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Includ-EU Online Session: “Anti-discrimination: a Transformative Approach for Organisations”

27 December, 2022 By Anna Comacchio

This online session focused on how we can identify and prevent systemic discrimination in our environments. It was led by Diversity Equity and Inclusion Expert, Author and Podcast Producer Prisca Ratovonasy. She shared the stage with Mame-Fatou Niang, Associate Professor, Author and Artist-in-Residence at Ateliers Médicis.

The slides of the training are available here

The bibliography is available here, it is in one document with the agenda

This session was held in English and simultaneously translated into Italian, Slovenian, Romanian, Greek, Spanish, and Dutch, allowing us to grow our community and involve more and more institutions.

This was a rare opportunity to bring together an international community with 7 European languages around a shared objective to make services and organisations more inclusive.

The session enabled all participants and organisers to:

  • better understand the stakes
  • raise awareness on the transformative dimension of addressing discrimination
  • get actionable knowledge, ready to use

If you missed this, please contact us ([email protected])

This online training session is organised in the context of INCLUD-EU, an EU project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration fund (AMIF) which contributes to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing knowledge, driving innovation, and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union. To know more about the project, visit the project website.

 

 

 

Interculturalism for Intercultural Regions to be!

13 October, 2022 By Birgit Sandu

Are you interested in knowing more about how a region can become intercultural and inclusive, yet you missed our first online capacity-building session on interculturalism for regions and local stakeholders?

Also, are you keen to know more about who is the EU-BELONG team and how you can work together with us in the coming years?

Dive into this quick article and rewatch the recording of the training below!

A Warm Welcome in the EU-BELONG Team to the Local Stakeholders

Last Thursday, the AER and all EU-BELONG partners were glad to meet and welcome an enlarged EU-BELONG team. Over a hundred regional representatives and local stakeholders working on the implementation of EU-BELONG gathered to attend the first online capacity-building session on interculturalism.

Who we are…
..and where are we from


Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences

EU-BELONG develops a series of online and in-person capacity-building activities to support regions, their stakeholders, and other interested actors in fostering key intercultural competences that can be applied across several regional policies related to migrants’ inclusion.

The online training ‘Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences‘ run by Carla Calado, trainer and Coordinator of the Portuguese Intercultural Cities Network, is the first introductory course for regions and local stakeholders. It aims at:

  • Building a common understanding of the key concepts and principles of interculturalism.
  • Provides first guidelines about how to develop an intercultural region step-by-step (building on the ‘The intercultural city step by step‘ guide developed by the ICC Programme).
  • Sharing tips and strategies for the organisation of training sessions on interculturalism

Additional resources on interculturalism developed within the Intercultural Cities Programme of the Council of Europe can be found below:

  • The Intercultural Cities Programme by Nichola Howson
  • Intercultural Competence by Carla Calado
  • Intercultural Cities
  • Intercultural Competences
  • Intercultural Cities Step-By-Step guide: new edition
  • ICC Course – The intercultural city step-by-step Survey (surveymonkey.com)
  • About the Intercultural Cities Index
  • ICC Intercultural Citizenship test

The session was the first official transnational activity within the project and hence an occasion to present its broader framework to the numerous key actors involved in its realisation. Ms. Madaraic, AER Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity & Equality, and Ms. Howson, Project Officer at the Council of Europe, were thus happy to share how EU-BELONG builds on the positive experience of the Intercultural Cities Programme coordinated by the Council of Europe and the long-lasting expertise of the AER and its partners in the field of inclusion and interculturalism aiming at adapting and testing the intercultural integration approach to the regional level. The project is an important first benchmark seeking to result in a stronger, broader, and more sustainable Intercultural Regions Network.

…and more is coming: some fresh news from the EU-BELONG Steering Committee Meeting in Salzburg

With an eye on the ongoing capacity-building process and the other on future milestones, combined with a strong wish to meet in person and share experiences and challenges, the EU-BELONG partners met in Salzburg on 28-29 September. The meeting brought about very enriching exchanges and a strong motivation for the upcoming activities that will be implemented. On the one hand, the development of a model framework for regional intercultural integration strategies will be available for all regional authorities wishing to develop their own intercultural integration strategy. On the other hand, the setting-up of the transnational knowledge exchange will be the space where the organisations and regions of the project will meet and exchange with other international organisations and regions to harness the diversity advantage across policy fields.

Let’s keep in touch!

  • Subscribe to the EU-Belong Newsletter
  • Contact: Birgit Sandu, EU-Belong Project Manager, [email protected]
Greetings from..
…the warmly cold Salzburg!

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Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences: First Online Capacity-building Session for Regions and Local Stakeholders

14 September, 2022 By Birgit Sandu

What is interculturalism and how do we support the development of intercultural competences among regions and their stakeholders?

 

Intercultural Competence is what allows for a person to be able to navigate comfortably in complex intercultural settings. Accordingly, to the European Commission (2007), it means combining skills, attitudes, abilities, and knowledge to face, act and intervene effectively and appropriately in a variety of contexts, where cultural, socio-economic, ethnic, and other lines intersect and can lead to situations of intercultural conflict that can, in turn, damage social cohesion.

A person is considered interculturally competent if he/she can successfully communicate and relate with people from other cultural backgrounds. It means mobilizing external and internal resources and it is something that can always be developed and improved throughout our lives.  Deardoff (2006) defines it as the ability to develop targeted knowledge, skills and attitudes that lead to visible behavior and communication that are both effective and appropriate in intercultural interactions.

 

The EU-BELONG team is ready to kick-start its ambitious process of empowering regions and their stakeholders to develop innovative integration strategies for the first time applying the intercultural approach. As first step, regional decision-makers, civil servants and local stakeholder will build knowledge in intercultural integration concepts and foster key intercultural competences that will be applied throughout and beyond the project.

The first online capacity-building session will be held on 6th October 2022 from 10 to 12:30 CET focusing on ‘Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences’. The session is addressed at the 11 regions of the project and 20 civil servants and/or local stakeholders from each region.  It aims at fostering an understanding of what is interculturalism and what are its key principles, how we can build an intercultural region step-by-step and how to develop an intercultural strategy. Lastly, the session will provide guidance on how to develop and organise a large-scale training on intercultural competences to support the regions throughout the implementation of their capacity-building programmes.


Structure and Programme

Trainer: Carla Calado, Coordinator of the Portuguese Intercultural Cities Network

Language: English

Participants: EU-BELONG partners, 20 stakeholders/local and regional civil servants from each region, experts working with the regions on the organisation of the capacity-building session, members of the Intercultural Regions Network


10:00 – 10:15 Welcoming words

  • Marina Medarić, AER Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity & Equality
  • Nichola Howson, Directorate General of Democracy Anti-Discrimination Department of the Council of Europe

10:15 – 10:45  Presentation and Ice Breaker

10:45-11:30h       Interculturalism

  • Definition of Interculturalism
  • Principles of Interculturalism
  • Ethnocentrism VS Relativism
  • The intercultural region step-by-step: assessment, building a strategy, implementing, and evaluating actions, connection to city strategies (examples from cities regarding housing, education, culture, labour, tourism, public spaces, etc.)

