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Thessaloniki's UWG prioritise on migrants access to labour market

Edited on

02 October 2018
Read time: 1 minute

On the 10th of January the Urban Working Group leaded by the Municipality of Thessaloniki held a specific meeting on the access to labour market for migrants and refugees.

As mentioned in the article Thessaloniki, a City at the frontline for migrants arrivals, in the framework of its Action Plan to manage migrants arrivals and to foster their integration, the Municipality of Thessaloniki created an Urban Working Group to coordinate and optimize city services and projects dedicated to migrants. The Urban Working Group is composed by a wide number of local stakeholders which manage services and projects dedicated to migrants.

In the framework of the Arrival Cities project, the Urban Working Gorup is part of the permanent consultation process that the Municiaplity has carried on in the last two years and that is leading to the draft of the City Action Plan. In November the URBACT local support group together with the Municipality representatives decided to merge the most regular ULG meetings with the Urban Working Group meetings, as most members are attending this working group which counts with 40+ participants. In the past months the working group tackled several issues in order to provide an urban response to the difficulties faced by migrants but also by locals in accessing to social services and to improve the exiting ones. The last four meetings for example focused on the integration of the services managed by the City and those offered by other stakeholders, in order to avoid a duplication of the activites and optimize the resources; a second one focused on the organization of the new Municipal Centre for the Integration of Migrants; and in December on the implementation of a winter plan for homeless and migrants liveing in the camps.

The last urban working group took place on the 10th of January and focused on how to facilitate the access to labour market for migrants and refugees. This sub-group brought together actors working on employability and entrepreneurship to coordinate actions and potentially build collaborations.

To have more information about the meeting read the 

or write to Meric Ozgunes (ULG Coordinator) mericozgunes@gmail.com