Civic Council & Citizen Cafés on Refugees in Austria

Question: How can we deal well with rise in refugees in Vorarlberg?

Hosts: Michael Lederer, Bertram Meusburger, Annemarie Felder

Hosting Organization/Sponsor: State of Vorarlberg, Office for Future-Related Questions

Locations: Dornbirn and Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria

Part of a Series? yes, part of a citizen participation process (Civic Council, Citizen Cafés, Resonance Group, Final Report presentation)

Who Was The Café For? Citizens, policymakers, politicians, social workers

Purpose: Raising awareness; Building capacity for empathy and for lived culture of welcoming; Listening to citizens' voices

Numbers Attending:220

Impact: Raised awareness; Website to build bridges between Austrian citizens and refugees was created; Final report presented; network meeting scheduled; this is ongoing work

Quoted from the intro to the video:

"For the last 25 years, the State of Vorarlberg has been pioneering different methods of public participation. Since 2008, they have been working intensively with Jim Rough’s process, originally named Wisdom Council or Creative Insight Council, which in their context they have named Bürgerrat or “Civic Council”. Austria is currently among the three most preferred destinations in Europe for refugees, next to Germany and Sweden. To deal with this situation adequately, the government of Vorarlberg organized a Civic Council to address the question “How do we deal with the rise of refugees well.”

Links:

Video by Martin Rausch (English subtitles)

Detailed report (in German)

Report (in German)

Website (in German)