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WELCOME! This is the 54th issue of the European Web Site on Integration's monthly newsletter. Every first Wednesday of the month, the editorial team of the European Web Site on Integration sends you a selection of content recently published on the Site. |
News |
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Today the European Parliament adopted the so-called Single Permit Directive. The new legislation will simplify migration procedures and ensure that workers from countries outside the EU, legally residing in a Member State, will enjoy a common set of rights on equal footing with nationals. Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner responsible for Home Affairs, said: "I am very pleased that thi… |
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Ths call for proposals for action grants aims to select projects to be co-funded that fall under the objectives of the FRC Programme and the priorities of this call. All proposals will be judged solely against the criteria set out in this call for proposals. The selected projects must enable progress to be made in attaining at least one of the priorities outlined in this call, whcih include: I… |
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The Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture announced an application round for the baseline financing of national cultural societies to support with more than 313,100 euro the activities of cultural organisations of national minorities through umbrella organisations. Applications must be submitted to the competition by 2 February. R… |
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On 25 November, the Latvian Ministry of Culture opened a call for project proposals for non-governmental organizations working on integration. The call focused on five thematic areas, some of them also covering the integration of migrants like preserving the cultural diversity of ethnic minorities and enhancing civic participation. Other priorities were preserving the culture and language of … |
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The European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) is seeking to support projects by non-governmental organisations and registered charities active on migration and integration issues. EPIM will provide a limited number of grants for a period of one to three years with budgets ranging from €50,000 to €300,000. In addition, it will promote grantees’ networking and capacity… |
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Two calls for tender in the framework of the European Integration Fund for: 1) Improving information, communication and sensibilitation among immigrants on the following issues: their rights and duties in Italy, the access to social services, the CULTURA DELLA LEGALITA’ and all aspects of residence. Read more... 2) Exchange of experiences and good practices addressed e.g… |
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NFÜ the National Development Agency has published its call for applications in the 'Supporting the teaching and education of pupils with migrant background' programme. The aim is to support the teaching, education, integration in Hungarian society and the labour market and becoming self-reliant of pupils with a migrant background in public education (including pupils under international pr… |
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The Family and Welfare Department of Catalonia has published a call for grants for 2012 targetting immigration and integration institutions. Read more... |
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Municipalities can get financial help for local integration projects by applying to OLAI before June 15th. Read more... |
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The Foundation P&V combats the exclusion of young people. Numerous researchers in Belgium and abroad have concluded that the lack of skills and employment qualifications are significant sources of exclusion and a cause of future social marginalisation. Early school leaving and a lack of qualifications generally result in precarious work situations and long-term unemployment, as well as… |
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The Parliamentary Committee on Social Cohesion has officially started to work on integration issues in the Latvian parliament, Saeima. Until lately the committee focused on the implementation of Latvia’s Citizenship Law. But in autumn 2011 parliamentarians proposed to change the focus to integration and social cohesion. The proposal came in light of the discussions surrounding the ref… |
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On the occasion of the public hearing on family reunification of third country nationals living in the EU at the EU Integration Forum, a group of 64 non-governmental organisations have published a document calling on the European Commission and EU Member States to guarantee the effective right to family life and family reunification for all migrants and beneficiaries of international protection. … |
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The Board of Governors of the Province of Barcelona on 17 May approved the call for targeted subsidies to nonprofit organizations working for social inclusion, and has been published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona (BOPB) of May 21. The amount of the call is 1,700,000 euros and is aimed at organizations that treballan in the field of social welfare and equality and citizenship… |
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The call for proposals under the European Integration Fund for Hungary for the year 2012 is out. The deadline for submitting the applications is 15th June, 2012, 12.00 h. details are on the programme's website. megjelent az Európai Integrációs Alap 2012-es allokációjára vonatkozó pályázati felhívás. A pályá… |
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The Government of Navarre Decree 91/2006 of December 18, establishing the Office of Immigration Service in order to promote and coordinate public policies aimed at facilitating the access of immigrants to the standard of social protection systems and peaceful coexistence, and thus respond to the needs of the community that affect their own integration into the social, labor, legal, educational, he… |
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A Social Platform delegation composed of Caritas Europa along with Eurodiaconia, International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) met with Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström last week to discuss current and future migration policies. Caritas Europa praised commissioner Malmström for her willin… |
