The Department of Foreign Affairs and OpenEmbassy working with municipalities to develop an approach to housing newcomers. The project, called "The Social Brick,"combines the social aspect of housing with the practical realities of the housing issue.
Solutions for housing newcomers
Within municipalities, there is often a strong division between these two domains. This does not benefit the integration process of newcomers and the neighborhood in which they will live. Using the expertise of the target group and the power of qualitative research, Design Probes are used to develop concrete solutions to structurally change the working methods of municipalities and achieve successful housing for newcomers. The project is being realized with the support of the Stimuleringsfonds.
What is the social issue?
This year, more newcomers than in previous years will need to be housed by all Dutch municipalities. This is because the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) is clearing backlogs of asylum applications. The social housing market is already under severe pressure, there are too few houses, and political support for housing newcomers has declined. At the same time, newcomers are now often housed without a solid vision of the social side of housing, which is essential for successful integration. Without successful integration, support for receiving and housing newcomers will only decrease.
In short: many newcomers are waiting for a house, while these houses are less and less available and the places where they are going to live do not contribute to the integration of the new Dutch citizens, further reducing the will to house people (properly).
Housing newcomers: an urgent issue
Housing newcomers in this political, social and economic context is an urgent issue. Failure to house newcomers, or not housing them sustainably, has short- and long-term consequences. It wastes human aspirations and happiness, and it contributes to high social costs because newcomers remain so dependent on welfare state arrangements. Finally, we create a vicious circle: by addressing this badly now, we lose social and political support. This while migration and diaspora will only increase in the 21st century.
New innovative perspectives
This social issue requires new innovative perspectives sooner rather than later. We will develop these perspectives and translate them into concrete solutions that we can implement. Solutions that combine the social perspective on housing with the practical 'brick and mortar' housing issue.
We are working with the municipality to design concrete solutions for housing newcomers in a way that benefits their integration process and the neighborhood where they will live, and in a way that can be replicated in other municipalities.
