is to adopt this segment of the population

into using our platform, whereby they would meet and integrate with different

demographic groups. Additionally, we expect that there will be additional

participants attending events created online. This could be due to offline

networking and relationships (they might be invited by friends, relatives, or

colleagues).

13 (Kluzer, 2013 : 19) 14 This was calculated using number previously documented in this paper and determining 33.1% of 385,381

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As a result, this project aims to provide an avenue to promote change

and reduce discrimination by using social media and the internet. If provided

alongside positive integration policies aimed at bettering access to education

and language training, integration into the local society will increase.

How will btogether.be Operate?

The project’s online presence will function similarly to other social

networking websites, providing migrants and Belgians a tool that not only

enables, but encourages further integration between these two groups.

1. Social network linking migrants with locals

Our project, btogether.be provides a platform allowing locals and

migrants to meet in order to work, cooperate and create together on socially

minded projects, and other events. Both locals and migrants will be

encouraged to register online.

2. Communication

A main feature of the website will be communication. However, unlike

other social networking platforms, all communications will be public. This

encourages open communication, and prevents groups from clustering

together and creating private events that might restrict integration. This feature

also allows the project to maintain a safe environment, giving moderators the

ability to prevent abuse of the service by being able to monitor all discussions,

and deleting posts that are abusive or dangerous.

3. Recognition

By taking part, organizing, or showing leadership, members may receive

recognition from other members. This will be done using the “thanks!” button.

All members start off with 5 “thanks!” tokens to give to members that they

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believe deserve it. Givers of these tokens receive an extra 2 tokens for every 5

given, and recipients receive and extra two for each “thanks!” received. The

member giving the “thanks!” will also input a brief sentence explaining in what

way the recipient of the “thanks!” showed their team spirit. Optionally, members

could then choose to share their “thanks!” on different social networks, such as

Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, which would expand recognition for our project

and website, and individual. This could later on be used to illustrate to future

employers, colleagues, or other actors the commitment and team spirit

displayed by the individual.

4. Offline

The offline life of our project will consist of events organized by either

the members of the website or the staff. Events will have been organized online

and will be open for all to attend.

Competition and Co-operation

As immigration is such a hotly debated topic at the moment, several

initiatives and organizations have arisen in the last few years to try and foster

integration. Though many are founded on principles and ideas similar to our

initiative, there are currently none in operation which function as ours would.

Nevertheless, these organizations have provided us with inspiration on which

aspects of our idea we can best put into practice and which pitfalls to avoid.

As there are so many, we have chosen a select few to analyze and present

here.

Local German Organizations

In Germany, several local organizations have been working for years to

facilitate and encourage integration between locals and foreigners within their

communities. The organization “Deutsch-Ausländischer Freundeskreis (DAF)

Sendenhorst”, for example has been operating for more than 15 years. It

provides immigrants in Sendenhorst, a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia,

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with support and vital information on how to make a life for themselves in

Germany. Additionally, the DAF organizes lectures and information sessions

for locals on the current immigration situation. To encourage further

interaction between immigrants and locals, the DAF organizes monthly coffee

dates for people to get to know each other, yearly summer festivals,

international cooking classes and picnics and excursions15. By doing so, the

organization recognizes that successful integration must be welcomed and

encouraged by both immigrants and locals. The organization has been

successful in fostering integration within its community16. This shows that an

approach which encourages both immigrants and locals to interact with each

other in a positive environment and to learn from each other can be beneficial

to the entire community.

Sendenhorst is not the only town in Germany in which such an

organization exists17. Though successful locally, none of these organizations

have a strong online presence. Their efforts are focused primarily on their own

community and all interaction and support occurs personally.

