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Highlights |
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WELCOME! This is the th 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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"La Conférence des responsables de culte en France a été créée le 23 novembre dernier et elle regroupe six instances responsables du bouddhisme, des Églises chrétiennes (catholique, orthodoxe, protestante), de l’islam et du judaïsme. Cette initiative est justifiée par la volonté d’approfondir notre connaissance mutuell… |
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Immigrant candidates in the provincial elections of March 2, 2011 were very successful. The Utrechter Ali Essousi of the Labour Party received so many votes that he climbed from 14th place to 3rd on the list. (…)Yet according to research commissioned by FORUM, the Dutch Institute for Multicultural Affairs, the ethnic origin of the candidate is not the crucial factor in the voting behaviour … |
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Another four employers have been awarded the Ethnic Friendly brand for their equal attitude to workers from minorities that IQ Roma servis has awarded since 2007. A total of 25 firms and institutions, including labour offices, large firms, NGOs and a secondary school, have been awarded it to date. The awarded firm or institution can use the black-and-white logo on its documents and web… |
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Non EU-workers are set to enjoy the same rights regarding working conditions as EU nationals, under the proposed 'single permit' law directive adopted by Parliament on Thursday. This draft law seeks to simplify procedures for both migrants and their employers via a combined permit for residence and work. The "single permit" directive, as amended by Parliament at first reading today by 311 votes t… |
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Integration efforts have had an effect, says the Rockwool Foundation. The crime rates for immigrants and their descendents from non-Western countries have declined sharply. This is the conclusion of a thorough analysis from the Rockwool Foundation Analysis Unit. In 1990, 11 per cent of second-generation immigrants from non-Western countries had committed crimes, whereas the number for 2006 is … |
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Call for proposals aiming to support projects which promote cooperation in the youth sector between Programme Countries and Partner countries other than those which are neighbours of the European Union. The cooperation is addressed to persons working in the youth sector, youth workers and youth leaders, young people themselves and other actors involved in youth organisations and structures and … |
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The funding supports cultural cooperation projects aimed at cultural exchanges between the countries taking part in the Programme and Third Countries, which have concluded association or cooperation agreements with the EU, provided that the latter contain cultural clauses. Every year one or more Third Country(ies) is/are selected for that particular year. The country(ies) is/are indica… |
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The objective of this action is to assist Member States to develop action plans on reducing health inequalities, which would also support them in the context of the structural funds activities in the next programming period beginning in 2013. The action contributes towards the implementation of Commission Communication COM(2009) 567 final of 20 October 2009 on Solidarity in health: reducing healt… |
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This action is a successor to the previous Reintegration Grants (RG). Its objective is to reinforce the European Research Area by encouraging researchers to establish themselves in a Member State or in an associated country, for example after a period of mobility. The action is designed to provide the researchers who have been offered a stable position and who are considering establishing themsel… |
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The Romanian Immigration Office has released a call for project proposals for the implementation of actions in the field of asylum procedures, reception conditions and social integrations of persons with a form of protection in Romania, with the support of financial assistance granted by the EC’s General Programme “Solidarity and management of migration flows”. The deadline for a… |
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The first Vorarlberg Integration Award 2011 rewards committed people and projects which make an active contribution to coexistence, integration and demonstrate the benefits of diversity. Read more... (in German) |
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With the current call for proposals, the Direction de l’accueil, de l’intégration et de la citoyenneté (DAIC) plans to support projects which will contribute to facilitate the integration of immigrant populations. Proposals should be submitted in one copy only, at the latest by midnight on 11 April 2011 (date of postmark). Read more (FR)... |
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Applications for funding year 2011 can now be submitted. The deadline for applications is 6 May 2011. Read more (DE)... |
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The Italian government has issued a notice on how to submit project proposals related to language training and civic education: "Azioni di sistema a valenza regionale per l’erogazione di percorsi di formazione linguistica ed educazione civica" and "Formazione linguistica, civica, orientamento al lavoro e formazione professionale". The notice is restricted to regions and autonomous provinc… |
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The European Integration Fund supports projects aimed at improving the reception and integration of newly arrived third-country nationals in Sweden.An additional call of the 2010 funds has been launched. Until March 22 you can seek financial assistance to implement projects. Read more… (in Swedish) |
