• Home
  • Events
    • Upcoming events
    • Previous events
  • Members
    • Who are AER’s members?
    • Member Directory
    • Join AER!
  • Committees
    • About Our Committees
    • Committee 1 for Economy & Regional development
    • Committee 2 for Social Policy & Public Health
    • Committee 3 for Culture, Education & Youth
    • Digital Health Network
    • AER Action Plan
  • Advocacy
    • About Our Advocacy Work
    • The Bureau
    • AER Political Priorities 2020-2025
    • Intercultural Regions Network
  • Projects
    • About Our Projects
    • Ongoing Projects
    • Look for Partners
    • Completed Projects
  • Programmes
    • AER Eurodyssey
    • AER Summer Academy
    • AER Youth Regional Network
    • Regional Innovation Award
    • Most Youth Friendly European Region Award (MYFER)
    • AER Observatory on Regionalisation
  • About
    • The History of AER
    • Governance & Structure
    • Statute & Strategies
      • AER Statute
      • AER Procedures
    • AER Executive Board
    • Contact the Secretariat

Assembly of European Regions

Connecting regions, inspiring Europe since 1985

You are here: Home / News / “Massively thought-provoking” – AMiD project Final Conference

“Massively thought-provoking” – AMiD project Final Conference

19 November, 2019 By Luca Magri

Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Share this!

Massively thought-provoking…

That was the first reaction of one of the participants to the conference. The final conference of AMiD project. Why provoking? Because the topic is pretty new. And because it matters. Because as panellists and participants, there were representatives from the local authorities, disabilities organisations, service providers and international institutions. Because migration is not a problem, but a reality.

Not just a conference…

Gathering together this variety of participants had a purpose: to help them work together to shape recommendations. Just as in the project, it was a variety of organisations from different backgrounds that AMiD happen.
So first came a round of panellists to open up the debate: diversity, data and evidence, a common European framework of welcomes, all with migration as a cross-cutting theme.

After a wave of presentations and questions, participants split in three groups to discuss and agree on recommendations. They included:

LIVE ‼️ Parallel workshop sessions at the #AMiDproject Final Conference

1. The use of Needs Assessment Tool
2. How to improve skills and knowledge of organisations working for migrants
3. Multi-stakeholders approach to inclusion of migrants with disabilities pic.twitter.com/u65Mb5xDSj

— AER (@europeanregions) November 5, 2019
  • Improving capacity for CSOs – Civil Society Organisations working in the sector.
  • To set and spread the multi-stakeholder approach to inclusion.
  • Engagement to raise the topic of migrants with disabilities in the next Disability Strategy 2020-2030

What we heard from the panellists…

Migration, disability, diversity, migration as transversal cut to health or education, Global compact. All those where key words shared with the audience.
Conny Reuter, Secretary-General of Solidar, gave insights on migration as first something linking the all spectrum of social life: health, education, employment, housing. That was the kick-off to understand the dimension of what migration is.
Nuria Diez Guardia, representing the European Commission’s DG Home , was on the same line. As the DG in charge of the topic of migration and inclusion, DG Home Affairs works in collaboration with the other Directorates-General. That is the only way to set policies and resources for real inclusion.

But what about disability and migration? Ola Herinkson, IOM representative at the European Commission, reminded participants that the Global Compact for Migration have an eye for this group. That being, Objective No. 15, this is the part to look at and to work with.
Angela Unufe, CEO of Migrant & Minority Disability Network Europe, considered AMiD as a starting point to give more visibility to this group. “With AMiD we kicked off, but it is the right direction”.

Yaya Traore’ brought the voice of those who did the journey by boat to Europe. A tragic story, with a happy end. Despite his disability and the trauma he had to overcome, it was possible for him to learn the language of the hosting country and even get a job! “I was lucky,” he said. Yaya could be supported with proper services. Proof that it can be done!

What about the local authorities? Regions at AMiD

Oriol Amoros, Secretary of Equality, Migration and Citizenship of Catalonia (ES), made the point very clear. Local authorities, regions, can create vulnerabilities. How? With their laws, policies and bureaucracy. A little example: no official paper, no access to services or employment for migrants. On the other hand, regions have also the power to change that.
Marlene Niubo gave an overview of a mentoring programme for young migrants. That is one of the actions in place to support vulnerable groups. As Oriol Amoros reminded to all us, numbers say that 14% of European citizens has a disability and that in the 24% of all households there is one member with a migration background.

Multi-stakeholder and multi-level collaboration

Regions and local authorities can do more. But they can do better working in collaboration with the other organisations in society. The conference was a kind of lab in this sense. In the workshops, it was particularly encouraging to see how much NGOs, service providers, local authorities and international institutions have in common.

Kenneth Johannesson, AER politician from Varmland (SE), shared the experience of the AMiD CAB-Community Advisory Board. He and Angela Unufe, and the other CAB members sit together to understand, check and give advice to increase the overall quality of the project products. Specific work was carried out on the NAT (Needs Assessment Tool). Irena Guidikova, bringing the experience of the Intercultural City Programme from the Council of Europe, had only one statement on the multistakeholder approach: it works and it makes actions sustainable over time.

Watch this wrap-up video from the Conference to learn more!
Cross-County Report (EN)
AMiD Training Course (EN)
Needs Assessment Tool
AMiD Project Website
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

Filed Under: AER events, Completed projects, Events, Featured, News, Ongoing projects, Projects Tagged With: Disabilities, Education, Employment, Health, Inclusion, Migration, Project AMiD, SMEs, Training

← Open Call: Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) AER selected for the European Youth Event 2020! Apply now! →

More articles on this topic

AER members share knowledge to improve situation for refugees in their regions
Committee 2 Annual Report June 2019 – November 2020
Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2020
At International Migrants Day event, regions share intercultural approaches to diversity, inclusion
Intercultural Regions: Improving Labour Market Inclusion

AER. Connecting regions, inspiring Europe since 1985.

Follow our newsletter!




View previous campaigns.


  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Tweets by @europeanregions

Funding Opportunities

Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Calls for Proposals

Have you been inspired by Together4Cohesion? A new call for projects is open to communicate cohesion policy

More funding opportunities

Visit our SDG Website

Partner Search

Are you developing a project in the tourism sector? Umbria is keen to join!

Partner Search: Develop innovative land-based and offshore renewable energy technologies with the team from Umbria

More project opportunities

Library

Statutory Documents
AER Strategies
Minutes
Media Kit
Activity Reports
Newsletters
European Regions Map

Join AER!

Become a Member

Job Opportunities

Sign up for our Newsletter

Search

Website map

Brussels · Strasbourg · Alba Iulia

A Network, a Partner and a Voice of European regions, since 1985 · Copyright © 2021 · Assembly of European Regions · info@aer.eu · Log in