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The Polish Ministry of Interior has decided to withdraw the Polish language requirement for immigrants applying for permanent residence permit in the draft Act on foreigners. Thus, it agreed with NGOs, which argued that the state should not introduce the obligation to know the Polish language without creating opportunities for Polish language learning, e.g. in the framework of integration courses … |
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The government presented on Monday its immigration rules in the wake of a decision earlier this year to scrap a previous law allowing second generation migrants to obtain Greek citizenship if their parents had been living in Greece legally for at least five years. (Read more...) "European" stay permits itroduced by the new migration bill (Read more...) New rules simplify … |
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The senate of Berlin wants to ease and extend the recognition of foreign qualifications and skills. The draft law was introduced by the senator for education, youth and science, Sandra Scheeres, and concerns new regulations for the recognition of qualifications and skills in the according laws. The new regulations concern educators, social workers, engineers and architects. Read more… |
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On 1st of October, 2013, the amendments to the Citizenship law came into force. These changes are a part of a package of which the most substantial change is now allowing dual citizenship. According to the amendments, dual citizenship will be allowed to persons acquiring Latvian citizenship via naturalization, if they come from the European Union, European Free Trade Association or North At… |
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The Council of the Government of the Czech Republic for Human Rights, the permanent advisory body to the Government in the field of the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the territory of the Czech Republic, held a long-postponed meeting in October, after a long period of inactivity. During the meeting, four proposals by the Committee for the Rights of Foreigners were discussed… |
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Call for tender : municipalities can get financial support from OLAI for projects to encourage registering for european elections of May 2014. Requirements have to be introduced until November 8th. Read more... |
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Call for projects to be proposed by NGO's for a campaign to promote political participation of third country nationals in Luxembourg, particlarly concerning the European elections in 2014. Projects to introduce until November 8th, 2013 |
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UNHCR`s Regional Representation for Central Europe invites interested social research institutes and companies in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania to conduct quantitative social research (national representative survey) assessing people's views towards asylum-seekers and refugees in the four countries. the detailed call for proposals including the description of the research project, scope o… |
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The Directorate General for Equal Opportunities of the Ministry of Health has released Wednesday a new service of free assistance to victims of racial or ethnic discrimination: This state level service, in which seven NGOs specialized in this area are involved, offers everything from information to support or mediation in such cases. The service is part of "the many duties" that Spain has y… |
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Despite the calls by the National Health Service (NHS) working group on cancer screening programs to provide information on cancer screening in the Russian language as well as Latvian, the State Language Centre has declined the suggestion, writes news portal TVNET. It states that the Latvian language law does not allow such steps to be taken. The portal quotes Laura Lapina, head of the NHS, empha… |
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Currently a new amendment of the Act No. 404/2011 Coll. on Residence of Aliens and Act No. 5/2004 on Employment Service is being prepared which should come into force from 1st January 2014. Proposed changes should apply to: adoption of the so called unified residence stay which is a new type of temporary residence for the purposes of employment and should simplify employment of foreig… |
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A new report on Family Reunification in Sweden, written by The Swedish Red Cross, Save the Children, the Social Mission and the Refugee Advice Center, is showing that there are still great difficulties with the current legal framework, despite some recent changes. The report is showing, through a number of actual legal cases, that despite some recent policy changes the legal possibilities f… |
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Areas with a higher proportion of immigrants, such as Gellerup, Tingbjerg and Horsens East, recorded a higher poll in this year’s local elections. However, Yosef Bhatti, an election researcher at the University of Copenhagen said the level was still not good enough. “The increase is still below the national average of six per cent. It has receded in recent years so there is a long wa… |
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Germany plans to scrap rules forcing young people with immigrant parents to choose between a German passport and their parents' citizenship, a step that reflects the country's shifting attitudes toward national identity after decades of immigration. Under the plan, people from migrant backgrounds who were born in Germany will for the first time be able to apply for dual citizenship, a development… |
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Programme operator OSI – Sofia in partnership with Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation announces the Second Open Call for Proposals for the NGO Programme for Bulgaria under the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009–2014. Eligible applicants will have two months to develop and submit project proposals in the following thematic areas: "Democracy, human rights and good governance", "Soc… |
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The High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue (ACIDI, I.P.) as an intermediary of the Operational Programme of Human Potential informs that the period to present projects for training in Portuguese language for foreign citizens (typologies 8.6.6 and 9.6.6) is open between 27th January and 28 February 2014. Read more… |
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The government’s plan to increase the residency requirement to become Dutch from five to seven years will not encourage integration, the Council of State said on Friday. The cabinet wants to increase the period to seven years saying it will inprove the chances of new Dutch nationals finding work. The Council, the government’s highest advisory body, points out that immigrants from non-E… |