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Calls for proposals for the European Integration Fund (EIF) 2010 are now open. Approximately £5.33 million is available for new EIF projects in 2010 in the 3 areas below. In each area, the minimum amount that can be applied for is £100,000 per year per project; there is no maximum amount. 1) £4.4m for Priority 1 projects that: - address capacity issues in respect of lang… |
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15 committed students with migrant background can be materially and morally supported by the START scholarship programme. A monthly training allowance, basic PC equipment, educational seminars, interesting events, a large network of committed people, and more are provided. START is a Crespo Foundation project and is supported by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Chamber… |
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Under the slogan "Melting pot of Vienna" the label Die2 Records is looking for talented young musician with an immigrant background. All music styles are welcome. Applicants must be between 15 and 25 years old, have roots in another culture and language and a stage experience. The winners of the competition will have the opportunity to perform on a large open-air stage in the centre of Vienn… |
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The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival initiative to grant scholarships to two immigrant children who are attending the Intercultural High School of the Municipality of Pylea was the subject of the press conference given on Sunday, March 12, 2011 by the undersecretary of Transportation, Spyros Vougias, and the Festival director, Dimitris Eipides. The initiative, which started last year in the frame… |
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On December 21, 2010 the Parliament of the Czech Republic passed amendment to the Act on Residence of Foreign Nationals in the territory of the Czech Republic (Act No. 326/1999 Coll., as amended). The amendment comes into force on January 1, 2011. The amendment introduces a number of important changes related to offices dealing with matters concerning stay of foreign nationals on the territory of … |
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Today the Equality and Human Rights Commission has published guidance that explains what public authorities in England and non-devolved bodies in Scotland and Wales have to do to comply with the public sector equality duty. From 6 April 2011, when this part of the Equality Act 2010 comes into force, public authorities will need to consider what they are doing to tackle discrimination, harassment … |
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The National Ombudsman is starting an investigation into the Civic Integration Act abroad. He will take a closer look into the specifications for the so-called hardship. Aliens can invoke the hardship clause in the law if they believe they are unable to meet the requirements for naturalisation. Requests made by a number of organisations are the reason for the Ombudsman to research th… |
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The Federal Government's Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration introduced to the public the newly founded Council on Integration. The advisory body is supposed to consult and support the Commissioner in fulfilling her tasks. It will be composed of up to 32 members, among which will be representatives of migrant organisations, social partners, welfare associations and academia. The b… |
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The Commission's responsibilities in the area of home affairs have been steadily growing over the last years and have been confirmed by the Stockholm Programme and its Action Plan. Home affairs policies currently include security (prevention of and fight against terrorism and organised crime; police cooperation), migration (legal and irregular immigration; integration; asylum; visa policy) and man… |
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Numerous changes have recently been made to citizenship legislation which mean that from 1 September it will become easier for foreign nationals to be granted Finnish citizenship. Most nations require would-be citizens to have been resident in that country for a certain number of years, and Finland is no different. Previously, Finland must have been the country of residence of the prospective cit… |
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The Netherlands cannot require Turkish immigrants with residence permits to follow integration courses. The ruling by the Utrecht Court of Appeals was announced on Tuesday. Last year, judges from Roermond and Rotterdam ruled in three different cases that imposing integration courses on Turkish residents of the Netherlands is in violation of agreements between Turkey and the European Union. The ap… |
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The Minister for Integration in North Rhine-Westphalia Guntram Schneider presented the draft law on the promotion of social participation and integration in North Rhine-Westphalia. "By law, we assume a leading role in Germany - we are the first region, where there will be a participation and integration law," said minister Schneider on 16 August 2011 in Düsseldorf. With the law will exist a b… |
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Living between two homelands, they do not reject any of them. The 7 out of 10 immigrants living in Greece are trying to combine the culture of their country of origin with the culture of their country of migration. And if we compare all the categories of immigrants, those are the people who have higher income, better housing, fewer general health problems and satisfactory proficiency of the Greek … |
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A WORK experience scheme to encourage migrants to become involved in politics and to increase diversity in the Oireachtas will be announced today. Four TDs and Senators have already signed up to support the EU-backed pilot project, which will enable people from migrant backgrounds to work as shadow public representatives for six months. At least 10 per cent of the population are from migrant bac… |
