Description
The purpose of the proposed project LOMIGRAS is twofold: (a) To investigate the local government’s involvement in the process of migrant integration and advance its successful implementation of the relevant policies in Greece, and (b) To develop a usable interactive tool to monitor and assess the effects of local government in promoting migrant integration.The proposed project LOMIGRAS primarily aims to investigate the extent and ways in which local government policies and interventions in the areas of social provisions, employment, education and civic participation influence and facilitate, or conversely obstruct, the social integration of immigrants. The starting assumption of this research is that local government institutions have a profound role in promoting, or conversely hindering, immigrants’ integration, regardless of whether they explicitly assigned competences in this area. Moreover, local government institutions affect immigrants’ position in the local society and economy, often indirectly and even un-self-consciously. They do so in the course of providing a large array of social services in the local population, as well as in the frame of implementing programs and allocating resources to target unemployment, local development, and urban regeneration, among others. Based on the knowledge generated from the first research phase, the proposed project will develop a methodology and associated monitoring tool to support effective local immigrant integration in the four main large cities of Greece: Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Herakleio. The relevance and importance of adopting mechanisms to monitor and assess policy implementation has been highlighted by the European Commission in its Basic Common Principles for immigrant integration.
Summary of project results
Local government authorities have a crucial role to play in pursuing immigrant integration and in managing multi-ethnic diversity. The purpose of the project was: (a) investigate the local government’s involvement in the process of migrant integration and advance its successful implementation of the relevant policies in Greece, and (b) develop a usable interactive tool to monitor and assess the effects of local government in promoting migrant integration. Specifically, the project had the following objectives: (1) explore the extent to which local government policies and measures mainstream integration principles, and assess their effectiveness in Greece’s four largest municipalities and cities: Athens, Thessaloniki, Herakleion and Patras. (2) develop a methodology on the basis of which to monitor and assess the integration of immigrants in areas: employment, social inclusion, education, discrimination, and civic participation, (3) create a technological interactive tool that embeds this methodology and criteria for monitoring and assessing local migrant integration. (4) present and disseminate the integration monitoring tool, thereby raising awareness for the need to introduce an explicit integration mechanism for effective formulation and implementation of local policies, (5) formulate recommendations and best practices. Produced three sets of deliverables. First, we completed two studies and the respective reports on local government and migrant integration in Greece and in Europe. Focusing on the country’s four largest municipalities, Secondly, a key output of this research was the development of a methodological tool for assessing and evaluating of local government policies in each of these three domains. This tool comprises (a) a set of criteria and indicators (b) a web-based tool that allows stakeholders to apply and use this methodology in order to assess migrant integration outcomes. We piloted this tool by asking three representatives from the municipalities of Athens, Thessloniki and Herakleion, respectively, to fill it in. Thirdly, we formulated a set of policy recommendations regarding the ways in which local and municipalities authorities, especially the Migrant Integration Councils, to formulate a comprehensive local strategy for integration and pursue more actively related measures and policies. The LOMIGRAS project has helped raise awareness among local government authorities about the need to pursue a comprehensive and explicit policy aiming to integrate migrant communities at the local level.
Summary of bilateral results