This article critically examines the integration of young adult migrants from non-EU countries into European societies, calling for a shift towards inclusive, locally grounded, and reciprocal processes. Moving beyond state-centric and assimilationist frameworks that impose homogenising ideas of nationhood and Western models of youth transition, the study highlights the need to recognise local particularities, youth agency, and mutual adaptation between newcomers and host communities. Drawing on a two-stage Delphi study conducted within the Horizon 2020 MIMY project, the research engaged 114 stakeholders across seven European countries—including policymakers, local authorities, NGOs, and migrant youth organisations, several of which were migrant-led.

Findings reveal widespread concern over the disconnect between restrictive national policies and more inclusive local practices. Stakeholders advocated a multi-level governance model that empowers local actors and migrant youth, ensuring flexible, participatory, and context-sensitive policymaking. Integration, understood as “living together,” was conceptualised as a dynamic process of co-production, shared responsibility, and ongoing dialogue rather than one-way assimilation. Priority policy domains identified include education, employment, housing, equality, and youth participation, alongside long-term structural support for municipalities and community-based organisations.

Stakeholders also stressed the damaging effects of temporary legal statuses, funding insecurity, and politicised narratives on young migrants’ capacity to build stable futures. Emphasising the convergence of needs between migrant and local youth, the article advances an approach to integration that foregrounds reciprocity, interdependence, and everyday encounters of belonging. By situating integration within local realities and recognising young migrants as co-creators of social change, the study contributes to re-imagining European integration policy as equitable, participatory, and responsive to diverse life trajectories.