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Port slash podcast. Hello and welcome back to the podcast, Rethinking You from Migration in the Alps, a CIPRA podcast series exploring how movement of young people shapes life in the up and region. My name is Laura and I'm Hannah and together we are hosting the Outward Inge of Podcast. Outward Inge is a transnational project where we focus on the topic of in and out migration in the up and region and how regions can turn the challenges of youth migration into meaningful opportunities for the future.
In this three part series, we dive into current migration trends in the Alps, learn from real life examples in three pilot regions and explore what can Alpine regions do to remain vibrant and attractive for young people. This is our second episode of the series and today we take you directly into the field. We will discuss insights from our three pilot regions of the Outward Inge project. In South Tyrol, Italy, Maribor, Slovenia, and Brazil in France.
Let's jump into it. Hannah, how are you doing today? Excited to record this podcast and to talk about the Outward Inge of the Alps. It's also very nice whether today we are sitting currently in Liechtenstein recording this podcast in the heart of the Alps.
In the heart of the Alps exactly. And yeah, I think we both are just really excited to hear what the three areas have to say about what they are doing. And we have a little teaser at that point that this will not be our last episode. So for everybody who's listening, there will be one more episode where we will dive really a lot deeper into what actually happened.
So now the project is really still in the middle, you could say. We are right in the middle of developing all the exciting activities, but the last episode will be recorded in spring 2026 and we will hopefully then learn more about what actually worked well and what we can take away as learnings. Hannah, it's great to be back here with you again. We had already our first episode recorded and being published to all the listeners out there.
If you haven't had a chance to check it out, we are really happy about how it turned out. Can you give us a short insight in the main things we discussed? Something we learned for sure is that migration, not only in the Alps, but especially in this mountainous, more rural areas, really is a present challenge for the communities, for the cities, but for the people themselves as well. This feeling to be torn between maybe moving back to your small town where you grew up, but that maybe opportunities, jobs, studies are in bigger, more urban areas.
I think many of us have experienced that. I think a lot of us, including us here in the studio, recognise ourselves from the stories that we discussed and also what the project is focusing on, this connection that we don't want to lose connection to the regions where we came from, even though maybe our lives develop in a different direction, but we still want to have an impact and we want to help other young people who are coming from the same region as us and we care about our home regions. We wanted to develop, we wanted to progress and in fact there's a lot of experiences that we gain living in other places which could really benefit the regions that we come from. For sure.
And that is why all of these pilot activities that are happening in the project are also interesting because they go exactly into that question. How can a region develop so that young people consider coming back or consider even if they're not coming back, staying connected, staying engaged in the region where they come from? And what we will hear today is that there is many different approaches and even where to start is not always clear yet. Yeah, it's very interesting for me to be in this project because this, what you said Laura, staying connected is such a key word because we've seen there are many pilot projects also in the Alps, also outside of the Alps aiming to bring back young people to rural areas and most of them have been on the long term unsuccessful.
It's a really difficult topic. It's challenging to bring back young people who developed their whole life in let's say big cities to convince them to come back. And so in this project in Outfering of we aim to think outside of the box and we try to develop some other tools, approach the topic a bit differently and see how we could even utilize or kind of connect those people who might really not come back permanently, how we can still connect them back to the regions where they came from. And what we did now for the second episode for all the listeners out there to explain quickly that usually we have in the project several partner meetings and one of them was recently taking place in Malibu.
So we took a recording equipment with us and sat down with all the free pilot region leaders to learn and hear about what they are doing to rethink how youth migration can be managed in their regions. So all of the free pilot regions that is Drento, Maribor and Bizool we had conversations with in our meeting in Maribor. Each of these pilot regions as we hinted before is testing a different innovative youth participation model but before we dive deeper into what these models will look like. Let's just learn more about the regions themselves and what their current challenges are.
We started in Drento and alternates province in Oregon, Italy right in the heart of the Alps. Here we speak with Project Manager Luca Bastetti and the question is what does youth migration currently look like in Drento? Youth migration in Drentino aligns with the general trend in Italy in recent years which has seen a steady and progressive increase in immigration. In Drentino this trend is particularly pronounced in 2024, 241 more young people integrated than in 2023.
Luca told us that Drentino has seen a sharp rise in youth migration. 38% more young people left in 2024 than the year before and 24 marked the highest number of young Drentino immigrants in the last 15 years. That's quite something. These phenomenon particularly affects the low lying and mountain valleys, Luca explained and small towns far from the metropolitan area.
That is quite an intense increase and it kind of underlines again what we were talking about earlier that this is a problem that many small communities, towns, cities actually have to deal with because increasingly this is getting a challenge. Our project partner in Maribor, Shvilla Flager, explains that one of the main issues for them is that there's actually not enough data so maybe they don't even know these exact numbers that you were telling us earlier on the youth migration trends in Slovenia. We don't really have consistent data about why people leave or what would make them come back. So stakeholders from different public institutions, to NGOs and businesses often work in isolation so their efforts are well connected.