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On Friday 15th January the European Parliament approved the new EU Public Procurement Directives, paving the way for their formal adoption by the Council of Ministers in the near future. The new Directives represent a major overhaul of the procurement rules across the EU. With Member States spending 18% of GDP on procuring goods, services and works, will the changes have an impact on imm… |
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Minister Sebastian Kurz announced that the areas of language, recognition of qualification and participation will be strengthened: “Language is the basis for successful integration. Another focus we want to strengthen is the topic of participation and want to create a new Recognition Act. Many highly qualified people come to Austria and cannot use their qualifications. Here we need to create… |
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European Union rules to tackle discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation have now been implemented by all Member States in national law. Now, further efforts are needed to apply them in practice. These are the key findings of a new report released by the European Commission today. The Employment Equality Directive and Race… |
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In a resolution approved by an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament on Thursday declared that EU citizenship “should never become a tradeable commodity.” The resolution – which passed with 560 in favor, 22 opposed and 44 abstentions – is focused on Malta, which is considering granting passports to foreigners willing to invest 1.15 million euros in the small EU mem… |
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EU countries will have to allocate more funds to improve their asylum systems and the integration of migrants under an EP-Council deal backed by the civil liberties committee on Thursday. The new Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund for the next 7 years sets minimum amounts to be spent on asylum and integration policies. MEPs also endorsed the new Internal Security Fund, aimed at improving … |
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Integration practices |
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The DOKTOR project was meant to alleviate the shortage of doctors in municipal health centres in North Karelia, Finland. The project trained Russian immigrant physicians for qualification in Finland, enabling them to work as health centre physicians in the region. During the project they worked as assistants in health centres and attended a training program alongside work. The programme included t… |
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Regional Diversity Champions are appointed by Regional Parties to act as a champion within the region for promoting an equalities, diversity and widening participation ethos. They devise an annual plan of action to increase diversity through all levels of the Party and support the region to effectively deliver these activities. This good practice was collected by the Migration Policy group (MPG) i… |
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The project enhanced the inclusion of third country nationals with disabilities in Latvian society by creating a tri-lingual resource map “How to get support” about the state institutions, the social system and other important issues about Latvia for people with disabilities, including a step-by-step description of what a person must do to receive the support appropriate to his/her nee… |
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Internet webpage kutsekeel.ee consists of study guides to learn and teach specialised language (technical terminology). The aim is to gather and spread internet links about study guides, spread news about specialised language, publish articles about specialised language and contribute to the development of specialised language in vocational schools. |
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The project involved activities in information and awareness raising through a campaign launched by the Media and a meeting intending to eliminate eventual anachronistic stereotypes, phenomena of racism and xenophobia, to promote diversity, the value of interculturalism in Greek society and a tolerance for diversity. |
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The IMPACT project, co-financed by the European Integration Fund, addressed issues which prevent migrants attaining employment at the same rate and level as EU nationals. This was a transnational partnership project of agencies from five EU countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. |
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The success of the integration process is closely related to the involvement of civil society (Non Governmental Organizations – N.G.Os and Associations of Immigrants), which is a bridge between all the levels of government (national, regional, local) and the immigrants. The active participation of the civil society in the integration process strengthens all levels of government marking in pa… |
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Living Library is an informal Human Rights Education method approved by the Council of Europe - Directorate of Youth and Sport. This method aims to foster mutual understanding, tolerance and respect for Human Rights and Freedoms. It has been started in Lithuania since 2007. |
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The project has developed a model for language training in the country of origin before entering the Finnish labour market. In addition, the arriving employee is taught professional Finnish in their particular field (e.g. 'nursing Finnish' for nurses). The arriving employee is also provided with basic information about Finland and Finnish society. Language training continues shortly after arrival … |
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20 short films focusing on four fundamental aspects of daily life (family, work, art and the idea of “here and there”) were created collectively by participants of 5 different groups of migrants who live in Greece, and have trained together with Greeks in the techniques of documentary and participatory video. |
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This initiative aims to create a network of corporate volunteers (mentors) who are available to provide guidance, orientation or information to migrants (mentees) according to their needs in different areas (eg. achieving qualifications, searching for employment, entrepreneurship, health, parenting, citizenship and participation and so on). Contact is established between people who would otherwise… |