11:30 – Ice Breaker

11:45-12:15h    Intercultural competence training

  • Definition of Intercultural Competence
  • Why is Intercultural competence training important?
  • How does it look like in practice?
  • General recommendation for large-scale training. The blended learning approach (pros and cons).

12:15 – 12:30    Q&A and final remarks


Additional resources for exploration:

  • ICC Intercultural Citizenship test: Intercultural Citizenship Test (coe.int)
  • Online courses:
  • Diversity and Inclusion – AKF | The Learning Hub (akflearninghub.org): send an email to an automatic email will be sent to you via “the learning hub” platform with instructions. The course takes 90m to watch and it is divided into small lessons (3 to 4 min each)
  • ICC Course – The intercultural city step-by-step Survey (surveymonkey.com): this course does not need previous enrolment
  • Resources in ICC website in the dedicated page: Thematic papers (coe.int)

If you are interested in participating, please contact Birgit Sandu  ([email protected]), or Anna Comacchio ([email protected]).


EU-Belong is a 3-year project run by the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and 13 partners, and co-funded by the AMIF Programme (AMIF-2020-AG-CALL) of the European Union. Its aim is to support the adoption of innovative and pioneering regional integration strategies, based on a multi-level and multi-stakeholder framework that, for the first time, applies the intercultural approach to Regions as a key-player for the successful integration of third-country nationals.

How To Foster An Intercultural Approach To Education & Training- Highlights From Includ-EU Webinar

4 July, 2022 By Anna Comacchio

On 24 May 2022, AER organised, within the framework of the Includ-EU project and in cooperation with IOM (International Organisation for Migration), the 5th and last webinar on the series that looked into the 4 areas tackled by the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion (2021-2027), namely Education and Training, Employment, Access to Health, and adequate and affordable housing.

It is by no chance that Education and Training are on top of the list, as they are considered as a pre-condition and the key enabler of social inclusion and empowerment encompassing all other areas of Inclusion (together with housing, the most tangible and thus need and also very high on the European agenda).

That is why a firm commitment of IOM, as underlined by Emanuela di Paola (Integration and Technical Cooperation Unit, IOM, Coordination Office for the Mediterranean) in the opening, is to engage the youth to become driver of social inclusion through education (formal, non-formal and informal). 

Students who are well integrated into the education system, have more chances to be active and reach their full potential. Not only, “when young people given responsibility, are empowered and encouraged to take ownership, they can also be catalysts of innovation and creativity”, continues Emanuela.

But learning cannot stop with the end of the traditional education path and the inclusion in an insatiable rapid-changing labour market. In particular, lifelong learning opportunities and the possibility to upskill and reskill are key to creating the right environment for migrants (young and adults) to arrive in a host country and be able to take up new job opportunities, which reflect the needs of the national/local specificities. 

And in this regard what can be done at the local and regional levels is really make this integration happen, with a series of approaches and initiatives which capitalises on local strengths/ specificities and existing initiatives, as reported by Bruno Mesquita Valle, (Chief of Unit, Capacity Development and Field Support, UNESCO) when presenting the UNESCO mapping of host countries’ education responses to the influx of Ukrainian students, a living exercise to help circulating information and practices.

Still, it is important to identify challenges that are common all over Europe, and draw and recommendations that can benefit different contexts.

Specifically, Eleonora Milazzo (PhD, researcher and migration policy consultant, Kings College London) presented during the webinar the thematic briefing on Access to Education, addressing the key question on how to make education more accessible and inclusive for all. 

Here are the key recommendations:

  • Expand further Intercultural capacity building and teachers training so that all staff receives specific training on how to engage students from culturally diverse backgrounds (ex. School for All, Greece); but also, as highlighted by Ourania Xylouri, Director, Athens Lifelong Learning Institute, Greece Schools for inclusion: integrated way across the curriculum (methology, guidelines and toolbox): How to turn an ordinary school into an intercultural school.
  • Improve Language training in the host countries to make it available from an early stage and capitalising on the existing language skills ( ex. Online tool MyRO, Romania);
  • Build reciprocal trust to avoid that TNC are stigmatized and isolated from the rest of the learning community through Peer2Peer support and mentoring initiatives (ex. Mentorship, Italy);
  • Develop Intercultural Skills of students and families, making sure TNCs can acquire education system and administrative services;
  • Address specific needs for disadvantaged groups to improve greater representation.

A great example comes from Jesenice, Slovenia Adult Education Centre managed by Maja Radinovič Hajdič

Lack of digital skills is one of the greatest barriers for migrants to join different activities and learning and job opportunities, so the centre creates a targeted and tailored capacity-building programme to enable the participants to enhance their Slovene language and digital skills, gain better understanding of online public services in the local environment and strengthen their social network.

Maya states that to achieve this counselling is very important and that no person is entering the programme without counselling. After the pre-assessment of skills, and the definition of the programme, individual Counselling and other support is offered also throughout the whole programme.

[Watch the video dedicated to The Adult Education Centre Jesenice’s pilot project and Murisa’s experience!]

The importance of individual counselling blends well with the final takeaway that comes from Maria Podlasek-Ziegler (Policy Specialist at European Commission: Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps Inclusion and Diversity Strategy). 

One key learning from the thousands of Erasmus projects, she highlights, is that is more and more important to focus on the individual, and tailor-needs of learners and not exclusively on specific target groups. [Read the full study report Data collection and analysis of Erasmus + projects. Focus on inclusion in education here].

There are different personalities and different needs to be addressed with tailored-based interventions, stresses also Irene Psfidou (Senior Expert, CEDEFOP).

Background, gender, student well-being as well as aspiration, skills, and personal attitude of individual learners are crucial to take into account to fulfil one’s potential. That’s why policies should work to create equal conditions for all. 

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Includ-EU and the Agenda 2030- Two Days of Exchange at the Heart of Europe

26 November, 2021 By Anna Comacchio

On 28-29 October, the INCLUD-EU Project held its Second Regional Workshop in a series of 5 thematic sessions facilitating knowledge sharing and discussing the design of Includ-EU pilot projects, as well as other integration policies and projects carried out across Europe. 

The Workshop happened in a hybrid format within the framework of the Agenda 2030 Conference, which took place in Strasbourg and online, and in partnership with Region Grand Est and the City of Strasbourg.

On the morning of the 29, after the opening of Ms Rabab Ahmad, Policy and Programme Analyst (IOM), participants were welcomed by our facilitator, Mr Abram el-Sabagh (Design for Impact) and encouraged to share a picture telling the story of why they got into migration and integration, as a way of breaking the ice and setting a cosy atmosphere for the rest of the dy.

