Amadora

The municipality of Amadora is located in Lisbon North Metropolitan Area and is a major residential suburb of Lisbon and part of the urban conurbation. It is a medium-sized city in terms of population with 178,169 inhabitants as of December 2017 with a small territory of 24km2 . In the 1970’s, Amadora saw high levels of immigration- both from rural Portugal and also immigrants and returnees from former colonies in Africa. Alongside this immigration, Amadora saw a growth in poor quality housing and high levels of economic and social deprivation. Amadora and its inhabitants became associated with precarious housing cores and living conditions, poverty and crime. A negative image of the area and its residents has built over time, partly as a result of negative media coverage. Although being a relatively new municipality (created in 1979), Amadora has transformed through large-scale urban regeneration, including major schemes of housing renewal and infrastructure and transport investments. This has been combined with investment in social regeneration and policy initiatives, particularly in the field of education, family policy and inclusion of immigrants. It was within this context of a diverse, dynamic and multicultural city that the good practice, ‘Do Not Feed the Rumour’ was developed and implemented.

Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), to which the municipality of Amadora belongs, is the main region of immigration in Portugal. According to official statistical sources, in 2006 there were 409 185 immigrants in Portugal, 232 149 of them in LMA (57%). The city of Amadora had, according to the last Census in 2001, 174,135 inhabitants, 13,444 of which were foreigners, representing 8% of the local population, a rate twice as high as the national average

The good practice, Do Not Feed the Rumour, was developed and implemented from 2014-15, through Amadora’s participation in the Council of Europe (CoE) project “Communication for Integration: social networking for diversity (C4I)”. Based upon practice originally developed in Barcelona, this programme brought together a network of 11 cities from 7 European countries to learn from Barcelona’s experience and develop their own anti-rumour campaigns. Using Barcelona’s experience, Amadora produced their own bespoke approach to an anti-rumour strategy. The approach represents primarily a strategy for directly and assertively addressing the issue of prejudice and misinformation through dispelling rumours and deconstructing stereotypes. Additionally, the practice fosters an appreciation of diversity and social cohesion through both the sharing of information and integration activities. While the anti-rumour practice can be applied to any form of prejudice and perception change, in the case of Amadora, the focus was on prejudice towards migrants and migration.

The two main objectives were to:

● Contribute to the promotion of cultural diversity and social cohesion through the deconstruction of rumors, stereotypes about immigrants and the city of Amadora.

● Promote a change in perceptions, behaviors and attitudes towards immigrants and towards the city of Amadora.

The project in Amadora involved 75 organisations and reached about 2,500 people. The Municipality was able to second a member of staff to act as local network co-ordinator.

Click below to watch the video: Do Not Feed the Rumour