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The BWM Group Award for Intercultural Innovation in support of the Alliance of Civilizations, under the auspices of the United Nations (The UNAOC-BMW Group Award for Intercultural Innovation) aims to identify the most innovative grassroots projects that encourage intercultural exchange around the world. This highly competitive selection process has been set in place to guarantee that selected proj… |
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The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) has published two calls for authors. The first is for the ENAR European Shadow Report 2010/2011. The comparative EU-wide Shadow Report is based on the ENAR National Reports 2010/2011. It will cover, in a comparative manner, the same topics as outlined in the Handbook of Instructions for the ENAR National Shadow Reports 2010/2011. The Europ… |
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Integration practices |
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Migrant workers make up a large and growing part of the public sector workforce, particularly the health service and many of the outsourced areas of work, such as catering and cleaning. The proportion of migrant workers in the public sector has nearly doubled in the last ten years to 13%. And in some key growth areas such as social care they account for nearly 20% of the workforce. UNISON has s… |
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A monitoring system has been developed for the town of Eschweiler allowing the planning, implementation and evaluation of the town’s integration work. The new system is goal-oriented and allows the verification of progress on the seven fields of action identified by means of the monitoring scheme and key benchmarks. It provides the opportunity to observe whether progress is being made toward… |
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The association “Födelsehuset” (House of birth) has, in cooperation with the Public Health Committee in the region of Västra Götaland, started a project aimed at developing new methods of strengthening migrant women’s health in accordance with public health objectives. Women of migrant backgrounds with good knowledge of the Swedish language support newcomers from t… |
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Research project focusing on training 40 Bolivian women in the Barcelona area who have to tackle the new challenge of incorporating ICTs into their lives. Through this research project we attempt to understand and analyse how immigrant women interact with technology and the major problems they encounter. A primary objective is to design a training and communication strategy for immigrants. |
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The objective of the project is to fight against racism and discriminatory behaviours among young people using an innovative approach based on humour and comics. Secondary schools, youth centres and comics festivals are the scenario in which the main activities of the project will be carried out. The project includes also training courses about stereotypes, an international comics exhibition with … |
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The frameworks of accountancy differ from country to country. This is why the experience of migrant women is not implementable in the Austrian labour market. Furthermore the target group is not familiar with the Austrian labour market and the professional language (German). Therefore and to offer migrant women good possibilities in an attractive occupational field a tailor-made training course was… |
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In the project "mentor families in the workplace", seven companies succesfully established mentor family relations between the company's Danish and foreign colleagues and their families, in order to integrate and maintain employment for workers with an ethnic minority background. |
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The Intercultural Network of Ghent developed a visual dictionary with the most commonly used home care related images. This tool was created in order to overcome language barriers between elder immigrants and home caretakers. |
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Our work is based on 3 strategies: Guidance on the process of recognition of academic qualifications by Spanish government bodies for professional immigrants. Information on integration and employment opportunities according to educational levels. Enhancing the visibility of professional immigration within the Spanish labour market through socialisation, interculturality a… |
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MEESP aims to reduce unemployment by improving the employability of minority ethnic individuals by supporting them to identify and tackle their personal barriers to entering and competing effectively in the labour market. In addition to experiencing and being disadvantaged by general employability issues such as lack of confidence and the ability to market themselves throughout all aspects of the … |
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The Etnoweb project was created to improve communication between various cultural organisations and minority communities, and everyone who could be interested in the information provided - mass media, government, foundations or people interested in national cultures. |
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FINFO has been developed to assist people during their initial stages of their stay in Finland as well as to give information to those who are to move to the country. FINFO provides guidance on society, legislation and on how to find the relevant public services. FINFO is a nationwide service and includes an advice line where the client can get the needed information via telephone or email direc… |
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LAUTC – Learn About Us Through Culture organised cultural events to promote intercultural dialogue. LAUTC is based on a learning methodology developed by UNESCO called “Four Pillars of Education” which promotes participatory active learning. The project had four objectives: To develop good practices applicable at EU level that values cultural events and their response… |
