EuroQuestions | Beyond the EU Migration Pact: What Role for Philanthropy and Civil Society in Migrant Integration? with Pedro Calado

EuroQuestions : Season 2026, Episode 11

Date/Place :

Online, upon registration

16th June 2026, 3PM-3:30PM

Title :

Beyond the EU Migration Pact: What Role for Philanthropy and Civil Society in Migrant Integration?

Résumé :

On 12 June 2026, the EU Migration and Asylum Pact will enter into force amid continuing political contestation over migration across Europe, straining Member State solidarity and shaping domestic politics.

While the Pact seeks to harmonise migration management and reception systems, it largely leaves unresolved the question of migrant integration. This remains a fragmented policy area, with wide disparities across Member States and limited progress beyond the EU Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021–2027. In many countries, civil society organisations and philanthropic actors have become increasingly central to migrant integration, filling gaps through legal support, language training, employment programmes, and community-building initiatives.

This EuroQuestions session will examine the state of EU integration policy, the structural factors driving the growing role of non-state actors, and the conditions that enable or constrain their action. It will also explore what a more coherent and balanced relationship between EU institutions, Member States, civil society, and philanthropy could look like.

Questions to answer:

• Where do EU and national policies on migrant integration fall short? Is this gap simply structural or political?
• What concrete role are civil society organisations and philanthropic actors playing in filling this gap? Where are they most effective?
• How does Europe compare internationally when it comes to integrating migrants? Where does it fall short, and what does it consistently fail to see?

Speaker info:

Pedro Calado holds over 25 years of experience in social inclusion, diversity, migration, and youth issues. He served for six years as Portugal’s High Commissioner for Migration before joining the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 2020. He also was President of the OECD’s Migration Working Group in Paris and as Portugal’s representative in the European Commission’s European Integration Network in Brussels. He is a guest lecturer at several universities, particularly on topics of migration, youth, social inclusion and innovation.

What are EuroQuestions ? 

EuroQuestions are sessions held twice a month in the form of 30-minute online exchanges, bringing together a moderator (Ms. Christine Verger or Mr. William Malaterre) and a guest speaker to discuss European issues. These sessions take place on Wednesdays, from 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM. The speaker is generally given a presentation time of approximately 15/20 minutes, followed by a 10/15-minute exchange with the moderator.