EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Local integration policies for migrants in Europe

Local integration policies for migrants in Europe

Introduction

Successfully integrating immigrants and ethnic minorities remains a challenging task for European cities. Because they are often dependent on national and federal legislation, local policies sometimes fail to address integration issues effectively. For this reason, cities and municipalities have a genuine interest in following successful local integration practices. This report of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, provides an overview of (local) integration policies in Europe. The report describes the historical and institutional factors which shaped migration policy in twelve EU Member States and analyses local integration policies in fourteen European cities.

Description

The report 'local integration policies for migrants in Europe' gives examples of different ways of implementing integration policies. It shows that there are large variations in policy within European countries and cities.

The report consists of two parts. In the first part, twelve country reports are provided in order to set the context for the second part which focuses on integration policies in European cities. The countries described are: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The country profiles contain information on the migration history of the countries, the integration paradigm, the institutional implementation of integration policies and shows who the relevant actors in integration policies are.

The second part of the report focuses on the local level and explores integration policies in fourteen European cities, being: Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bologna, Brussels, Frankfurt am Main, Madrid, Marseille, Paris, Prague, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Vantaa, Vienna and Warsaw. This part provides general data on immigration in the cities, sets out the principles of municipal integration and describes the concrete measures taken by the local governments.

Background information

The report was published by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. In the spring of 2006, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the City of Stuttgart and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions came together to form a ‘European network of Cities for Local Integration Policy of Migrants’ (CLIP).

The CLIP network, which was officially launched in Dublin in September 2006, aims to bring together 25 large European cities in a joint learning process over several years, aimed at supporting the social and economic integration of migrants, at combating social inequalities and discrimination and helping immigrants to preserve their cultural identity.

Conclusions

The report provides the following conclusions:

National integration policies differ enormously because they are the outcome of the history and dominant characteristics of the national institutions engaged in integration work;
The sense of nationhood plays a crucial role in (national) integration policies;
National integration policies are determined by the societal definition of the immigrant situation;
In spite of the national differences, there are also processes of convergence and Europeanisation of integration policy which are accelerated by the direct intervention of the European Union;
What a city is doing in respect to immigration policies depends not only on the national context, but also on its migration situation, the composition of its immigrant population (country of origin, socio-economic status, duration of stay etc.) as well as of its definition of the immigrant situation and understanding
of the position of the migrants in the city.

Contact info

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
Dublin
Phone: + 353 1 2043100
postmaster@eurofound.europa.eu

Publication date

//2007

Researcher

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

Links

For more information, please visit the Eurofound website

Click here to download the report 'Local integration policies for migrants in Europe ' (PDF, Eng, 681 kB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration

Keywords

Integration of social groups