The focus of the Includ- EU project workshop –Day 1- was “Rethinking services & raising awareness on design in shaping more sustainable services”

Consortium partners from SocioLab, represented by Ms Silvia Givone and supported by Anci Toscana (National Association of Italian Municipalities-Tuscany) held a presentation of how Service Design methods helped them Co-design workshops for the mutual re-definition of pathways and networking models among Job Centers and managing organizations of reception centers.  In particular, the  Identification with a “typical-user” and the modelling the process through which the user comes into contact with the services allow them to carry out an analysis and confrontation on difficulties/emotions of front line workers and service providers.

In the second half of the morning, Ms Johanna Pacevicius (AER) introduced a revamped “marketplace”, which put the focus not so much on the presentations of the good practices as such but rather on the collective intelligence for mutual learning that could be capitalised from all the expert participants in the workshop. In other words, all participants were actively involved in the discussion of challenges encountered by the two presenters and offered their counsel, expertise and help to answer questions raised by Ms Sofia Luis (IOM), who introduced us “The Migrant Women & Girls Toolbox, City of Luxembourg (Equalcity Project)”; and  Ms Alessia Rochira (Unisalento), who spoke about their research project on “Culture Brokers: when integration is made by the youngest” (Regin Project).  As a way of example, in the second scenario, questions such as “What are the possible effects of this linguistic and cultural mediation activity for young immigrants and for the reciprocal relationships they establish with their families and schools?” and “What are the possible effects on family relationships?” were lively discussed by participants who had at times contrasting ideas on whether ​​young immigrants can carry out a more formal activity of linguistic and cultural mediation on behalf of their parents. Eventually, many tips and resources were shared, thus certainly enriching the base for the research project carried out by Alessia and her team.

The afternoon study visit of the urban project Deux-Rives was very interesting for participants.  “In the EcoQuartier Danube, we appreciated not only the architectural form of the complex and the connection with the river, but also the functional mix: the homes (for sale or rent), the co-designed cohousing, the residence for vulnerable groups (senior housing, supported housing for mental health patient), the beautiful wooden playground, the common vegetables garden  (with farm animals!), schools and spaces for social activities.”, shared Ms Giulia Maraviglia, an onsite participant from Social Lab in Tuscany.

She went on explaining how in the nearby Presqu’île Malraux the contemporary architecture dialogues with the industrial heritage to form a suggestive water landscape. “The docks, buildings in search of a new identity, have been transformed in a lively media library and a fablab/coworking.” In Strasbourg, Giulia saw the materialization of the housing community-building processes that are being similarly developed in the metropolitan area of Florence, her city in Italy, through the project “Abito in community“.

On Day 2, a much more concise but still very practical workshop was held. For this occasion, the IncludEU project partnered up with the Council of Europe. The subject was one raised and felt by many, in previous webinars of the project, namely how to counteract hate speech,  which is an increasing threat to human rights and democracy.

The workshop dealt with important questions such as: How can we define and tackle Hate Speech and what can we do to stop it? Can regional authorities help to protect the most vulnerable groups of society such as the migrant population? 

At first, Ms Irena Guidikova, Head of Inclusion and Anti discrimination programmes at the Council of Europe introduced the complexities of defining hate speech and finding the right and effective response. Then, our guest speaker, Ms Julia Mozer, Communication & Policy Officer at CEJI office, gave a brilliant overview on tools to counterstrike Hate Speech and “drive out the hate out with a positive message that is constructive and can engage the audience”.

She additionally provided useful links and online resources such as: http://facingfacts.eu, http://facingfactsonline.eu, and https://coe.int/en/web/inclusion-and-antidiscrimination/wecan4hrs, and concluded with a hope of further collaboration with the project, perhaps in form of more in-depth training.

As the objective of the Agenda 2030 Conference was to show and reiterate the key role that regions play alongside cities, in facilitating the transformation required to realistically implement and achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, our workshop was successful in demonstrating how inclusion and integration have to be indeed understood as integrated and mainstreamed into many (if not all) of other goals, in particular gender equality, affordable housing, quality education and reduce inequalities.

With Includ-EU, we are looking forward to the next workshop and we encourage you all to follow Facebook and Twitter page, as well as to visit the newly launched website at includeu.eu. We would also like to thank those of you who participated and made the workshop possible (at last also in person!), and we are always happy to hear suggestions for the next content focus and presentations!

Please contact [email protected] for any question/request.

Includ-EU, financed by the AMIF Programme (DG Home, European Commission), aims to contribute to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing transnational knowledge and experience sharing, cooperation and partnerships between local and regional authorities from Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

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Not Just Another Workshop: Looking Back at the Includ-EU First Regional Peer-2-Peer Learning

10 July, 2021 By Anna Comacchio

The project in a nutshell: The Includ-EU Project is funded by the European Union’s AMIF– Asylum Migration and Integration Fund Programme and aims at enhancing regional and local expertise with engagement of social cohesion in Europe. In this workshop, we brought together representatives from all the different countries involved in the project: Italy, Greece, Spain, Romania, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

Setting the Scene.

We live in an increasingly complex society. There are no easy solutions or easy answers to the many challenges we are facing today, and the ones presented by migration, integration and inclusion are no exception. Policies and service designers must make sure these mirror the complexity of realities around us.

That is why our first Includ-EU Regional Workshop focused not on discussing solutions, but analysing and sharing problems and challenges in our ever-changing Europe, in a collaborative way, and with peer-to-peer dialogue.

The past few months have been challenging for all of us. The restrictions affected our work and social cohesion, especially for migrants but there are a few lessons learned that we can bring with us and that can help improve the near-future situation, and in light of new  unpredictable crises.

In her opening speech Geertrui Lanneau, Senior Regional Labour Mobility and Human Development Specialist, at International Organization for Migration (IOM), reminded us how migration is still very high on the European Agenda  with the EU pact on migration and asylum passed last year and followed by the EU action plan on integration.

At the same time, she stressed how it is not the EU that finally implements the integration action, but the Member States, and  in particular, the local and regional levels are the centre stage. 

Geertrui Lanneau, Day 1

It is with this mind that we feel that with our project we can make a difference through the exchange of practices, region-by-region tailored SWOT analyses and especially with the pilot projects to be tested and implemented in the different member states.

Alas, also this time the consortium and associated partners didn’t have the chance to meet in person, but even virtually, we had an extraordinary time and opportunities to exchange our experiences. In particular, we collectively brainstormed around new challenges raised by the pandemic as well as old challenges that the pandemic might have exacerbated, both in the way we work and provide services, and in the way migrants and vulnerable communities would interact with the community.