Another challenge Shvilla mentions is the lack of trust between young people and policymakers. On top of that young people don't always feel that their voices matter in local policymaking. Many fair decisions are made for them, not with them and that is a big problem. All this adds up to a circle where young talent leaves the city loses its innovation potential and youth participation becomes even more, which in turns make it harder to break the tent.
Actually, Shvilla really summarized the core of the issue so well that the young people leave and the city loses so much with that talent that ideas and potential also leaving the region. So what about France and our French by the region? So the interesting thing about this project is that we have so many different countries involved. It's not only cities or towns with different size and different challenges like Maribor and the autonomous province of Trento are already quite different, but the visual in France in turn is a really small town I learned in the east of France and there the project partner visual urban community actively works on attracting more young people.
We will hear now the project manager, Loyque Leuwe, who explains the situation there. We are really thinking that the creation of the infinity training course and sector of excellence can be a solution for the visual because even if we are a small town we can have ambition. So Loyque mentions that what many smaller municipalities are struggling with are creating a good place for young people to live, work and study despite the attractions of bigger urban areas, right? But Lara, how does the visual live up to this?
What we learned from Loyque is that the visual is a green city with many services that makes it suitable for young families. It is an affordable city as well which is why students may consider to stay in the area even after finishing their studies. They live in the city and the real estate is cheap too compared to the bigger operation like the general urban also. Another advantage of staying in the area is that young people can keep up their social circle when they stay.
They don't have to change their whole friendship group or start from the scratch in a different area. And how does the autonomous province of Trento try to attract antennas? Yeah, it was interesting to speak and look at this. He made one point quite clear, I remember, that in the province of Tanto keeping young people close isn't really about stopping them from going abroad.
But it's more about creating opportunities that make staying or also of course returning a real choice for them. Trentino is still one of the biggest places for the quality of life in Italy. So we offer a good place for family, for young people that really fully love of nature, of sport or skying activity but also to have also the opportunity to increase their knowledge in the frame of research or in the frame of agriculture. Okay, so what we hear from this and what Spella also explains is that a city needs several interesting offers for young people.
She mentions, for example, in Maribor there is a university, there are several startups, innovation initiatives are located there and generally also because it's not the capital city, it's quite affordable and also quite complicated with still a good quality of life. The region also has active youth sectors, so different organisations, for example the association of friends of youth and long running initiatives such as youth for the progress of Maribor, showed that the local youth work has deeper roots in Maribor, there are also established municipal policies like the ordinance on public interest in the youth sector which give youth organisations a formal role in shaping local policies. What we're hearing across all of these regions is that it is a challenge to keep young, well educated people in the area or make an attractive location to come back to. In the Outfring project, the partner organisations try to involve young people in many different ways.
Yeah, exactly. In Tanto, for instance, they are connecting young people who live in the region with those who have already moved away, creating a network that keeps talent and all kinds of ideas, really flowing in both ways. Luca, I remember also told us that the territorial cohesion office of the province of Tanto has many activities focusing on youth migration, it's really interesting, they are keeping connections with Tanto communities abroad, there is a whole network that is active, they support cultural exchanges, they promote simply awareness of migration and encourage young professionals to return home. In this, their goal according to Luca is to keep Tanto connected to its people and bring talent back to the region.
And the question is, what is being done within the Outfring of the project? Let's hear what Luca has to say. The pilot project in our area involves the creation of a network of young people between age of 18 and 35, especially in Czembravale, that is a real ruler and remote area, where there is a phenomenon of youth migration. The hope is to spark a movement and connect those who left us and those who stay in Czembravale.
Luca explains that this approach not only taps into the skills of those who already work across different regions in the Alps, but also explores new tools for youth representation and engagement that could actually benefit local governance in a big way. He says that initial results are already encouraging and now it's really time to put them to the test. Lara, compared to that, how is the situation in Marigor? Thanks, Anna, for summing up this well.
The regional development agency for Portravia, Marigor, is the main development agency in the region, and they are involved in several youth programs that guide the work. They also collaborate with NGOs, schools, universities, and are actively working on making Marigor and attractive city for young talents. So maybe within the project, the region development agency is leading the process of creating a consultative body. This will be a permanent advisory platform where young people, including immigrants, attorneys, and a local youth organization, can directly contribute to the shaping policies of migration, employment, and talent retention.
Those are quite three big fields regarding this project. So the process is called designing with local stakeholders through co-creation workshops, world coffee sessions, and focus groups. The idea is actually to build something that truly reflects the needs of young people in Marigor, not just the foremost structure, but the living space for dialogue and collaboration among different generations. To sum this up, a youth consultative body that is a group of young people who left, some who left, but then returned to the region and some who are involved in local youth organizations will be created in Marigor to test a structured model of youth participation in governance.
This will act as a local lab for co-decision and feedback on all kinds of topics, mostly on youth inclusion, migration, and return mobility policies. Let's hear from Loic what will be implemented as part of the Outfink project in Visule. So our organization wants to make Visule a more lively turn for the student and give them we want to go to Visule, even if they are not of the area. So we develop as a safe, excellent information, different formations that you don't have in the hotel and maybe we can have attractive campus for students.