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In Cardiff, as elsewhere, limited knowledge of English, local culture and laws, make asylum seekers vulnerable to being categorized as both victim and perpetrator of new and unwelcome incidents by their new communities. South Wales police decided to work together with local ESOL providers to build understanding of the role of the police in the UK. The result was the first police-led ESOL classes … |
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Documents and publications |
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This cluster synopsis provides an overview of 19 research projects dealing with ‘European pluralism, religions, tolerance and values’. The projects address issues such as the balance between individual and societal needs, notions of respect for otherness, and the role of pluralist societies in responding to increasing levels of diversity. This research will make a significant contribut… |
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ENARs European Shadow Report draws on 27 national shadow reports prepared by ENAR members across the European Union and Croatia. It identifies communities vulnerable to racism and presents an overview of manifestations of racism in a range of areas, as well as an assessment of the legal and political context and responses by governments. The report reveals that across Europe, ethnic and religious… |
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The handbook is the first publication to present and explain the body of non-discrimination law stemming from the European Convention on Human Rights and European Union law as a single, converging legal system. The substance of non-discrimination law is set out according to the definitions of direct and indirect discrimination as elaborated through the European Convention on Human Rights (includi… |
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Despite the groundbreaking antidiscrimination legislation recently transposed into law in the European Union, there remains a gap between the legal protections afforded to individuals on paper and their implementation on the ground. Most minority groups in the EU say they experience some form of discrimination, yet few report these incidents to authorities—either because they believe that no… |
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EU Member States received a total of 3.8 million immigrants and at least 2.3 million emigrants are reported to have left one of the EU Member States in 2008. Compared with 2007, immigration to EU Member States is estimated to have decreased by 6% and emigration to have increased by 13%. The scale and patterns of immigration differ from one Member State to another. This issue looks at the main in… |
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At the start of each year the Netherlands Institute for Social Research presents a new publication. For the year 2011 the theme choosen was COLOR and its representation in societal and cultural changes in the Netherlands. The Chapter Blank, zwart, geel of rood, written by Jaco Dagevos; page 79 presents the current debate in the Netherlands on "ethnic" registration; in other words registering race… |
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Berlin is the first German Federal State to introduce a distinct integration act. The Act to regulate Participation and Integration in Berlin came into force on December 29, 2010 and is geared at boosting options for people with a migration background to be employed in public services or enterprises owned by the City State of Berlin. Furthermore, religious diversity is to respected and taken into … |
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L’expérimentation du CV anonyme conduite entre novembre 2009 et novembre 2010 avait pour objectif de mesurer son impact sur la réduction des discriminations à l’embauche et de tester les conditions de sa mise en oeuvre. Elle devait également fournir les éléments d’arbitrage sur le contenu du décret susceptible de rendre obligatoire… |
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Many European countries have seen high levels of immigration from all parts of the world in the past two decades and the population of visible minority ethnic groups has grown rapidly. This report presents the results of a research programme analysing the quality of life in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in EU15 countries based on the 2007 European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS). The findings co… |
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This report presents an overview of the employment and working conditions of nationals with a foreign background (NFB) and nationals with a different ethnic affiliation (NEA) based on reports from national correspondents. It highlights the scarcity of relevant data on these groups in EU countries and the different interpretation of EU legislation in debates across the EU27 on ethnic data collectio… |
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This publication presents a reflection on the integration concepts and approaches currently in use across Europe, with a view to exploring whether conceptual changes in European policy debates should be introduced that would lead to a better understanding of and more effective policies on integration. It proposes defining integration policies in terms of the engagement of citizens and residents in… |
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This report aims to present the findings of an international conference titled “Promoting Migrant Integration through Media and Intercultural Dialogue” held in Budapest, Hungary, 16 – 18 May 2011. The conference was organized under the auspices of the Hungarian EU Presidency, jointly by the Ministry of Interior of Hungary and the International Organization for Migrati… |
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En septembre 2001, Sciences Po lançait un programme pionnier en matière d’égalité des chances : les Conventions Education Prioritaire (CEP). Dix ans après, que deviennent les diplômés issus du dispositif ? Le programme contribue-t-il à la diversification sociale de Sciences Po ? Vincent Tiberj, docteur en Science politique, chercheur … |
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