User participation is becoming increasingly important with regard to Social Work discourses and positions these past few years, although it has begun to become established in only a few fields of action so far. To date, systematic forms are to be found mainly in working with people with a disability or psychological illness as well as in assistance to the homeless. When it comes to refugee work, such approaches and examples are still few and far between, at least when it comes to well-known examples.

A first objective of this project is to critically assess – as best as possible – the status quo of either already implemented or planned examples of user participation in refugee work in Austria, and to research any best practice examples from other countries. On this basis, the limits, gaps, and chances of user participation in refugee work are to be analyzed, and recommendations for their establishment are to be developed.

Beyond that, a kind of toolbox of theories and methods could be created for further use in existing as well as yet to be developed projects, if this is possible.