Last round of Consultation Meetings for the Arrival Cities Network’s Partners

University of Dresden

On the 15th of February the University of Dresden organized the second and last consultation meeting before the approval of the Action Plan. The meeting involved new members and representatives of local migrant’s communities which joined the consultation group and participated in the lively discussion. The meeting focused on "society cohesion" the main City challenge in terms of migrant inclusion. During the meeting the participants discussed about the consequences that a lack of society cohesion brings about. Along with the results of the analysis the participants enhanced the actions proposed in the previous consultation meetings and worked on further ideas to increase Solidarity and Cohesion in Dresden. Finally the group expressed the need to foster the cooperation among NGO to better coordinate the ongoing and future local initiatives.
The advancements and final amendments to the Integrated Action Plan have been agreed and will be included in the Final version, which will be presented at the end of March.

Patras’ Municipal Enterprise for Planning & Development-ADEP SA

Finalizing Patras Integrated Action Plan (IAP) and organizing the signing off event were the main topics of the last consultation meeting that took place in Patras on the 22nd February 2018. The meeting was attended by the representatives of local stakeholders who participated in the consultation process that Patras’ Municipal Enterprise for Planning & Development-ADEP SA has carried on in the last two years. During the consultation meeting, ULG members and the representatives of local organizations working in the sectors of education, culture, volunteering, human rights protection and intercultural relations exchanged on the importance of linking Patras IAP with the other programming «tools» developed by the city and the region of Western Greece to guarantee its sustainability after the end of the project.

Furthermore, emphasis was put to discussing the content of the signing off event to be implemented in Patras. The presents agreed to organize it on 30th March 2018 at the conference centre of the new Archaeological Museum of Patras and to link the action with the agenda of «European Week against Racism-EWAR 2018». Many interesting ideas came out about Patras activities to be incorporated in EWAR in order to reveal the potential of migrant associations (which are already members of Patras ULG) and also to address anti-stereotyping behavior mostly targeting youth.

It is noteworthy that the «ARRIVAL CITIES» project is connected with the "Intercultural Cities-ICC" network and «ALDA: European Association of Local Democracy» of which the city has been an active member for many years. Patras intends to continue exploiting its own local, regional, national and international links, to achieve a multiplier effect on the dissemination and exploitation of «ARRIVAL CITIES» results.

Department of Val de Marne

On the month of February the URBACT Local Support Group of the Department of Val de Marne organized a series of consultation meetings aimed at involving migrants lead organization in the finalization of the Integrated Action Plan. The workshops took place on the 8, 13 and 15 of February.

The first meeting was dedicated to the presentation of the research “Portrait on immigration and immigrants in Val de Marne” developed by the ULG within the Arrival Cities Project.

The meeting of the 13^th and 15^th of February have been structured as focus groups and divided in four areas of work:

AXIS 1: ACCESS TO RIGHTS (fundamental rights, legal and social rights: access to housing, health, education, culture, etc.)

AXIS 2: LIVING TOGETHER / BUILDING THE SOCIETY (how to allow migrants to be actors in their environment, to be part of society, particularly through integration into local city life and professional integration)

AXIS 3: MIGRATION PATH HERE AND THERE (working on a "transnational citizenship", anchoring reciprocity as the basis for solidarity policies and projects, accompany migration flows and the right to mobility)

AXIS 4: MIGRATION AND MEMORIES (foster the recognition and sharing of cultures, create a community of "destinies" around the Val de Marne, share a common history and connect the memories to build a plural identity).

Out of these areas of work the participants were invited to choose 2 of the 4 proposed Axis as the workshop has been organized in parallel sessions. The objective has been to actively involve the participants in making proposals on how to reinforce the actions already implemented by the department - though the action plan - and by presenting new ideas of actions to be developed in the future, according to the needs of the territory and focusing in particular on migrant’s point of view.

Municipality of Messina

On the 7th of April the Municipality of Messina organized its II Consultation Meeting involving local stakeholders in a lively discussion on the best practices adopted by the URBACT Local Support group to address the challenges emerged by the research done in the framework of the Arrival Cities project. In particular the discussion focused on two main challenges, hot to support the integration of migrants in the schooling and education system and how to foster the access to the labor market and in relation to this how to make the most of European Funding opportunities to guarantee the sustainability to the Action plan.

The meeting has seen the participation of the Mayor of Messina, Renato Accorinti and the Councilor of Social Policies Nina Santisi, which strongly supported the project and fostered the participative process carried on in this two years of transnational exchange.