Following the first Follow the Money study published by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and UNHCR in 2018, this second report presents a comparative critical analysis of the use of EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) funding at the national level during 2014-18. This includes an examination of how AMIF funding is used to implement integration actions across Member States.

The report draws on the outcomes of national and European interim evaluations of the fund and the perspectives of civil society and other actors involved in national AMIF implementation. It also contains case studies assessing national AMIF implementation in four Member States, as well as a critical overview of the use of AMIF emergency assistance during 2014-17.

Based on this analysis, the study presents recommendations on the implementation of the proposed Asylum and Migration Fund (AMF) for 2021-27 at the national level and recommendations on programming, monitoring and evaluating national implementation of the proposed AMF, addressed to the European Commission.

Drawing on the analysis of national interim evaluations, key findings on the use of AMIF in the integration area include:

Language learning

16 countries report AMIF contributions in the area of language learning, many noting the importance of this area within national integration policy frameworks. Actions supported include expanded language learning programmes, developing new methodologies for language teaching, training for language teachers and programmes to collate existing language learning resources and make them available to wider audiences.

Cooperation

AMIF made a significant contribution to institutional cooperation in 15 Member States by supporting knowledge-sharing and cooperation platforms involving public authorities, civil society organisations and academic institutions, strengthening networks of regional and local integration centres and service providers, as well as the development of new integration policy frameworks at the regional and local levels.

Labour market

Many of the AMIF supported activities in the areas of labour market integration (14 countries), civic and social orientation (13 countries) and initial support to access basic services (11 countries) are implemented together, in the context of projects involving actors from multiple sectors. Although labour market integration activities report good outcomes at the project level, evaluations note the lack of impact of these actions on national employment rates for third-country nationals.

Health and public awareness

Evaluations note less of a contribution from the AMIF to integration actions oriented toward health (5 countries) and housing (6 countries) and, while AMIF actions to increase public awareness about migration issues had been implemented in 8 Member States, their impact was difficult to quantify.

Necessity of AMIF

8 Member State reports note that integration activities would be unlikely to be implemented without AMIF funds due to the unavailability of other funding sources to support this area of work. Although the AMIF has made some significant contributions to 'building sustainable organisational structures for integration and diversity management', sustainability for other integration measures included in this AMIF Specific Objective seems limited.

Read the first study in this series