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Integrationshuset Kringlebakken is a house with many activities and a safe environment for women and girls - mainly with other ethnic backgrounds than Danish. The goal of Kringlebakken is that women, their children and girls can find support in learning Danish, gaining knowledge about how Danish society works, finding friends, participating in ordinary club activities and that girls can get help w… |
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Espace- Accueil aux Etrangers a conçu, il y a dix ans, avec le concours des intervenants des Points d’Appui et d’accès aux droits des étrangers des Bouches-du-Rhône, un logiciel dénommé PAPPU. Cet outil de gestion et d’évaluation de l’accueil des étrangers en France visait une triple finalité : la gestion informa… |
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The “Multicultural Children Day Care Centre Nicosia" has been run since 2008 by the Nicosia Municipality Multifunctional Foundation in cooperation with the Nicosia Municipality and with the support of the Social Welfare Services. The program had at the beginning the financial support of the European Social Fund. The overall aim is to offer children aged 5-12 years the possibility of having a… |
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SOS Malta in partnership with Agenzija Zghazagh undertook a project entitled "Youth Upbeat", co-financed through The European Refugee Fund Annual Programme 2011. Youth Upbeat aimed to promote integration between different sectors of Maltese society, in particular young people, and refugees or persons with humanitarian and subsidiary protection by providing opportunities for interaction and awarene… |
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Réalisation d'un film documentaire qui montre comment la danse participe d'une construction identitaire singulière et de parcours d'intégration. Cinq femmes témoignent du lien qui existe entre la danse, leurs origines culturelles, familiales, sociales, leurs rencontres, l'ouverture à l'autre, le vivre ensemble. |
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The main objective of the project is to increase the competence and the intercultural sensitivity of officers of the public services who have direct contact with third country nationals and to counteract discrimination against foreigners. Trainings organised within the framework of this project aim at, in particular, providinge participants with knowledge on how to prevent conflict situations aris… |
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Documents and publications |
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On average among OECD countries, the percentage of students with an immigrant background grew by two percentage points between 2000 and 2009. Immigrant students represent more than 5% of the student population in 13 OECD and partner countries and economies that participated in PISA 2009. In most countries, immigrant students lag behind native students in performance; in … |
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This toolkit is designed as an aid to organisations working with migrant communities to support their integration, primarily at local and regional levels. It provides guidance on the principles which should underpin projects and aim to achieve integration as “a dynamic, two-way process of mutual accommodation by all immigrants and residents of EU countries" (1st EU Common Basic Principle on … |
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In recent years increasing attention has been paid to questions about “parallel societies” in Denmark. One question concerns Muslims’ use of Imams, e.g. in connection with “Muslim marriages” and child custody. An important question has been whether other principles are used than those found in Danish law. This investigation sheds light on the use of religious-legal pr… |
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With 17% of the working-age population in 2010 being foreign-born, Austria has one of the largest shares of working-age immigrants in the OECD. As in other European OECD countries, the migration landscape in Austria has been shaped by the recruitment of low-educated labour migrants prior to the first oil shock and subsequent family migration. Even more important were the fall of the Iron Curtain i… |
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The Migration Policy Group has published a toolkit for political parties to evaluate their efforts to integrate persons with a migrant background into their ranks and formulate detailed plans to mainstream diversity in their party. Political parties' integration and diversity policies are often described and compared, and are widely publicised. Much less is known, however, about the measures whic… |
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Using the Program for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2006 data, we examine the science performance of 9.279 15-year-old children of immigrants, originating from 35 different countries, living in 16 Western countries of destination. Whereas former research has mainly paid attention to the influence of individual-level characteristics on the educational performance of immigrants, this study… |
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At a time of financial and economic crisis in Europe and elsewhere, students may feel the stress of their parents coupled with rising economic and social insecurity. For many there is also a sense of powerlessness and of things being ‘out of control’ – the financial markets seem more powerful than national governments, the welfare state seems at risk, many people wo… |
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“On behalf of the Government, the Swedish Agency for Public Management has investigated the effects of provisions concerning active measures in Sweden's anti-discrimination legislation (the Discrimination Act, 2008:567) and corresponding provisions under the now annulled statutes concerning anti-discrimination measures.” Download the document... … |
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The European Union and its member states must do more to combat discrimination against Muslims, especially in education and employment, a new report by Amnesty International, Choice and prejudice: Discrimination against Muslims in Europe, asserts today. The report focuses on Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland and documents examples of discrimination on various grounds. Downlo… |
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Diversity in the Finnish workplace is wide. The 2011 Diversity Barometer demonstrates diversity in Finnish working life in 2011, changes since 2007 and how diversity is expected to develop in the future. Download the document... |
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The King Baudouin Foundation, the Migration Policy Group, and their partners set out to test whether integration policies matched the hopes and needs of immigrants across Europe. They also set out to test whether an underused tool—a targeted survey—could capture the personal experiences of people as diverse and hard-to-reach as immigrants from outside the EU. The Immigrant Citizens Sur… |
