ADMin4ALL

Context and Rationale

Globally, three million people are moving to cities every week (UN HABITAT, 2009). Nearly one in five of the world’s foreign-born population resides in medium to large cities (Caglar, 2014). This type of migration to urban centers will likely continue, due to the global realities of ageing societies, uneven economic growth and higher inequality within and across continents and countries (International Migration Outlook 2017, OECD).

Migration and how it is governed is becoming an issue at the forefront of both urban management and sustainable development. In a world that is increasingly urban, with over half of the population already living in, and the majority of migrants moving to cities, the action and engagement of municipal governments will be key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (SDG 10.7 and SDG 11).

This is particularly true in the EU, where the population of cities has become increasingly diverse as a result of unprecedented intra-EU mobility and immigration from third countries, especially after the humanitarian refugee and migrant crisis of 2015, which added an higher number of newcomers to established multi-generational migrant communities.

Increasing diversity, coupled with entrenched disadvantage and marginalization of some groups, represent challenges for the development of more inclusive societies based on enhanced social cohesion within local communities (World Migration Report, 2015, Migrants and Cities, IOM). Ensuring adequate service delivery to new, diverse and growing populations poses the biggest challenge. This requires a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral approach, based on strong local cooperation and coordination, as well as partnerships with other cities, regional or national governments, civil society and migrants’ associations.

In particular, providers of employment and social services at the local level often experience difficulties in successfully reaching out to and supporting vulnerable migrant and refugee populations.

In this context, the project ADMin4ALL - Supporting Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Migrants in Europe aims to enhance the capacity of local governments to develop sustainable strategies and inclusive services for the successful social and economic integration of migrants from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Objectives

The main objective of the programme is to increase the capacity of municipal administrations and other service providers at the local level, with particular attention to their front-line staff, in dealing with the multiple dimensions of long-term socio-economic inclusion of migrants and refugees at the local level. This is done through the delivery of a series of trainings and peer mentoring activities for local authorities and both governmental and non-governmental service providers, focusing on front-line workers as well as service managers and decision-makers.

Training activities are followed by international exchanges among participating cities, focused on identifying and sharing good practices in providing accessible and effective social services to migrants. Finally, through a series of local capacity-building activities the project aims to promote partnership approaches, and strengthen local coordination, on migrant integration among various public, private and non-profit stakeholders.

Expected Results

The main expected results of the project are:

  • Providers of socio-economic services in participating municipalities, including frontline staff, have the expertise to provide accessible, relevant and effective support to disadvantaged third-country nationals;
  • Selected municipalities are equipped with tools to improve the provision of services for social and economic inclusion of vulnerable migrants and other third-country nationals.
  • Local coordination and collaboration among different stakeholders is strengthened while international partnerships for knowledge sharing and best practice exchanges are created.

Geographical Coverage and Timeframe

An initial phase of the program was active in 14 municipalities across four EU member states: Italy (Bari, Florence, Naples and Milan), Austria (Bruck an der Leitha, Tulln, Korneuburg), Poland (Poznań, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Lodz and Krakow), and Romania (Bucharest and Cluj). In 2018 a second phase of the program aims to expand to Greece, Malta and Spain and to include a total of 30 municipalities in all program countries.

The project will be implemented for 24 months, is expected to be launched in May 2018, and is managed by the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean in Rome, Italy.