Recently, the Dutch government platform Overheid van Nu published an extensive interview with Migration Inc. director Yordi Lassooy-Tekle and urban psychologist Esseline van de Sande about the role of City Connectors (Stadverbinders) in creating a more inclusive and participatory government.
In the article, Yordi and Esseline explain how City Connectors build bridges between residents, communities, and policymakers. They bring signals, experiences, and ideas from society into government processes and then report back to communities on what happens with that input. In doing so, they help make lived experience a structural part of policymaking.
The foundations of this approach were laid during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with volunteers and professionals, Yordi helped establish a support desk for refugees, status holders, and people who did not speak Dutch. Government press conferences were translated into accessible language, while questions and concerns from communities were collected and shared with policymakers. This experience demonstrated the importance of sustainable connections between government and society.
In the interview, Yordi and Esseline emphasize that governments are often effective at gathering information from communities, but that the knowledge, relationships, and expertise rooted in lived experience are still too rarely embedded in policy in a sustainable way. They therefore advocate for greater equality between institutional knowledge and lived experience, more space for residents to set the agenda themselves, and stronger recognition of this expertise.
Migration Inc. is working together with De Stadscoalitie to develop a national pool of City Connectors. The aim is to ensure that lived experience becomes a structural rather than incidental component of policymaking and social innovation.
According to Yordi and Esseline, the City Connector initiative will only truly succeed when residents and connectors are not only heard, but are also able to set their own agendas, receive fair compensation for their expertise, and gain access to positions within government institutions.
The full interview is available on the Overheid van Nu website.
