MATILDE International Conference was held in 10-11 November in the City of Villach, located in the Carinthia region of Austria.

In the hybrid event, MATILDE findings were shared with an audience which includes researchers, policy-makers and various social and economic milieus. Moreover, in order to better respond to the challenges posed by migration and integration governance, several panels were held.

With nearly 300 participants, the two-day international conference also brought together all the research partners and local partners of the project, as well as speakers e.g. from OECD, IOM, Euromontana, the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) as well as the European Commission, and from diverse research institutes and universities such as the Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna University for Economics and Business, University for Continuing Education Krems.

On the first day, held in Congress Center Villach, after the welcoming speeches and introduction of the MATILDE project, Stefan Kordel from The University of Erlangen-Nuremberg talked about the diversity of migration processes. After the case study region findings shared by the MATILDE research partners, a panel discussion about the challenges, changes and chances of and through migration took place. Social and economic findings from the MATILDE regions were presented and the new booklet of MATILDE policy recommendations was shared in the conference. Last event of the first conference day was a policy roundtable about an inclusive Europe and activating rural regions, with the participation of representatives from the European Commission (DG AGRI and DG HOME), IOM, COSLA, CUAS, NBU, the Finish Ministry of Environment and Network for Intercultural Opening of Municipalities in Bavaria.

Throughout the first day of the conference, eight MATILDE local partners as well as further associations working for integration and rural development presented their areas of works and findings in various stands and a space for dialog was created.

The second day of the conference, held in the Carinthia University of Applied Science, focused on the Austrian case study regions Carinthia and Vorarlberg. After the welcoming speeches and some information about the MATILDE project, Anne Goujon from the Austrian Academy of Sciences shared the findings about the current trends in population development and their consequences for rural regions in Austria and Europe. Afterwards, Judith Kohlenberger from Vienna University for Economics and Business presented paradoxes of integration and their consequences for rural areas. Based on this broader context, Birgit Aigner-Walder, Marika Gruber and Jessica Pöcher from CUAS as well as Ingrid Machold from BAB presented the MATILDE results of the social and economic integration processes in Carinthia and Vorarlberg. Gudrun Biffl from the University of Continuing Education Krems discussed and upscaled these findings for Austria, while Stefan Kordel from FAU and Raúl Lardiés-Bosque from UNIZAR compared them with the MATILDE regions in Germany and Spain.

The second conference day closed with a panel discussion about the coexistence in rural areas with panelists from Carinthia and Vorarlberg moderated by Kathrin Stainer-Hämmerle from CUAS.