So kind of look at the overarching perspectives, what are the positive effects for young people that can come out of these pilot actions? I really hope that the young people involved in this activity define a network that could be really useful for the territory because they really feel a bit in their effort and they really like to be part of their community. So what they really want is to be more connected with the local municipality in the decision of their ballet and the municipality, the local community should listen more from their voice. Both from the people that stay and both from the people that is abroad.
As Luca puts it, this is a tool directly for young people and their territories, but it's even more than that, it's about really creating a space to connect young people and the asporas youth. Mabua is going quite a different path trying to engage youth through establishing a consultative body as we heard before. Mostly this is important to reform trust as Shveil explains. So the biggest focus is on the establishing of the consultative body that will be set up by the regional development agency.
We strongly believe that this pilot will become a concrete, long-term tool for structural youth participation in regional planning, something that can survive political change and be expected in the future, in the future to the whole region. Beyond the structure itself, the pilot aims to rebuild trust between young people and institutions. It's about showing the youth input doesn't end with a survey or a consultation, it's action shaping policy decisions. So if successful, the model could serve as example for other civilian municipalities facing similar migration and participation challenges as Mabua.
She also mentions the positive effects that this could have in Mabua. So the biggest hope is that the new consultative body will really shift on how young people see their roles in the city and the region, that they have a chance to shape the current and future policy as well as they channel to express their ideas, to push for concrete changes, not just the small ones. So from housing and jobs to mental health, cultural opportunities. So it's a chance to move from being consulted to being genuinely involved in the regional planning.
So in the long term, this could strengthen young people's senses of belonging and pride in the city of Maribor. When they see their input reflected in real policy outcomes, it creates a feedback loop that builds confidence, leadership and also the community engagement. It can also help attract young professionals who have left by showing the city values their skills and also their perspectives. So ultimately, the Maribor, not just a place where young people grow up, but a place where they choose to stay, return and build their future.
Okay, and that was very well put. So Maribor wants to be a place where people not only grow up, but where they can come back, they can stay in the first place, they can come back and they want to stay for a long term. I think that really sums up the core of the project. So let's hear more about Vizur.
I worked a lot of it's observatory. It's a creation. So it will allow Vizur to have an innovation tool. And in the territory where we have no university, it's really a good thing.
And it could change the image of Vizur. And it's a good development for us because it's a new thing. How could an observatory look like? Observatory, more than quantitative and qualitative data collection.
For us it's a place of debate. Every year we've got two publications, one about the quantitative data, and one about the automatic application. So we want to fit the debate with this publication, and more publication. And let's debate live.
And nobody's no new young people because the young people are changing every year. So for us it's a tool to be a place of reflection and a mobilization about the subject of the young migration. So to sum this up, Vizur's approach is to get a strong case through data. The main of this project is a reference publication that can spur the debate on youth migration in Vizur and other similar communities.
I think our ambition is to pursue these activities of the observatory and to have a reference, not maybe in the work, but in our country, to have a reference about this subject. Wow, really lots of ideas we hear now. My head is quite full and I'm also curious what the young people that we will engage in a project that they will bring into the table because they will have their own ideas, they will have their own approaches. I think a lot of young people, they really do want to have a part in governance and shaping policy making.
So it's really cool that we create a platform for them to have this bridge, this way to get into that and to bring their own ideas into how their regions should develop. And what I take with me from these interviews that we heard right now is that actually many regions are struggling with this problem of migration of young people, but that is very little data on it. We have experienced this also in our research during the start of this project. So I'm excited also to see how this will turn out and what we can learn from the actual data that will be created during this project.
Yeah, totally. And then of course the big part will be to share what we find across the obstacles. We say pilot, pilot a lot in this podcast and in the project as well. We are piloting a lot of things, a lot of innovation and experimentation.
And we are really looking forward to also connect with some other pilot ideas. So if you're out there doing something similar, trying to engage young people in your region and there has been something that worked for you or on the other hand, maybe didn't work, we would really be interested to hear from you, to hear from your experience. So get in touch with us, please. Yeah.
And just to say that this is not an Alpine problem alone. I think towns and cities in all kinds of mountainous rural regions are struggling with this. So exchange knowledge exchange and learning from each other will be interesting and helpful for many other regions as well. Yeah.
So please hit us up as the young people say. I don't know. You can find us on our socials. We can also contact us via the project website of course, but on the model of the secret channel.
So as well, we will be eager to get in contact with you on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, check out our newsletter and our website and do listen to the other podcast of course. Yes, please do listen to the other podcast. Alright then. I think this is it.
Hannah. Thank you very much for hosting with me. As always, it was a great pleasure. It was an equally great pleasure to host with you Laura and see you next time.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And thank you to all our great partners in the Outfring project and to see the podcast for hosting us. Keep up the good work out there and hear you soon. Bye.
Bye-bye.