Making procurement work for diversity and equal opportunities

Public procurement accounts for more than 15% of the EU’s GDP. As a major purchaser of goods and services, cities can make a significant contribution to diversity and non-discrimination by taking into account social considerations when choosing a supplier through tendering process. EU legislation governing this arena offer scope for social criteria. However, cities’ experiences demonstrate that this is not always clear or easy to interpret. This workshop will offer some clarity on the current state of play of the EU’s procurement legislation and illustrate ways in which cities can apply social criteria and use this as a tool to further diversity and equal opportunities.

Facilitator: Sue Lukes, MigrationWork CIC

Speaker: Beth Ginsburg, Migration Policy Group

Room: Kremlin 1

Transnational city learning on migrant integration

There is a variety of networks of cities that foster mutual learning and benchmarking on local integration policies in Europe and beyond. These include EUROCITIES and its working group migration and integration and its joint learning projects, Intercultural Cities network of the Council of Europe/European Commission, the European Coalitions for Cities Against Racism, European network of cities for local integration policies for migrants (CLIP) and various others. What are stakeholder expectations of these networks? How can we avoid duplication of effort and better serve the goal of local integration? This session will address these issues and seek to identify synergies and areas of potential collaboration among transnational city networks.

Facilitator: Simon Guentner, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

Speakers: Christina Baglai, Intercultural Cities network of the Council of Europe/European Commission
                    Anna Ludwinek, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

Room: Sterrenzaal

How to measure what counts - integration monitoring and indicators

Many European cities have developed monitoring systems to get an objective picture on the state of integration and the outcomes of integration policies. In parallel, in 2011 the EU published a first study on indicators on immigrant integration, based on data collected from member states on a set of indicators in the field of employment, education, social inclusion and active citizenship, which is closely related to the Europe 2020 strategy. EUROCITIES has also attempted through its Integrating Cities Charter survey to collect local data to offer the local picture of these indicators. This workshop address questions and practices in measuring integration policy effectiveness.

Facilitator: Andreas Germershausen, Office of the Commissioner of the Berlin Senate for Integration and Migration

Speakers: Lise Bayer, city of Copenhagen
                    Daphne Costes, Flemis Authority - Inburgering

Room: Kremlin 2

Leadership and public commitment to migration and integration

Many efforts to assess the impact of integration policies end up with identifying a strong role for something that is difficult to quantify: political leadership on diversity and equal opportunities and a proactive communication around migration. This “black box” is all the more important at present, where many political parties and movements contest migration or derogate from the definition of integration as two-way approach, involving both migrants and host societies, as specified in the first EU common basic principle on integration. The workshop will try to substantiate the role of leadership and communication around migration and integration issues by drawing on the findings of the project “Attitudes to Migrants, Communication and Local Leadership” (AMICALL) among others.

Facilitator: Richard Stanton, MigrationWork CIC

Speakers: Elizabeth Collett, Migration Policy Institute Europe
                    Ben Gidley, COMPAS, Oxford University
                    Toralv Moe, city of Oslo
                    Simona Mattia & Sandra Durrieu, Rennes Metropole

Room: Teekenzaal

The role of cities in refugee resettlement

Many European countries receive resettled refugees, either via ongoing annual quota programmes or through periodic involvement in ad hoc resettlement exercises. Although national governments are responsible for the selection of resettled refugees, European cities and municipalities play a central role in offering reception and integration support once refugees have arrived. The success of national resettlement programmes thus depends on the commitment, expertise and ongoing capacity of European cities, municipalities and regions to welcome resettled refugees. This session will provide an introduction to refugee resettlement, examples of best practice in reception, integration and local advocacy and campaigning from European cities, and facilitate discussion on how European cities can get involved in refugee resettlement and the network of resettlement cities and regions in Europe.

Facilitators: ICMC Europe, UNHCR and the city of Sheffield.

Speakers: Belinda Gallup, Sheffield City Council
                    Johannes van Gemund, United Nations High Commission for Refugees
                    Petra Hueck, International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Europe

Room: Concertzaal

Introductory and Language courses – a multi-level governance issue?

The EU Common Basic Principles on integration state: ‘Basic knowledge of the host society’s language, history, and institutions is indispensible to integration …’. Over the last decade, to help migrants to acquire this basic knowledge, many states have developed national models for language and introductory courses. More recently, the European Union has developed a module summing up member states’ experiences in organising language and introductory courses that is meant to become a point of reference for policy-makers and practitioners working in this field. Sometimes language or orientation courses are organised through government departments responsible for education or integration issues or cities themselves may also offer language and introductory courses often or may be responsible for the delivery of national courses. This session will address how cities can collaborate with national and regional governments to develop approaches that are best suited to local needs, including adapting frameworks to suit new immigrant populations.

Facilitator: Anna Reisenberger, MigrationWork CIC

Speakers: Inge Hellemans, Agency for Internal Affairs of the Flemish Authority
                    Morten C.R. Spies, Danish Ministry of social and integration affairs
                    Leif Styfberg, SFI Stockholm, city of Stockholm

Room: Shaffyzaal

Urban planning - a solution for integration policies? – starting at 11am

This workshop will address the possibilities and limitations of planning and social engineering in regenerating urban neighbourhoods. Many cities struggle with segregated neighbourhoods. Migrant ghettos are frequently perceived as threats for social cohesion. Those able to leave flee to other parts of the city. Only those with less social mobility stay. Many actors such as housing associations and local and national government, have been working on regeneration projects aiming at improving the quality of neighbourhoods (urban renewal) and the social mobility of the inhabitants. As a result, social and physical ambitions are brought together, presuming as causal relation between social and physical mobility. For example, building new (more expensive) houses will bring in new inhabitants with different life styles, who can function as role models for their neighbours. Indeed, neighbourhoods develop over time. But what are the explanatory factors of these changes? Does social mixing provides social mobility within neighbourhoods, consequently, demonstrating urban planning function as an integration tool? Zef Hemel (director of the urban planning department of Amsterdam) will illustrate the relation between urban planning and integration using European examples of failed and successful projects. He will explore the possibilities and limitations of urban planning. In an interactive session new paradigms and practical tools will be discussed useful for those struggling with these questions.

Speaker: Zef Hemel, city of Amsterdam

Room: Koepelzaal