Social Innovation and Migration

International migration has become a controversial social and policy issue in many countries both in the global North and South. The arrival of people fleeing war and persecution, or poverty, has become one of those phenomena generating ‘new’ societal cleavages, separating people between those who contrast and those who solidarize with migrants, between those who consider migration generating detrimental social and economic effects, and those who appreciate the increased diversity and the related economic and social benefits newcomers bring into our societies. In Europe, polarized and polarizing perceptions, discourses and policies about migration have peaked since the mid 2010s when the number of people fleeing their countries significantly increased due to political instability in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and the civil war in Syria. While mainstreaming media and political entrepreneurs tended to focus on the potential security issues raised by increased fluxes of refugees and migrants, civil society activists and local authorities have been at the forefront of the provision of humanitarian help as well as in the promotion of integration programs. Acting sometimes in a policy vacuum or even in defiance of national authorities, such civil society organizations and local or sub-national authorities have deployed a creative spirit of innovations allowing people fleeing from war, persecution and poverty, find a place where to obtain protection and begin a new life through education, training, work and socializing events. This chapter sheds light on such innovative forms of support and integration of refugees and asylum seekers across a range of aspects, including economic, social or political dimensions. It discusses social innovations having occurred in the broad field of migration, either as first help or more long-term integration-seeking programs and actions, while investigating also the extent to which such innovations have empowered migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the most genuine spirit of ‘social innovations’.