With the launch of IncluCities, eight European cities and local government associations are joining forces to improve the integration of migrants.
The initiative, managed by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), pairs more and less experienced cities to learn find and spread sustainable local solutions.
Over the past years, migrant and refugee arrivals have often faced negative public attitudes, stereotypes and misconceptions. While there are challenges in some areas, the reality is that there are thousands of good examples and practices from cities and towns.
While many cities have managed to find sustainable solutions for migrant integration, others, especially smaller and medium-sized often lack the necessary human and financial resources, knowledge and experience.
To bridge this gap the IncluCities project has been brought to life, designed to share knowledge, experiences and good practices among cities in a mentoring process. For that purpose, a network of eight cities with varying degrees of migration-related experience and their corresponding local government associations has been established.
The participating cities, accompanied by their respective associations, are ‘paired’ in groups of two, in which one city acts as a mentor and the other as a mentee. Mechelen, for instance, will be paired with Partinico in Italy.
"For the Municipality of Partinico, participation in the IncluCities project represents an opportunity to create a territory of multicultural dialogue, shifting the focus from reception, seen as emergency management, to a rigorous inclusion strategy ”, said Pietro Puccio, CEMR’s spokesperson for migration and integration. “Cooperation between cities experiencing migration phenomena seems to be of great value, especially in light of searching for sustainable solutions.”
Participating municipalities will collaborate closely at every stage of the project. The cities will organise study visits to identify where integration policy can be improved and co-design action plans to enhance their performance. What’s more, training academies will be organised at a later stage, open to other cities and local government associations, so as to spread the lessons learned and strengthen their capacity to integrate migrants.
IncluCities aims not only to spread successful local practices among cities, but also to contribute to the development of improved EU policies on migration that better reflect local needs and realities. Associations of local and regional governments will play a pivotal role, both by disseminating good practices to the rest of their network and by interfacing with national governments and the EU institutions to feed into policymaking and scale up good practices.
Participating cities and associations:
- The city of Livadia and the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE)
- Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle and the French Association of CEMR (AFCCRE)
- Partinico and the Italian Association of CEMR (AICCRE)
- Fuenlabrada and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP)
- Brussels and Schaerbeek, together with the Association of the City and Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (BRULOCALIS)
- Mechelen and the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG)
- The city of Jelgava with Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments (LPS)
IncluCities is a three-year project led by CEMR and funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of the European Union.
*This article has been originally published on the CEMR website.