Erasmus+ Youth and European identity
A surge of feeling connected to Europe
Erasmus+ Youth is the European Union’s learning mobility programme for young people and youth work organisations, networks and institutions. The programme seeks to strengthen European identity and citizenship through intercultural dialogue and non-formal learning. Our research shows that Erasmus+ Youth is successful in doing so and contributes to “fostering the sense of youth belonging to the European project and building a bridge between the EU and young people”, as captured by Youth Goal #1 and stipulated in the EU Youth Strategy 2019–2027.
34 Countries
The RAY Network is the open research network of National Agencies of the European youth programmes and their research partners.
Sense of belonging to Europe of participants of youth projects
We asked 7.567 participants of youth projects how close they felt to Europe before their Erasmus+ Youth project experience. They could respond on an integer scale from 0 = not close at all to 10 = very close.
We asked the same 7.567 participants of youth projects how close they felt to Europe after their Erasmus+ Youth project experience. The change in their sense of belonging to Europe is substantial and significant:
Sense of belonging to Europe of participants of youth work activities
We asked 5.296 participants of youth work activities how close they felt to Europe before their Erasmus+ Youth activity. The same integer scale was used, ranging from 0 = not close at all to 10 = very close.
We asked the same 5.296 participants of youth work activities how close they felt to Europe after their Erasmus+ Youth experience. The change in their sense of belonging to Europe is equally meaningful and substantial:
