Building a bridge: opportunities and challenges for intangible cultural heritage at the intersection of institutions, civic society, and migrant communities

This article explores the needs and expectations of migrant and refugee communities in several European countries in relation to communicating and sharing their intangible cultural heritage (ICH) practices, and of cultural and civic institutions that plan to support this. Based on two empirical studies, we report on the perspectives of cultural institutions, NGOs that are active in cultural work, and representatives of migrant and refugee communities. This work sheds some light on the complex relationship between migrant communities and institutions with regard to ICH, and identifies the gaps and differences between these perspectives so as to produce guidelines and recommendations on how to bridge grassroots’ interests in ICH and cultural institutions, as well as organisations engaged in cultural work with migrant and refugee communities. The overall goal is to address the under-representation and marginalisation of many migrant and refugee communities in cultural heritage participation, production, and safeguarding and to propose ways to activate the potential of ICH.