The fact that all participants had experienced similar challenges, had seen similar opportunities and learned similar lessons despite the different geographical contexts, was very surprising and helped create a warm atmosphere of collaboration that lasted throughout the workshop, which lasted 2 days, and it felt a very special and unique moment!

The visual result of our peer-learning exercise on Mural, Day 1

Let Your Imagination Soar!

Before getting into the second part of the first day of the workshop, we did a quick icebreaker activity, where we split in 3 teams of five, and each group took 5 minutes in separate breakout rooms to brainstorm together and draw 50 apples, with only one applicable condition: ALL THE APPLES MUST BE DIFFERENT.

It was hilarious and mind-opening at the same time to see how different groups came out with absolutely different ideas, stories, concepts, or how they decided to devote their time: some shared memories associated with apples while others exchanged about different way to say “apple mus” in different languages, but fun fact: none of the teams reached the 50 apples goal. 

In short, this exercise tells it all about the very purpose of the workshop itself, meaning it is not about the destination, and focusing on solutions, but about the journey and what you learn along the way.

Becoming familiar with design for change

In the second session of the day, we worked together with Abram El-Sabagh, a service designer and the founder of Design for Impact, who led us through some exercises and discussion on good service designing, while sharing his own personal journey.

“It was in mid-2019 when I realised I could spend less time working, and more time helping others create impact.

The truth is it was a difficult decision. My day job is about using Design to create impact. I’ve been able to travel around the world to places as far as Marshall Islands, Kenya, China, and Bhutan. All to help coach others and build their ability to create positive impact using Design. But something was missing.

I had experienced what it was like working alongside others who genuinely want to make our world a better place, and there is no feeling like it. It’s euphoric.”

“No passion to be found in playing small”

Innovation Systems are extremely complex, Abram goes on explaining, as there are many different components and they all interact together. Imagine for a moment the healthcare system for instance:  How many hospitals and doctors are there only in your area?

Another thing to keep in consideration is that experiences regarding the system depend on each one’s different pathway. In healthcare, the experience will change depending on which doctor I talked to, which disease or illness you have, to mention only a few variants.

Migration is of course, a very complex system affecting real people who are facing real challenges.

It is easy to read 10 books about system change and design, but it is harder to apply all the theories that you learn in real life. Abram explained how his path led him to go into the field, talk  and interact with different people from many professional and social backgrounds, rather than keep learning on his own. Eventually, he gathered more and more skills that are useful to design services and testing powerful ideas, until he was skilled enough to lead his own project.

KEY CONCEPTS OF DESIGNING SERVICES IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS

If a 1.5 hours session couldn’t of course cover and teach participants hard and soft skills harnessed through years of experience and exercise, Abram gave us the key concepts needed to start understanding how to create change thanks to design.

He touched upon many concepts, but few of them resonated particularly among the participants.

Emergence is one key concept in complex systems that is worth explaining, as  it means that because of the complexity and the many actors involved, one cannot predict behaviour, or be sure of what will happen before you test an idea and that’s why it is therefore important to test hypotheses.

As a consequence, running parallel fail-safe experiments and interacting with the system is the only way we can truly understand it.

When running an experiment, it is important to test behaviours and not intentions, as many times these intentions do not translate into behaviour (just think about your new year’s eve resolutions..).


A final concept to keep in mind in testing hypotheses  is that correlation does not equal causation -although these two often get mistaken- meaning that just because two things correlate does not necessarily mean that one causes the other.

Main takeaways from day 1

The big finale of day 1 came with an interactive exercise where participants were asked to design, in teams, a new policy or service to help people get vaccinated.

The special feature of the exercise was the identification of the team members with multi-level stakeholders, meaning that each team member represented a different perspective and therefore brought an additional value to the co-creation process.

Each team formed several hypotheses around why a specific cohort of people (migrants over 50 rather than young people living in the periphery) are not getting vaccinated enough and generated experiments to test each hypothesis.

What did participants learn?

Mainly 2 things came up from the different teams:

  1. You need to involve many people, not just the usual suspects. 
  1. It is important not just to co-design services in a participative way but we should also aim to co-create and co-decide on a political level. It is essential to cooperate at all stages of a project or process, “ If you want to go far, go together”.

All in all, we can safely and happily conclude that by reflecting on the challenges the pandemic created or worsened, speakers and participants shared their concerns around the needs of their regions, but also injected optimism in the future on integration and inclusion, while giving us reasons to believe that design and multi-stakeholders approaches can be powerful tools for creating sustainable and innovative services, solutions and policies.

Angelique Petrits with some of the participants, day 2

DAY 2 -Good Practices and Hard-won Wisdom through the Includ-EU Marketplace

After the insightful and comprehensive presentation by Ms Angelique Petrits  (DG Home, European Commission) on the new Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion (2021-27) and its 4 key areas -Education, Employment, Health, Housing-, the morning of Day 2 continued with a dynamic market-place exercise.

Here different regions and municipalities presented their own future strategy for integration, but showcased good practices and successful projects from the past programming period. We are happy to share here all presentations which are available below for you to browse.

Strategy on Migration, Valencia

Pilot experience of community sponsorship in the reception and integration of migrants, Valencia, Spain

Regional Plan for the socio-economic integration of TNCs, with focus on COMMIT Project, Tuscany, Italy

Project School for Adults, Jesenice, Slovenia

Integration Strategy, Cluj Napoca, Romania

Project Murcia Acoje (Welcoming Murcia), Spain

For more information, contact: [email protected]

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Active Participation & Social Inclusion To Harness The Diversity Advantage

23 February, 2021 By Valeria Simonte

On 16th February 2021, the Assembly of European Regions in cooperation with IOM and the Intercultural Regions Network hosted the webinar “Intercultural regions: Active Participation & Social Inclusion“.
This was the third webinar co-organised within the framework of the Includ-EU project which works towards building more inclusive and cohesive European Societies.

Intercultural interaction at the core of positive diversity management

Policies and practices that foster intercultural interaction and inclusion are instrumental in enabling cities and regions to manage diversity positively. This third webinar focused on regional and local experiences facilitating migrant’s active participation and social inclusion.

Political will, effective methodologies, a learning environment

The webinar, which was moderated by Irena Guidikova, Head of Division of the Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Programmes at the Council of Europe, presented different experiences of the pivotal role of regions in building inclusive and welcoming communities, where no one is left behind.
Ms. Guidikova highlighted the slow evolution of concepts around migration, from the assimilation approach, which considered that individuals had to completely conform to the host society without the latter changing in any way and where all efforts were aimed at avoiding change, to the intercultural approach, in which aims cities and regions strive to become more inclusive and to harness the diversity advantage.

To this aim, the Intercultural Cities Network, which brings together over 140 cities in Europe and beyond, developed a variety of tools and methodologies as well as a mutual learning environment for cities. This inspired the creation of the Intercultural Regions Network, led by the Council of Europe and the Assembly of European Regions.

