Community-led initiative by refugees, for everyone.
8-21 June across Amsterdam · Utrecht · The Hague · Rotterdam
Program
8-13 June · Refugee-led Cultural Week
Four evenings of radical hope & courage — by artists with lived experience of displacement.
15-21 June · Community Action Week
From conversation to commitment. Across Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, and Rotterdam, communities joining together to turn welcome into lasting change
Theme
Radical hope is the refusal to accept the world as it is — and the belief that it can be otherwise. Courage is what turns that belief into action. Courage, the international theme for 2026, is derived from the Latin 'cor', meaning heart. Refugee Welcome Week deepens this with radical hope: Hope that is not naive nor passive, but rooted in imagination and action.
Movement
Refugee Welcome Week takes its name from the Refugees Welcome movement: a call for solidarity, dignity, and care for people forced to flee.
Today, those words have become increasingly politicized. As xenophobic and far-right narratives grow louder, saying refugees welcome can feel like a radical act. But this is exactly why we need to reclaim it.
For us, reclaiming Refugees Welcome means turning solidarity into practice. We create spaces led by refugees and people with lived experience of displacement — as artists, curators, hosts, performers, thinkers, and storytellers.
Through culture, we make space for truth, grief, joy, resistance, imagination, and connection. We refuse a world where refugees are spoken about but not heard. Refugees are not just part of the conversation — they shape it, challenge it, and imagine what comes next.
Radical hope is not naive optimism. It means facing the world as it is while choosing to act, gather, create, and believe that change is possible. Across Refugee Welcome Week, we listen, learn, celebrate, and move from welcome into action.
Whether you have lived experience of forced migration, want to learn more, or want to stand in solidarity, join us at one or more of our events. Come as you are and help us reclaim what Refugees Welcome can mean today.
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