Context of the paper, authorship and acknowledgements

• Author: Bircan, Tuba; Lancker, Anne van; Nicaise, Ides
• Pages: 6-6

Target Group Discussion Paper Children with a Migrant Background

6

Context of the paper, authorship and acknowledgements

Following the call in 2015 from the European Parliament to in troduce a Child Guarantee

and the subsequent request to the European Commission (EC) in 2017 to implement a

Preparatory Action to explore its potential scope, the Commission launched a feasibility

study in 2018 that is aimed at examining and making proposals as to how a specific

programme could best be developed in order to fight poverty and social exclusion amongst

the EU’s most di sadvantaged children (i.e. children living in precarious family situations,

children residing in institutions, children with a migrant background [including refugee

children], and children with disabilities) and to ensure their access to the five key policy

areas (PAs) identified by the European Parliament, (i.e. free healthcare, free educati on,

free early childhood education and care [ECEC], decent housing, and adequate nut rition).

This Feasibility Study for a Child Guarantee (FS CG) has been commissioned as a key part

of the Preparatory Action agreed between the EC and the European Parli ament. The FSCG

is managed by a consortiu m consisting of Applica and the Luxembourg Institute of S ocio-

Economic Research (LISER), in collaboration with Eurochild a nd Save the Children.

The FSCG is a combination of 28 Country Reports, five Policy Papers (o ne on each of the

five PAs identified by the Parliament) and four Target Group Discussion Papers (one on

each of the four Target Groups [TGs] identified by the Commission). This work is also being

complemented by specific case studies highlighting lessons from international funding

programmes, an online consultation with key stakeholders, and focus group c onsultations

with children.

Each TG Discussion Paper examines in detail issues in relation to the access to the five PAs

of children in the TG and reviews and a ssesses the strengths and weaknesses of existing

approaches and policies at the national and EU level. It draws heavily on the analysi s

presented in the FSCG Inception Report1 that was prepared by the FSC G Core Team, on

the findings from the 28 FSCG Country Reports, on the five FSCG Policy Papers and on the

results of the FSCG online consultation, as well as on the academic literature and

consultation with key experts.

The draft TG Discussion Papers constituted important resources for the four TG fact-finding

workshops that were organised i n September and October 2019 as part of the FSCG. The

papers were then finalised following the workshops. Discussions at these workshops

together with the findings of the various FSCG reports will feed into an Intermediate

Report, which will provide the basis for discussion at a concluding conference in early 2020.

The final outcomes of the study will then be summari sed in the Final FSCG Report.

The authors of this TG Discussion Paper are grateful to Hugh Frazer, Ann e-Catherine Guio

and Eric Marlier (FSCG Core team), the Country and PA Experts (the list of these experts

is provided in the Annex), Eurochild and Save the Children, as well as t he participants i n

the fact-finding workshop on Children with a migrant background (Malmö, 10-11 October

2019) and the “Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants PICUM”

(Michele Levoy and Laetitia Van der Vennet) for their helpful comments and suggestions.

All errors remain the authors’. The EC bears no responsibility for the analyses and

conclusions, which are solely those of the authors.

1 https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1428&langId=en.