Are all animals equal?

Conny Brännberg, co-chair of the Intercultural Regions Network at the Regional minister of culture in Västra Götaland (SE), started his intervention citing George Orwell and asking whether in Europe some may be more equal than others. Building intercultural and cohesive regions can only be achieved by truly treating people equally.

The EU Action Plan: Lessons learned and upcoming changes

Angeliki Petrits, Policy Officer at the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs – DG HOME of the European Commission provided an overview of the main actions & principles underpinning the new EU Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion (2021-2027), built upon the lessons learned from the previous EU Action Plan.

In this context, the sectoral areas of actions regard:

  • Inclusive education and training, meaning better equipment for multicultural classrooms, as well as an easier recognition of qualifications and continued language learning.
  • Improving job opportunities and skills recognition by bringing together different labour market partners, and facilitating the assessment of migrant’ skills, especially for women.
  • Promoting access to health services, while ensuring that people are informed about their rights, and recognise the specific challenges faced by women.
  • Provide adequate housing, through the EU funding opportunities and the boost of mutual learning, both at the national and local level.

Ms. Petrits, underlined the importance of reinforcing strong multi-stakeholder partnerships of cooperation, as well as supporting the use of digital tools for integration and inclusion through the EU funding opportunities.

Overcoming barriers

Have you ever heard about quality social contact?

Jobst Koehler, Senior Integration & Migrant Training Specialist at the International Organisation for Migration – IOM, presented different solutions to overcome social barriers to integration and thus achieve a quality social engagement.

Understanding the possible targeted solutions to overcome the different barriers to participation is pivotal to address the latter. Whether they are individual, social, or institutional barriers Mr. Koehler stressed the importance of collective experiences and a social mix of activities, which combined with local communities’ communication around integration can influence the perception of host and migrant communities and helps to defeat the barriers to participation.

Experiences from the regions

The webinar presented two experiences from the regions:

Catalonia: community involvement at the core

Arancha Garcia Fresneda, the representative from the Secretariat for Equality, Migration, and Citizenship of the Government of Catalonia provided a quick overview of the activities implemented with migrant communities whose main features are cross-cutting approach, consensus, intergovernmental coordination and cooperation, and dialogue with civil society. In this context, Ms. Fresneda presented the activities carried out by the Association EAMISS – Equipo de Atención y de Mediación Intercultural y Socio sanitaria whose president is Jossie Rocafort.

Ms. Rocafort explained the strong presence of the Filipino community in the region and how their potential contribution to the development of an integrated society is hindered by the lack of communication with social services, among other challenges. In this context, the EAMISS Association aims to combine internal and external services to raise awareness within the community, among which language courses, social and legal assistance, as well as more activities aimed at boosting gender equality through the recognition of women’s rights.

The University of Padua & the Mentorship project

A very successful local example is the mentorship project organised by IOM to ease the inclusion process of TCNs in Italian universities by implementing peer to peer support scheme. In this mentorship programme implemented at the University of Padova, student committees are supporting foreign students’ integration by providing them with administrative, academic and social support.
Elena Tubertini, a Tutor and Team coordinator in the Mentorship project, presented the work they carry out, as well as the results of a mapping exercise to analyse needs and barriers of foreign students currently studying at the University of Padova.

Wrap-up & next steps

The event provided both insights on the barriers to active participation and examples of approaches and practices which improve active participation and inclusion.

The Includ-EU website will be launched in Summer, where anyone will be able to provide good practices & foster mutual learning.

Regions interested in joining the Intercultural Regions Network should contact Vania Freitas – [email protected]

Watch backClick here
AgendaClick here to download
Handouts Angeliki Petrits –  DG HOME – The Action Plan on Integration & Inclusion 2021-2027
 Jobst Koehler – IOM – Barriers to Participation
 Jossie Rocafort – Catalonia – Equipo de Atención y de Mediación Intercultural Sociosanitaria, EAMISS
 Elena Tubertini – University of Padua – Mentorship Project 2020/2021
Contact[email protected]

This webinar is organised in the context of INCLUD-EU, an EU project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration fund (AMIF) which contributes to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing knowledge, driving innovation, and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union. To know more about the project, visit the project webpage, and consult this info sheet.

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Intercultural Regions: Active Participation & Social Inclusion

26 January, 2021 By Valeria Simonte

On 16 February AER will organise a webinar on how regions can foster active participation & social inclusion of third-country nationals for better integration policies and practices, together with IOM and the Council of Europe

Mutual learning to foster integration policies & best practices

Regional and local authorities are at the forefront when it comes to addressing integration needs in practice. It is therefore particularly important to create opportunities for structured and meaningful mutual learning on integration. This will enable regional and local authorities to share good practices and improve policies and practices.

Participation & Inclusion for Cohesion and Economy

Organised in the framework of the Includ-EU project, an EU-funded project which contributes to building more inclusive societies by enhancing knowledge and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union, this third webinar will focus on active participation & social inclusion.

Policies and practices that foster intercultural interaction and inclusion are instrumental in enabling cities and regions to manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage. This webinar will therefore focus on regional and local experiences facilitating migrant’s active participation and social inclusion.

This event will be facilitated by the Council of Europe and will feature practices identified in some of the countries involved in the Project (Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain). DG HOME will provide an overview on measures promoting active participation, especially in the decision-making process, as per the new EU priorities included in the updated Action Plan.

This webinar is organised in the framework of the Includ-EU project, in close collaboration with the Intercultural Regions Network. The Intercultural Regions Network is a platform for regions to share knowledge, resources, and experiences to promote intercultural integration at the regional level, which is based on the experience and tools of the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities Network.

This event will be recorded. By registering for this event, you agree to allow the Includ-EU consortium to publish the recording online and use it for the promotion of the project, capacity building, and mutual learning.

Register here

Includ-EU is funded by the European Union’s Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). The project runs from January 2020 to December 2022 and involves the following partners: The International Organization for Migration, the Assembly of European Region, the Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani Sez. Reg. Toscana (IT), the City of Tilburg (NL), the Secretariat for Equality, Migrations, and Citizenship of Catalonia (ES), and the Region of Crete (GR).

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Intercultural Regions: Active Participation & Social Inclusion

25 January, 2021 By Valeria Simonte

We are pleased to invite you to a webinar on how regions can foster active participation & social inclusion of third-country nationals, together with IOM and the Council of Europe

 

When? 16 February 2021 10:00 CET
Where? Gotowebinar

 

Organised in the framework of the Includ-EU project, an EU-funded project which contributes to building more inclusive societies by enhancing knowledge and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union, this third webinar will focus on active participation & social inclusion.

Policies and practices that foster intercultural interaction and inclusion are instrumental in enabling cities and regions to manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage. This webinar will therefore focus on regional and local experiences facilitating migrant’s active participation and social inclusion.

