Our collaborative international team with wide-raging expertise
Re:Match is a project that pilots and tests an algorithm-based matching mechanism in order to enable an informed, individualized and needs-oriented relocation of protection seekers to welcoming cities.
To implement this, the project lead Berlin Governance Platform has brought together additional project partners with a wide-ranging set of expertise. On this page you can find out more about this internationally-collaborative team and what each of them are contributing to make a better relocation possible via matching.
Berlin Governance Platform
The Berlin Governance Platform is an independent think tank that combines various policy perspectives and expert knowledge with scientific expertise. We develop, pilot and promote transparency-focused and participatory governance strategies in Germany, Europe and worldwide to find sustainable and human rights-based solutions for societal challenges.
In the field of migration policy, we develop new policy concepts for safe migration to and within the European Union. For this purpose, we utilize innovative data-based tools such as algorithms. Inspired by numerous European welcoming cities, we pursue a participatory and municipal approach to EU asylum and refugee policy. For the past several years, we’ve been focusing our efforts on the benefits of matching mechanisms in migration governance as well as direct municipal reception of refugees in European Cities. This work culminated in launching Re:Match in late 2022.
Pairity
Pairity was founded by an interdisciplinary team of social scientists, technology experts, and human rights advocates. Their data-driven matching projects are informed by several years of work facilitating community sponsorship initiatives and evidence-based policy around refugee resettlement in North America and Europe. Most recently, thanks to their matching system, people seeking protection in the Netherlands were matched with volunteer groups to foster integration and social cohesion.
For Re:Match, Pairity developed the heart of the project: a tailored matching algorithm with preference-based ranking for the relocation of protection seekers to welcoming cities. Additionally, Pairity supports the project by developing surveys for monitoring and evaluation and providing their expertise in these processes.
Right to Protection Charitable Foundation
The Right to Protection Charitable Foundation is a leading human rights organization in Ukraine that provides multi-purpose assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), victims of war, refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons. The Foundation implements programs to provide legal, psychological and material support to IDPs and the war-affected population, as well as social assistance and monitoring of human rights protection.
Understanding how many Ukrainians found themselves abroad, an important step was the opening of the Foundation’s representative office in Warsaw, Poland (Right to Protection Poland, together with HIAS Europe) to support citizens who were forced to move as a result of the full-scale invasion and found refuge here.
For Re:Match, the Right to Protection Charitable Foundation addresses and informs protection seekers from Ukraine about the possibility of relocation to a German city through the Re:Match project. Together with BGP, Right to Protection Charitable Foundation conducts in-person interviews with Ukrainian protection seekers to gather the relevant information to match them with a suitable city. Once a match is established Right to Protection Charitable Foundation assists in the coordination of travel arrangements.
A former partner: Salam Lab
Salam Lab (“The Laboratory of Peace”) is a non-government organization based in Krakow, Poland.
The organization’s priority is to build bridges and a culture of encounter between various ethnic and religious communities. On the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Salam Lab organized a Help Center in Krakow. Since the opening of the Center, Salam Lab has assisted almost 19.000 people fleeing from the war. The Help Center still acts as an information hub for refugees and as a space for providing basic medical, psychological and legal assistance, as well as various workshops and events.
During the first Re:Match pilot phase in 2023, Salam Lab addressed and informed refugees from Ukraine about the possibility of relocation to a German city through the Re:Match project. Salam Lab conducted in-person interviews with Ukrainian refugees to gather the relevant information to match them with a suitable city. Once a match was established Salam Lab assisted in the coordination of travel arrangements.