ImmiLounge

ImmiLounge is a social network website with the specific function of

supporting immigrants in adjusting to life in the United States. The founder of

the site, Brian Nguah, an immigrant himself, designed the site in 2012 for

immigrants to connect with each other and locals who could provide valuable

help, such as immigration attorneys18. The site was received well, though

according to Nguah encouraging interaction between users was difficult19. All

interaction on ImmiLounge was online based as the site aimed to cover the

entire USA. By encouraging people to attend events and interacting in person,

we expect online interaction to increase as well. ImmiLounge is no longer

15 Deutsch-Ausländischer Freundeskreis Sendenhorst (2015.) Retrieved August 30, 2015. 16 Bündnis für Demokratie und Toleranz: Deutsch-Ausländischer Freundeskreis Sendenhorst. (2015.) Retrieved Ausgust 30, 2015 17 The “Deutsch-Ausländischer Freundeskreis Drensteinfurt” and “Zusammen ist Besser (Zib)“ in Telgte are further examples 18 Constantini, C. (2012). “ImmiLounge, Immigrant SOcial Networking Site Aims To Help Immigrants ‘Achieve The American Dream’” Huffintion Post. Retrieved August 30, 2015. 19 Nguah, B. (2015, August 25) [E-Mail interview]

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active, as the cost of maintaining the site became a major factor for the sole

founder.

Flüchtlinge Willkommen

This initiative was founded by Mareike Geiling, Jonas Kakoschke and

Golde Ebding in Berlin. Its aim is to combat the amount of refugees living in

mass accommodation facilities or on the street and fostering integration by

renting out empty rooms student or family apartments and houses. Interested

locals can apply to host a refugee on the website. A team member of the

organization will then match these locals with a refugee who is looking for a

room and meets the hosts requirements and wishes. As of this month, 74

refugees have been successfully placed with locals. 1500 locals have

registered to host refugees. Not only does this initiative increase refugees’

quality of life significantly, but it is also a tremendous opportunity for locals to

hear and understand their stories.

According to an article in Flandersnews.be from August 2015, Els Keytsman

of Vluchtlingenwerk Vlanderen (a Flemish refugee organization) has received

several offers of accommodation for refugees by Flemish locals20. She is

encouraging the government to start or support a similar initiative to that of

Flüchtlinge Willkommen. There is a clear need for more integration within in

Belgium and people who are willing to help that process.

Buddies without Borders

Buddies without Borders is a small organization based in Vienna. It

was founded earlier this year by university students seeking to encourage

integration between young refugees and Austrian students. They contacted a

local NGO which put them in contact with refugees who were interested in

getting to know locals and understanding Austrian culture better. These

refugees were then paired with students from the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien.

The goal is for these buddies to maintain contact and exchange ideas,

information and stories on their respective backgrounds and cultures. Buddies

20 Torfs, M. (2015, August 23). “Members of the public to accommodate refugees?” Flandersnews. Retrieved August 25, 2015.

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without Borders also organizes activities and excursions for all members to

encourage further interaction and ultimately integration of the refugees to

Austrian society. The organization functions offline. It does not have a

website, but only a Facebook group. Recruitment of participants (both locals

and refugees) is based on contacts and networking21.

Development Plan

Before launching btogether.be, we will be focusing on designing and

developing the website, establishing partnerships with organizations in

Belgium, and reaching out to our target audiences to recruit initial members.

Furthermore, we will seek out possible investors to help us cover the

estimated costs of hosting and maintaining btogether.be.

Depending on time and funds, btogether.be will be designed either by

us or professional web designers. In designing btogether.be an emphasis will

be placed on user-friendliness to ensure immigrants, whose internet

proficiency may be low, are able to use the website and benefit from it. We

aim to test our website as often as possible (both with locals and immigrants)

while designing it to ensure that it has no major flaws and is easy to use once

it is launched. It will therefore be necessary for us to reach out to possible

members before the website officially goes online. We will do so by partnering

with already existing organizations which work with socially minded locals and

immigrants.

Refugee organizations, such as FEDASIL (Federal Agency for the

Reception of Asylum Seekers) and Vluchtelingenwerken Vlanderen, could be

potential partners. By connecting their network of refugees and immigrants

with btogether.be, . A partnership with Serve the City Brussels, an

21 Stojanoski, D. (2015, August 27) [Web Interview]

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organization which seeks to provide for those in need by mobilizing

volunteers, would also be incredibly beneficial to us. Not only would this

further enhance our network of social organizations, but it could allow us and

Serve the City Brussels to collaborate on organizing volunteering events for

local and foreign members of btogether.be.

