Education SupportThanks to ERDF support, a former car park in a deprived neighbourhood has been transformed into a single facility offering education (including German-language courses), health and employment services. Opened in 2010, the Robinsbalje Centre in Bremen is now a benchmark ‘learning neighbourhood centre’ where public and non-government organisations offer residents and migrant families better prospects for the future.

Based on this model, a ‘district-educational centre’ (Morgenland Centre) was set up, bringing together four high schools and five primary schools with Bremen West library and community centre. In this culturally diverse area of Bremen – 120 nations and around 70 languages – where 73 % of under six-year-olds and 64 % of 6-18 year-olds have a migrant background, the social impact of the project is significant.

Total cost: € 2 765 000EU investment: € 1 319 000More information: http://europa.eu/!Vy49UJ

Cross-border CooperationWith INTERREG IVA support, an innovative cross-border cooperation programme (‘2 Seas SucceS’), involving five agencies from England, France and Belgium, provides employment support and skills development for unemployed people – including those from migrant backgrounds – from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Job-seekers aged over 16 receive individual support, soft skills and concrete opportunities, including capacity building, mobility and qualifications, to re-engage with the social and economic life of their community.

Project partners organise activities to suit the local context using specific networks, providers, facilities and structures. In terms of mobility, 34 167 people have been reached so far; 1 545 have received ‘soft skills’ and training; while 449 work placements have been organised. Guidebooks on how to help ‘excluded’ members of society have been created. These are used in train-the-trainer exercises and contain the project’s core idea: how to combine outreach and concrete action with on-going support to complement traditional employment services.

Total cost: € 2 711 722EU investment: € 1 355 861More information: http://europa.eu/!xW34Hw

Tyrol in Austria and South Tyrol in Italy receive migrants from different parts of the world. With ERDF support, the MigrAlp project brought the two regions together to develop tools and information services helping immigrant communities integrate while tacking racism and discrimination. Seasonal migration is also a feature of both regions, as people come to work in the tourism and agriculture sectors. Both the Italian and Austrian authorities recognise the need to develop successful, informed integration strategies to ensure community cohesion.

The project studied the needs of different communities – work, family life, education, leisure time – to help integrate them better into the local community and jobs market. It developed a role-play game, called SpaceMigrants 2513, to raise awareness about cultural diversity in schools and youth clubs. MigrAlp thus seeks to improve relations between people of different backgrounds; at school, work and in everyday life.

Total cost: € 783 850EU investment: € 499 704More information: http://europa.eu/!JD66Gu

ROUNDTABLE "HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE INTEGRATION

OF MIGRANTS IN CITIES?"5 April 2016, 10:00-12:45 | European Commission, Berlaymont building, Brussels

A continuous dialogue with local, regional and national authorities, as well as other stakeholders, is essential to strengthen the efforts of the European Union for the integration of migrants. In this context, this roundtable brings together Mayors and Vice-Mayors from key European cities, national authorities and non-governmental organisations to share challenges, practical experiences, solutions, and recommendations in relation to the integration of migrants in Europe's cities. This will help to better understand migrants' needs and integration challenges and to collect inputs from participants on how to improve EU policies and EU-funded actions.

Time Theme Speaker

10:00-10:15 Welcome, introduction European Commissioner Corina Creţu (Regional Policy)

10:15-10:20 How the Urban Agenda and the ERDF support can respond to the migration challenges

Mr Mikel Landabaso, Acting Director, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy

10:20-12:30

Facilitator: Mr Tony Lockett

How to further develop actions to reinforce the integration of migrants in our societies

Facilitated discussion with interventions of:

European Commissioner Corina Creţu (Regional Policy)

European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos (Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship)

Mr Van der Laan, Mayor of Amsterdam

Mr Giorgos Kaminis, Mayor of Athens

Ms Ada Colau Ballano, Mayor of Barcelona

Mrs Hella Dunger-Löper, State Secretary, Representative of the Land of Berlin to the German Federal Government

Mr Resul Tapmaz, Vice-Mayor of Ghent

Dr Thomas Fabian, Vice-Mayor of Leipzig

Mrs Colombe Brossel, Vice-Mayor of Paris

Mr. Francesco Rocca, President Italian Red Cross, Vice President International Federation of Red Cross

Mr. Eugenio Ambrosi, Regional Director, International Organization for Migration

Ms. Michele LeVoy, Director, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants

12:30-12:45 Contribution European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos (Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship)

Conclusions and way forward European Commissioner Corina Creţu (Regional Policy)Contact us:European Commission | Directorate-General for Regional and Urban PolicyCompetence Centre: Inclusive Growth, Urban and Territorial DevelopmentREGIO-H1-URBAN-TERRITORIAL@ec.europa.eu | http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.htm Cohesion

Policy

Entrepreneurship SupportAround 30 % of businesses in Vienna have a migrant background and thus play a vital role in the city’s economy. With ERDF financial support, Mingo Migrant Enterprises was created by the Vienna Business Agency to help migrant SME owners and entrepreneurs set up and grow their companies through coaching, networking events and business awards, multilingual services and a neighbourhood scheme which helps to market local shopping streets and raise standards.