This event will be facilitated by the Council of Europe and will feature practices identified in some of the countries involved in the Project (Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain). DG HOME will provide an overview on measures promoting active participation, especially in the decision-making process, as per the new EU priorities included in the updated Action Plan.

This webinar is organised in the framework of the Includ-EU project, in close collaboration with the Intercultural Regions Network. The Intercultural Regions Network is a platform for regions to share knowledge, resources, and experiences to promote intercultural integration at the regional level, which is based on the experience and tools of the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities Network.

This event will be recorded. By registering for this event, you agree to allow the Includ-EU consortium to publish the recording online and use it for the promotion of the project, capacity building, and mutual learning. 

Watch back!  Click here!
Agenda  Click here to download
Handouts Angeliki Petrits –  DG HOME – The Action Plan on Integration & Inclusion 2021-2027

 Jobst Koehler – IOM – Barriers to Participation

 Jossie Rocafort – Catalonia – Equipo de Atención y de Mediación Intercultural Sociosanitaria, EAMISS

 Elena Tubertini – University of Padua – Mentorship Project 2020/2021

Contact [email protected]

Includ-EU is funded by the European Union’s Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). The project runs from January 2020 to December 2022 and involves the following partners: The International Organization for Migration, the Assembly of European Region, the Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani Sez. Reg. Toscana (IT), the City of Tilburg (NL), the Secretariat for Equality, Migrations, and Citizenship of Catalonia (ES), and the Region of Crete (GR).

Intercultural Regions: Improving Labour Market Inclusion

24 November, 2020 By Valeria Simonte

On November 10th, the Assembly of European Regions in cooperation with IOM and the Intercultural Regions Network hosted the webinar “Intercultural regions: improving labour market inclusion“. This was the second webinar co-organised within the framework of Includ-EU project which works towards building more inclusive and cohesive European Societies.

The webinar, which was moderated by Geertrui Lanneau, Senior Regional Labour Mobility and Human Development Specialist from the IOM Regional Office for the European Economic Area, the European Union and NATO, presented different experiences on how regions work to improve labour market integration policies and provided insights from IOM, and the European Commission.

Multistakeholder approach to support cultural diversity

Fereshteh Jalayer-Hess, co-chair of the Intercultural Regions Network, County Councillor of Värmland (SE) opened the webinar by sharing her personal experience of escaping a totalitarian regime and embracing a society which tolerates and appreciates cultural diversity.

The Intercultural Regions Network, she explained, is all about cultural diversity and encouraging all levels of government to better coordinate and adopt an intercultural approach. In this context, the multistakeholder approach is key to achieve a society where all inhabitants are included and given the chance to contribute and develop.

Ms. Jalayer-Hess explained how lowering barriers for the access to the labour market is instrumental in delivering on other objectives such as improved education, active participation, political engagement and social cohesion. The Intercultural Regions Network, provides teherfore a platform for regions to share knowledge resources, experiences.

Upcoming changes at EU level

Antoine Savary, Deputy Head of Unit, DG HOME, European Commission, provided the latest development in the field of integration of migrants in the labour market, announcing that on 24 November the European Commission is going to adopt the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion.

This Action Plan will focus on inclusion as a whole instead of focusing on migration specifically. It lays out two key commitments in the area of integration: 

  1. Adopt a comprehensive Action Plan on integration and inclusion for 2021-2024;
  2. Implement the renewed European Partnership for Integration with social and economic
    partners and look into expanding the future cooperation to the area of labour migration.

The Action Plan on integration and inclusion for 2021-2024 will:

  • provide strategic guidance and set out concrete actions to foster inclusion of migrants and broader social cohesion;
  • bring together relevant stakeholders and recognise that regional and local actors have a key part to play;
  • draw on all relevant policies and tools in key areas such as social inclusion, employment, education, health, equality, culture and sport, setting out how migrant integration should be part of efforts to achieve the EU’s goals on each;
  • ensure migrants fully benefit from the European Pillar of Social Rights;
  • recognise in its actions that people with a migrant background often face similar integration challenges to third-country nationals;
  • directly support those active ‘on the ground’ and cover the full range of measures needed to accompany migrants and their families along the path to successful integration and social inclusion.

Mr. Savary stressed the importance of the partnership of cooperation with local and regional authorities in the preparation, implementation, and revision of the programme.

Experiences from the regions

The webinar presented three experiences from the regions

The Netherlands: a one stop shop for smoother integration pathways

Iris de Kok, Policy Advisor Asylum & Integration – City of Tilburg, presented the evolution of integration processes in the City of Tilburg. The new legislation to come into force in July 2021, allows a procedure where each migrant is guided throughout the program in order to make it easier to get familiar with the municipality they are living in. This approach combines the three-elements of participation activities, skills training, and language courses in order to enable migrants to be self-reliant.

This broader and interactive programme is developed in three phases:

Phase 1 – IntakeAn early-stage to choose the direction of integration, to understand talents & skills
Phase 2 – OrientationPractical and tailored approach with a Personal Integration Plan which stipulates the route for the Dutch labour market
Phase 3 – Work & Skills routeThe participative part were migrants actually work within the Dutch labour market

Greece: support towards self-reliance

Kostas Kousaxidis & Anastasia Arapidou, from IOM Greece, shared the example of the HELIOS project – Hellenic Integration Support for Beneficiaries of International Protection. It aims at increasing the beneficiaries’ self-reliance working on five areas of integration:

Integration coursesHELIOS provides courses at Integration Learning Centres (ILCs) on the Greek language and soft skills.
Accommodation supportHELIOS helps beneficiaries of international protection to find accommodations by providing economic contributions and through networking with apartment owners
Employability supportIndividual job counseling is provided to acknowledge strengths and weaknesses and prepare the Career Action Plan
Integration monitoringAssessment of the integration process to valuate the self-reliance of the migrant once the program ends
Sensitisation of the host communityThrough initiatives and activities, the interactions between the migrants and the host communities bring value to the integration process

Italy: the experience from the business sector

Several sectors of the labour market suffer from a shortage of skilled labour, especially in the informatics sector. In this context, Roberto Strocco, Head of Projects and Local Development Area, Unioncamere Piemonte presented the MATCH project – Migration of African Talents through the Capacity-building and Hiring is a 36‑month initiative funded by the European Union (EU) aimed at providing highly skilled talents from Senegal and Nigeria, where the IT, engineering and new technologies workforce is highly qualified, to private sector companies whose needs for qualified staff cannot be satisfied by the offer available on the EU labour market.

What can be done further?

Labour market integration is not only essential to migrants, but also to receiving societies: it reduces the costs to the welfare system, and ultimately the cost of the asylum system. Some of the barriers to the labour market highlighted during the session constitute a challenge, such as languages, and cultural differences, which can marginalise migrants. The recognition of qualifications was identified as a major obstacle to labour market integration. A stronger collaboration between both private an public stakeholders is needed for better results.