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Since the mid-1980s, France has faced a contentious debate of crucial importance for immigrants and their descendents — defining what it means to be French. Though countries with rich histories of immigration have long accepted “dual belonging,” this concept has been criticized and perceived as at odds with a person’s commitment to French identity. A recent survey of F… |
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This briefing gives details about how many foreign citizens acquire British citizenship every year, their demographic characteristics, and the various bases for their grants of British citizenship. |
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The ongoing rise of migrant entrepreneurship in Europe is expected to contribute significantly to the integration of migrants at local level and to the economic development of their city of residence. Migrant entrepreneurship is also an important factor in the creation of new businesses and should be given greater priority in the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy of the EU by nationa… |
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There are signs of fragile economic recovery, but economic growth is unlikely to be sustained unless it is inclusive and job rich, especially while labour market and social conditions remain extremely challenging and divergence between countries is growing, according to the September special edition of the EU Employment and Social Situation Review. This publication is available online in Engl… |
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On 12 February 2013 the European Economic and Social Committee, acting under Rule 29(2) of its Rules of Procedure, decided to draw up an opinion on a more inclusive citizenship open to immigrants(own-initiative opinion).The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 3 October 2013.At i… |
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Cette circulaire n° 2013-147 du 26-8-2013 a pour objet de préciser les modalités de gestion du dispositif « Ouvrir l'école aux parents pour réussir l'intégration » au titre de l'année scolaire 2013-2014. Le dispositif « Ouvrir l'École aux parents pour réussir l'intégration » (OEP), piloté conjointeme… |
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The Annual Report on the Labour Market of Immigrants 2013, edited by the Directorate General of Immigration and Integration Policies, provides an analysis of the impact of immigration on the Italian labour market, at a time of economic uncertainty as the current one. The Report reveals that in 2012 the foreign citizens employed are about 2 million and 334 thousand, 83 thousand more than i… |
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The OECD and the European Commission have produced a new brief on evaluating policy actions for inclusive entrepreneurship. The brief covers the reasons for evaluating inclusive entrepreneurship policy, how evaluation fits into the policy cycle, and relevant tools to use in evaluation. The brief gives examples of real evaluations, showing how information was obtained and what conclusions could be … |
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Meet the Somalis is a collection of 14 illustrated stories depicting the real life experiences of Somalis in seven cities in Europe: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Leicester, London, Malmo, and Oslo. The stories allow readers a unique insight into what everyday life is like as a Somali in Europe. Meet the Somalis is based on the first hand testimonies of Somalis in Europe interviewed during six … |
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The Migration Strategy and the seven years' strategic plan related to the Asylum and Migration Fund established by the European Union for the period of 2014-2020 was adopted as a Government Decree. After setting the conceptual framework, the document analyses the present situation and sets strategic goals in five fields of migration policy: 1) visa policy 2) free movement and legal migration 3) il… |
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This research report is based on a project carried out in 2013 and titled “Promotion of equal treatment”, which aimed to analyse the promotion of equal treatment and manifestations of unequal treatment in Estonian labour market, based on ethnicity, race, skin colour and language profi ciency. As a part of the quantitativesurvey which was carried out during the project, the awareness of… |
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On 12 November 2013 the Maltese Parliament decided to offer Maltese and European citizenship at the price of € 650,000, but implementation of the law has been postponed due to strong domestic and international critiques. On 23 December, the Maltese government announced significant amendments, including a higher total amount of € 1,150,000, part of which has to be invested in real estate … |
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Protection from discrimination is one of the areas in which EU law closely affects the everyday life of people in the EU. The comprehensive framework provided by the EU's two anti-discrimination Directives has shaped the landscape of European anti-discrimination law for over a decade now. Some Member States had hardly any legislation in this field before the transposition of the two Directives, an… |
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This year’s report offers an in-depth and wide-ranging review of key labour market and social challenges facing the EU as it slowly emerges from recession. Where will Europe’s new jobs come from in an increasingly competitive global economy? Will active inclusion policies support help address rising levels of poverty among those of working age? Will the improvement in the position… |
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Chaque année, l’Etat et les collectivités territoriales allouent un budget non négligeable au financement de l’enseignement privé élémentaire et secondaire sous contrat (respectivement 6 663 et 1 483 millions d’euros en 2008). Parmi les contreparties figure pour ces établissements l’obligation de respecter le principe de non-… |
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This study presents result of research conducted from December 2012 to May 2013 by the project “Citizens Without Borders” on the application of freedom of movement and residence rights contained in the 2004/38/EC Directive in five European Union countries. The premise of the research was the alarming awareness that in many Member States, European citizens’ (and their famil… |
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