Coaching and assistance includes business plans, financial planning and options, assessing market opportunities and threats, help with administrative procedures, and advice on company structures, social security, income tax, etc. Between 2008 and 2010, for example, Mingo organised over 1 300 coaching sessions involving 500 start-ups – a third of which had an ethnic minority background. Half of the participants were female and 71 % of those coached started a business – 90 % of these firms are still running.

Total cost: € 3 207 550EU investment: € 645 600More information: http://europa.eu/!jP78Tf

ForewordThe plight of thousands of migrants putting their lives in peril to cross the Mediterranean has shocked. It is clear that no EU country can or should be left alone to address huge migratory pressures. The European Commission's agenda on migration sets out a European response, combining internal and external policies, making best use of EU agencies and tools, and involving all actors: EU countries and institutions, local authorities, international organisations, civil society, as well as partners outside the EU.

In this context it is my firmest belief that a strong, united Europe is more necessary than ever.

This is the biggest challenge we ever had to face as a Union. It is therefore better addressed if all Europeans are involved in the solutions. In particular, if all European cities are involved in the solutions. Indeed migration is largely an urban reality. Mayors are confronted, every day, with concrete challenges involving migration. Whether it is about housing, education or employment, cities are actually at the forefront of the EU response to these challenges.

Of course, in first place, the focus on short-term action is unavoidable.

But we all know that the most effective solution is to work in the long term. And this means turning the migration challenge into an opportunity for all.

The only way to achieve this objective is to work on the effective integration of migrants. And here, Cohesion Policy has a crucial role to play. Thousands of social inclusion projects were already co-funded by Cohesion Policy. Our Funds are ready to further support urban areas in promoting integration, by financing projects in social and education infrastructure, housing, childcare, health, but also business start-ups, languages courses, professional training – measures that will help migrants find their place in society.

Significant funding is already available: over 2014-2020, half of the European Regional Development Fund envelope will be invested in urban areas, with EUR 15 billion now directly managed by urban authorities.

In addition, we have the new Urban Innovative Actions initiative which is worth EUR 371 million. This initiative will be used to identify and test new approaches to urban challenges such as the integration of migrants and refugees. Indeed, as a demonstration of our commitment to this issue, the integration of migrants and refugees was included as one the explicit topics of the 1st Innovative Actions call which closed last week. We received applications from 50 cities on this topic alone.

I also want to underline that the forthcoming EU Urban Agenda will constitute a great opportunity for cities to better work together, with a stronger involvement of all urban stakeholders. One of the EU Urban Agenda's newly set up 'Partnerships' focuses on the effective integration of refugees and migrants.

We are at the beginning of a long journey, and integration will increasingly become key in managing migration; we will make sure to fully support cities and local authorities in their efforts to integrate migrants.

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Cohesion policy how does it help migrants’ integration?Managing migration better is an explicit priority of the European Commission, as presented in the political guidelines of President Juncker. In this context, the integration and social inclusion of the growing number of migrants settling in Europe will be key to demonstrate that these people should not be considered as a threat but as an opportunity. All means at European level should be mobilised to support the efforts of the Member States and their regions and cities in that area.

Migration is a cross-cutting issue, involving different actors and policy areas. Cohesion Policy and its funding instruments, for example, aim to provide meaningful support and opportunities for all disadvantaged groups, including migrants through their economic and social development in the European Union.

The European Regional Development Fund supports the integration of migrants through various measures such as: investments in social, health, education, housing and childcare infrastructure; regeneration of deprived urban areas; actions to reduce spatial and educational isolation of migrants; business start-ups; etc. Where so desired, these actions could even be packaged into integrated urban development programmes.

Even though Cohesion Policy Funds operate with a long-term perspective, funding from the European Regional Development Fund can still be mobilised, on a case by case basis, to help tackle the migration challenge in terms of emergency measures. For instance it can support the reception system of migrants and asylum seekers complementing the help from the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund. This may include building or extending reception centres, shelters or actions to reinforce the capacities of reception services.

Corina CreţuEuropean Commissioner for Regional Policy

Robinsbleje project