Next steps

The next webinar will be organised in March 2021 and will focus on active participation and social inclusion.

Regions interested in joining the Intercultural Regions Network should contact Vania Freitas [email protected]

This webinar is organised in the context of INCLUD-EU, an EU project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration fund (AMIF) which contributes to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing knowledge, driving innovation, and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union. To know more about the project, visit the project webpage, and consult this info sheet.

Watch back Click here
AgendaClick here to download
HandoutsInclud-EU infosheet
City of Tilburg Netherlands
HELIOS project Greece
Click to discoverCorporate Social Responsibility Strategy
Unioncamere Piemonte homepage
MATCH project Piemonte
(in Italian)
Contact[email protected]

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Intercultural Regions: Improving Labour Market Inclusion

19 October, 2020 By Valeria Simonte

We are pleased to invite you to a webinar on how regions can improve labor market integration policies and practices, with examples from different regions and insights from IOM and the European Commission.

 

Organized in the framework of the Includ-EU project, an EU-funded project which contributes to building more inclusive societies by enhancing knowledge and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union, this second webinar will focus on labour market integration.

Migrants’ labour integration is crucial not only to ensure cohesion in society but also to address skills gaps, labour shortages, and to boost economic performance overall, and regional and local authorities are at the forefront in addressing integration needs in practice.

The Covid-19 pandemic has strongly tested systems in place, revealing tremendous needs but also the resourcefulness that exists at local and regional levels. This shows how essential it is to create opportunities for structured and meaningful mutual learning on integration to enable regional and local authorities to share good practices and improve policies and practices.

 

The webinar will take place on November 10th at 14:00 CET

This webinar is organized in the framework of the Includ-EU project, in close collaboration with the Intercultural Regions Network. The Intercultural Regions Network is a platform for regions to share knowledge, resources, and experiences to promote intercultural integration at regional level.

This event will be recorded. By registering for this event, you agree to allow the Includ-EU consortium to publish the recording online and use it for the promotion of the project, capacity building, and mutual learning. 

 

Watch back CLICK HERE
Agenda Click here to download
Handouts Includ-EU infosheet
City of Tilburg Netherlands
HELIOS project Greece
Click to discover Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy
Unioncamere Piemonte homepage
MATCH project Piemonte
(in Italian)
Contact [email protected]

 


Includ-EU is funded by the European Union’s Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). The project runs from January 2020 to December 2022 and involves the following partners: The International Organization for Migration, the Assembly of European Region, the Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani Sez. Reg. Toscana (IT), the City of Tilburg (NL), the Secretariat for Equality, Migrations and Citizenship of Catalonia (ES) and the Region of Crete (GR).

Webinar on Improving Labour Market Inclusion: save the date!

19 October, 2020 By Valeria Simonte

We are pleased to invite you to a webinar on how regions can improve labour market integration policies and practices, with examples from different regions and insights from IOM and the European Commission

When? Tuesday November 10th 2020, 14:00-15:00 CET
Where? GoToWebinar

Mutual Learning to improve policies and share good practices

Regional and local authorities are at the forefront when it comes to addressing integration needs in practice. The Covid-19 pandemic has strongly tested systems in place, revealing tremendous needs but also the resourcefulness which exists at local and regional levels. This shows how essential it is to create opportunities for structured and meaningful mutual learning on integration in order to enable regional and local authorities to share good practices and improve policies and practices.

Integration & Social Inclusion for Cohesion and Economy

The webinar on 10 November will focus on labour market integration. The integration and social inclusion of migrants are crucial not only to ensure cohesion in society but also to address skills gaps, labor shortages, and to boost economic performance overall. The webinar will feature regional good practices as well as a presentation on upcoming changes in the new EU programming period and what this means for regions. At a moment when the Multi-Annual Financial Framework is being negotiated, it will be particularly timely to hear about upcoming changes in funding.

This webinar is organised in the framework of the Includ-EU project, in close collaboration with the Intercultural Regions Network. The Intercultural Regions Network is a platform for regions to share knowledge, resources, and experiences to promote intercultural integration at regional level.

This event will be recorded. By registering for this event, you agree to allow the Includ-EU consortium to publish the recording online and use it for the promotion of the project, capacity building, and mutual learning.


This webinar is organised in the context of INCLUD-EU, an EU project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration fund (AMIF) which contributes to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing knowledge, driving innovation, and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union. To know more about the project, visit the project webpage, and consult this info sheet.

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Opportunity: Capacity Building Of City Services For The Inclusion Of Migrants

4 September, 2020 By Mathilde Perrier

Helping city services to fight gender-based violence

The EU-funded project Equalcity is supporting local services to better identify, prevent and tackle sexual and gender-based violence in migrant communities.

This initiative was first introduced during the Q&A session of the “Intercultural Regions: Improving Access to Services” webinar organised by AER, IOM, and the Council of Europe. The opportunities Equalcity provides for cities will ultimately have an impact on the regional capacity to become more intercultural. AER, therefore, invites its members working on inclusion and migration to share these with cities in their territories.

Practical training tools

The Equalcity project, coordinated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), supports local authorities to foster the inclusion and protection of migrants. The project will achieve this through the development of practical training tools and awareness-raising material.

The project tackles sexual and gender-based violence against migrants in EU cities by building capacity of local services to

  • identify sexual and gender-based violence
  • protect and assist migrants who are confronted with, or who survived sexual and gender-based violence. This whether it happened during their journey, or upon arrival in their host country.

4 cities, 4 different focuses

The project is piloted in Brussels, Luxembourg, Rome and Gothenburg. Each city has a specific focus:

  1. the creation of safe spaces for LGBTQI+ migrants and people with a migrant background (Brussels)
  2. gender-based violence against migrant women and girls (Luxembourg)
  3. the wellbeing of unaccompanied migrant children (Rome)
  4. gender-based violence in a family context, including honour-based violence (Gothenburg).

Each city will develop and pilot training and awareness raising material. All the tools will be reviewed by a diverse panel of experts, including expert cities. Multiple review sessions will allow the material to be duplicable in various EU contexts.

Becoming a “trainee city”

As a project funded by the European Commission (DG Justice), Equalcity aims at having many more cities benefiting from the tools developed across Europe.

In this context it is possible to become a “trainee city” to benefit both from the process and the outcomes of the project. Many different cities have already joined the project as “trainee cities”. Trainee cities will participate in a 1-day workshop in Autumn 2021. They will receive the finalised toolboxes once the project ends.

For more information on the project and on how cities in your Region can join as a trainee, please contact Elisabeth Palmero ([email protected]).

