the problem
Lisbon is one of Europe’s most magnetized cities. People come for opportunity, lifestyle, community, and culture.
But arrival has become a source of everyday pressure. Newcomers arrive with expectations shaped by branding and tourism narratives – not the lived rhythms and constraints of real local life.
This gap creates tension:
- Housing markets tighten as people arrive without understanding local dynamics.
- Daily routines and neighborhood norms get unintentionally disrupted.
- Locals and newcomers talk past each other instead of with each other.
- Noise, nightlife cycles, workspace culture, and civic expectations become points of friction.
In Lisbon, daily life isn’t just about being here. It’s about living here with context, respect, and responsibility.
Most relocation and welcome systems teach amenities. Nobody teaches the reality of life in the city. So arrival becomes pressure before it becomes belonging.
how it works
The Onboarding Pact is a city-based social design concept. It invites newcomers into a short onboarding experience. This experience is grounded in lived reality, local voices, and practical civic awareness.
The pact helps people arriving in Lisbon understand the everyday life of the city, not just its image.
Participants go through a structured experience that combines:
- City Reality Session
An honest orientation to how Lisbon functions day-to-day, beyond postcards and tourism slogans. - Walk Through Daily Life
Guided neighborhood walks led by locals. Not landmarks, not highlights – real streets, real rhythms, real patterns. - The Pact Moment
Newcomers choose and commit to personal practices that center contribution and coexistence with local life.
the setup
The Onboarding Pact operates as a flexible city format. It can be adopted jointly by civic innovators, public institutions, and neighborhood groups. Host employers, education hubs, and relocation services can also adopt it.
Core elements include:
- Lightweight, repeatable onboarding sessions held regularly
- Facilitators drawn from local communities
- Neighborhood walks rooted in lived experience
- A structured menu of personal commitments
- A civic agreement signed socially, not legally
The focus is on understanding before claiming, context before presence, and responsibility before consumption.
benefits for newcomers
The Onboarding Pact helps people arrive with context instead of assumptions. They don’t just learn how to navigate the city, but how to be part of it.
It gives newcomers a way to understand the rhythms of daily life in Lisbon, the unspoken rules, and the realities behind the image. Not as outsiders trying to fit in, but as participants who know what they are stepping into.
Belonging starts earlier. And it’s built on awareness, not entitlement.
for businesses and institutions
Organizations that attract international talent often focus on logistics, housing, and productivity. The Onboarding Pact adds a missing layer: social integration.
It supports employees, students, and participants in building a real relationship with the city they are living in. This reduces friction, improves retention, and creates a healthier connection between work, life, and place.
Arrival becomes part of responsible hosting, not just recruitment.
for the city and local communities
The city gains a simple social mechanism to soften the impact of constant arrival. Instead of reacting to tension after it appears, the Onboarding Pact works at the earliest moment possible.
It creates a shared language between locals and newcomers, before resentment builds and parallel worlds emerge. Not through rules or control, but through mutual understanding and responsibility.
The city is no longer just a destination. It becomes a shared system people consciously choose to care for.
Turn ideas into action – your solution starts here
The Onboarding Pact is more than an idea. It’s an example of what’s possible when arrival becomes a civic moment.
Whether you see potential in this for your own initiative in Lisbon or another city, we can explore the possibilities. We can discuss how the Onboarding Pact could be adapted for your context. It could also be piloted or co-developed.
about
The onboarding pact is a proprietary concept developed by Hans van de Rakt / the Business Hippie Club. Our solutions are designed to be adapted and deployed in real-world contexts, creating meaningful impact before symptoms become crises.