When recruiting local members we plan on reaching out to various

community centers, social clubs and churches, as well as schools and

universities within Brussels. Using the networks of these establishments will

help us in finding socially engaged individuals who would be willing to

participate in btogether.be.

In addition to reaching out to potential partners, we will be looking to

acquire the funds necessary to cover our estimated costs. Hosting and

maintaining a website with low to medium traffic alone can range anywhere

from EUR 1,000-2,000 a year22. This does not include the time and cost of

designing and developing the website. As the number of members increases,

it will become more expensive to host the website. However, as popularity of

our website rises our funding possibilities will also increase. Additionally, we

will need to factor in the costs of creating marketing tools, such as videos and

posters.

Many social organizations working with immigrants are funded primarily

by donation based membership fees and crowdfunding. While media attention

for immigration and the refugee crisis is currently very high, people are more

willing to donate to organizations which aim to combat the problem. However,

crowdfunding and donations will be most successful once we have a

membership base and have attained some media attention. Therefore, we will

need to seek alternative funding opportunities, such as investors or grants, to

start our project. Exposure through participating in startup events, which are

held regularly in Brussels, and attending the Global Economic Symposium will

assist us in acquiring such funds.

22 Parr, Richard. “How Much Does It Cost To Build A Website in 2014?” (2014, December 4) Retrieved August 30, 2015.

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Timeline

Phase 1: Planning (Now until November 2015)

Currently, we are still in the planning stages. We have spent the

summer talking with experts and getting their feedback on our proposal. Since

this has been invaluable in our planning, we will continue to do this leading up

to and during the Global Economic Symposium. In the meantime we will start

to plan the development of our website, such as deciding who will take care of

the technical details and what components we want on the site. We will also

start contacting the local organizations we have listed above to see how we

can partner with them.

Phase 2: Beta (November 2015)

Once we have our website ready to test, we will invite a small amount

of locals and foreigners from our own personal networks to try out our

concept. We will host one or two small events, such as a language exchange

or volunteer day, so that we can test any potential problems and be better

prepared for our launch. During this time we will also start advertising our

website for locals and foreigners to join once we launch. We will place a

strong emphasis on Brussels locals, as we believe they will be harder to

recruit than foreigners.

Phase 3: Launch (December 2015 through February 2016)

After we have a critical mass of Brussels locals, we will launch our

website. We will aim to have our first official event one week after our launch.

At this point we will start courting media attention. We will not have done this

earlier because we want to be able to show how our site works and have

personal stories of what we have accomplish so far. Additionally, when people

hear about our site, we want them to be able to sign up right away and attend

an event while they are still enthusiastic about the idea, instead of having to

wait until the site is live.

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Phase 4: Growth (February-June 2016)

After our initial focus on adding users to our platform, we will re-

evaluate the site and our events. We will see what changes we need to make

due to the larger user base and what additional features need to be added to

our site. We will evaluate how our events are succeeding and if we should

organize them in a different way. We will solicit user feedback on various

topics, such as if there are different types of events they would want. We will

also look at what users haven’t attended any events yet and see what has

prevented them so-far. We will also look at the demographics of our user

base, to see if we have any under-represented communities. Based on this,

we will alter our advertising and outreach strategies. During our planning

phase, and based on our results in the beta phase, this phase will develop a

more concrete timeline. During this time we will also begin to plan our next

phase in which we will expand to other cities.

Phase 5: Expansion (June 2016+)

Once we have completed our previous goals, we will start to expand, both in

other Belgian cities and to other European capitals. As the previous phases

will help us tremendously in planning this phase, we will not have a concrete

timeline for this for a while. Our ultimate goal is to expand to all of Europe

(and even beyond). However as each country, and even each city, will have

its own situation in regards to immigration and the interaction between locals

and foreigners, we will have to take this slowly and find the right organizations

to partner with in each city. We will focus on expansion once we are confident

in the Brussels model.

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Constantini, C. (2012). “ImmiLounge, Immigrant Social Networking Site Aims

To Help Immigrants ‘Achieve The American Dream’” Huffington Post.

Retrieved August 30, 2015.

Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. (1951, July 28). Retrieved 3

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Stojanoski, D. (2015, August 27) [Web Interview]

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refugees?” Flandersnews. Retrieved August 25, 2015.

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