For more information, check out the Equalcity website, on which you can find the list of Trainee Cities
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AER and Intercultural Regions Network meet with Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson

10 July, 2020 By Vania Freitas

On 10 July, the AER President, Magnus Berntsson, and the Chairs of the Intercultural Regions Network (IRN), Oriol Amorós, Secretary of Equity, Migrations and Citizenship of the Government of Catalonia, Conny Brännberg, Regional Minister of Culture of Region Västra Götaland, and Fereshteh Jalayer Hess, County Councillor from Region Värmland, joined by Irena Guidikova, Head of Division on Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Programmes of the Council of Europe, met via video conference with European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson.

The Chairs of IRN took the opportunity to present the Intercultural Regions Network and its support for regions to develop comprehensive intercultural strategies to manage diversity and migration based on the principles of equal opportunities, recognition of diversity and positive interaction between people from different origins.

The IRN Chairs and Commissioner Johansson also had a useful exchange on the future of EU migration and integration policies and the role of local and regional authorities in the New Action Plan on Integration and New Pact on Migration and Asylum.

Magnus Berntsson presented AER’s work on promoting diversity and integration of migrants at a regional level. He highlighted the Include-EU Project, in which AER is partnering. Funded under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), and led by the International Organization for Migration, this project aims to enhance local and regional actors’ knowledge to implement integration measures and promote the implementation of integration actions at territorial level.

The regional representatives and Commissioner Johansson agreed that an efficient and fair common European system on migration can only be established by including a strong commitment to integration and by fully engaging local and regional authorities. 

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The intercultural approach: a key for better service provision

7 July, 2020 By Mathilde Perrier

Regional and local authorities are at the forefront when it comes to addressing integration needs in practice. The Covid-19 pandemic has strongly tested the current systems in place, revealing tremendous needs of authorities but also the resourcefulness which exists at local and regional levels. This shows how essential it is to create opportunities for structured and meaningful mutual learning on integration in order to enable regional and local authorities to share experiences and improve policies and practices.

Mutual learning to improve services

In order to facilitate mutual learning between regions, AER, IOM and the Council of Europe are a organising series of activities open to all. These will build a mutual learning community across Europe on integration policies and practices at the regional level.

The webinar “Intercultural regions: improving access to services” was organised in the context of the Includ-EU project. Speakers from the Intercultural Regions Network, The European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs, IOM and the Council of Europe shared their experiences on how an intercultural approach helps to increase efficacy of public services by reducing cultural distances.

Foster exchanges opportunities

Two interconnected frameworks provide space for these exchanges. On the one hand, AER and the Council of Europe launched the Intercultural Regions Network. The network provides support for regions to design, implement, and evaluate diversity and inclusion strategies.

On the other hand, AER and IOM are cooperating in the context of the Includ-EU project, which is funded by the European Union and is mapping regional practices, providing opportunities for experience exchange and social innovation, and supporting the development of a mutual learning community.

Acknowledging diversity

The discussion was launched by Oriol Amorós, Chair of the Intercultural Regions Network, and Secretary of Equality, Migration and Citizenship for the Government of Catalonia. He outlined the diversity of citizens in the European Union and the need for more cohesive societies. The intercultural approach, he explained, is a way to recognise the equality of rights and duties, to acknowledge and value diversity, and to foster interaction. To promote interculturalism helps developing more effective and more resilient systems. It is with this in mind that the Intercultural Regions Network was launched in 2019 based on the positive experience of the intercultural cities of the Council of Europe.

The network is open to any region committed to enforce the principles and objectives of the network. For further information, visit the Intercultural Regions Network page.

The role of the European Commission

Nuria Diez Guardia, Policy Officer, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs then underlined the role of the European Commission, which is to provide incentives and to support all levels of governance to improve integration policies and practices.

She presented two particularly successful initiatives:

  • The Urban Academy on Integration consisting of two days of peer to peer learning.
  • The European Migrant Advisory Board including migrants and refugees themselves experts on immigration and asylum-related policies.

On top of these initiatives, DG HOME supports data analysis, mutual learning and funds initiatives and projects. Further information can be found on the European Web Site on Integration.

A need for cultural competences

Participants to the webinar provided insights on the barriers to access to services in their region. The lack of cultural competences in public services was clearly identified as a stumbling point.

Universal access to health services is in everybody’s interest

This need for cultural competences is particularly visible in the field of health. Dominik Zenner, Senior Migration Health Advisor at IOM Regional in Brussels, insisted on the fact that universal health coverage is part of the Sustainable Development Goals. He presented findings from research on the bidirectional relationship between migration and health as well as a series of initiatives aimed at improving the health of migrants*. Cultural health mediation specifically, acts as a bridge between people of different socio-cultural backgrounds and health professionals and has proven to lead to better health outcomes.

While knowledge about migrants’ health is still surprisingly low, it is known that living and working conditions, as well as social integration, have an impact on migrants’ health. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants have been particularly adversely affected by COVID-19 not only in terms of transmission but also in terms of outcomes for those who contracted the virus. This shows how access to health services for all protects the health and wellbeing of society as a whole.

Unlocking the diversity advantage

Finally, Irena Guidikova, Head of Division, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Programmes, at the Council of Europe, explained the main lines of the intercultural integration approach. Perceptions, cultural sensitivity, the tone and feel of the interactions with service providers matter in guaranteeing access to services. Diversifying the staff and bringing intercultural competences are ways to reduce the cultural distance and unlock the “diversity advantage”. User participation is crucial for public services, and all the more so in diverse communities.

How to implement an intercultural approach?

When participants to the webinar were asked how they ensure that public services are designed and delivered with an intercultural approach, “Policy co-design process” was their top response (50%). The discussion, which followed between panelists made it possible to further develop the concept of intersectionality and hear about additional initiatives.

Watch back!

All presentations, the agenda as well as the infosheet about Includ-EU are available below:

  • Oriol Amorós’s presentation: Intercultural Regions Network
  • Dominik Zenner’s presentation: Access to health matters!
  • Agenda
  • Includ-EU infosheet

You can also watch back the full webinar below:

*IOM defines a migrant as any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of (1) the person’s legal status; (2) whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary; (3) what the causes for the movement are; or (4) what the length of the stay is.


Includ-EU is funded by the European Union’s Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).

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AER Projects

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    • EU-BELONG: An Intercultural Approach to Migrant Integration in Europe’s Regions
    • Includ-EU: Regional and local expertise, exchange and engagement for enhanced social cohesion in Europe
  • Partner search
  • Completed projects
    • SCIROCCO Exchange project
    • SKILLNET – Sector Skills Network of VET centres in Advanced Manufacturing: a coalition of transnational VET providers
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    • Y-FED: Europe is what we make of it
    • AMiD – Access to Services for Migrants with Disabilities
    • AER Summer Academy 2016
    • Alcohol Prevention Peer Reviews
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    • Let’s REUnite! Together for cohesion project
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    • SEED European Silver Economy Awards
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    • Smart Europe
    • YES – Youth Entrepreneurship Strategies

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