SIXTH INTERNATIONAL METROPOLIS CONFERENCE

WORKSHOP 31: Immigration and the role of local authorities

Wednesday, November 28, 2001
14:00 - 15:30


ORGANIZERS

Corrine Oudijk, Mustapha Aksu
Center for Research and Statistics
PO box 21323, 3001 HD Rotterdam
Phone: # 31 10 4032500

Gerard Oude Engbrink
City of Rotterdam, Department of Social Affairs and Employment
PO box 1024, 3000 BA Rotterdam

Wim Reijnierse
City of Rotterdam, Administration Department
PO box 70012, 3000 KP Rotterdam

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

The major impact of immigration is experienced at city level. This is where most newcomers settle and where they live, work, attend school, create businesses, celebrate their cultural traditions etcetera. Over the years or decades, local authorities have developed their own solutions to questions of immigration and integration. When compared, this has resulted in a range of different practices, sometimes quite sophisticated, sometimes very minimal. The question then arises: how can we understand these differences? To some extent the diversity of local immigration practices is caused by the constraints of different national legislations. But which other factors are relevant? Most interesting then is the question, whether it is possible to define, on the basis of international comparison between cities, common minimal quality standards for effective local immigration and integration policies?

This challenge has been taken up by five major European cities, Bologna (Italy), Birmingham (England), Toulouse (France), Leipzig (Germany) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). They have joined in the EX-O Project, which is a policy-oriented research-project sponsored under the European Odysseus Programme. Through a comparative study, including an analysis of national legislation and local immigration policies and a SWOT analysis of local solutions/ practices, the project aims to identify common themes, not to say basic requirements of integration policies.

The final report of the EXO-project will be available in september 2001. The City of Bologna, which is the formal owner of the project, has agreed to a presentation in the Metropolis Conference. The final report will be made available as a paper, before the conference. Workshop participants are requested to read the paper before participating in the workshop, which will be aimed at a discussion from different perspectives. Goal of the workshop is to discuss the major of the EXO research project from a policy-oriented point of view.

DURATION: 1 session, 1,5 hour

STRUCTURE
- Presentations, 30 minutes
- invited comments/ co-references, 30 minutes
- Moderated discussion with participants, 30 minutes

Programme:
1. Intro (5 min) by moderator Keith Taylor, vice-leader Council of Newcastle and president of social welfare committee of Eurocities
2. Presentation (15 min): main findings of the EX-O research project, by the research project leader Bologna (Marina Aldrovandi)
3. Comment from urban perspectives by Toulouse (Bernard Isach), Birmingham (Adrian Randall), Rotterdam (Gerard Oude Engbrink), each 5 min.
4. Questions and moderated discussion (30 min)