7th International Encounter in Vimianzo, Spain: International Congress

Participation: Encounter was attended by 31 international representatives on behalf of all project partners from Portugal, Italy, Poland, Northern Ireland and Slovakia, as well as 138 invited Spanish guests from the local community. In total, 169 participants joined this event.

Location/ Dates: Encounter was organized by the project Lead Partner Municipality of Vimianzo in Galicia, Spain and was realized from 2nd to 7th of October 2017. 

Short description: The different activities of the Congress (conferences, exhibition panels, roundtables, presentation of communications, exhibitions, etc.) aimed to reflect on the current reality in different European rural communities and on the reasons that produce the different levels of development and opportunities, and generate the human displacements; it also tried to give practical answers to issues related to European mobility, in rural areas such as Vimianzo, characterized by emigration (mainly for labor and economic reasons), and present the results of the ERN4mob project as well as its future prospects.

The congress was attended by representatives of institutions and organizations of civil society with competences in matters of migration and the European Union, and representatives of the 5 rural municipalities of the Union, as well as people involved in a mobility process, who spoke of their own experiences. The encounter offered the opportunity to interact and exchange opinions, creating links that strengthen the European rural network for mobility created within the framework of this project.

Moreover, a presentation of communications on the topic "Emigration - Immigration - Refuge" was delivered, and an exhibition regarding the ERN4mob project was inaugurated.

For the organization of the event, the Municipality of Vimianzo collaborated with the Faculty of Sociology of the University of A Coruña, as Scientific Committee of the Congress, which actively participated in some of the planned conferences as well as in the coordination of the communications and the elaboration of the final conclusions.

Finally, it should be noted that the conference was addressed to the general public, and especially to citizens involved in a EU mobility process (for work or retirement reasons, migrants in the EU or returned migrants), relatives and friends of those people and unemployed young people; also, to all social agents working in the field of migration, social inclusion and employment.