Antwerp, Pesaro, Vantaa, Warsaw and Zagreb pledge to create inclusive cities for refugees and migrants

The Integrating Cities Charter now has 46 signatories

On the evening of 16 November 2022, at the 10^th edition of the Integrating Cities Conference in Utrecht, the cities of Antwerp, Pesaro, Vantaa, Warsaw and Zagreb signed the Integrating Cities Charter, joining the 42 cities in this initiative.

By becoming signatories, cities commit to providing equal opportunities for all residents and to embracing and promoting the diversity of their populations.

Eurocities – the network of more than 200 major cities in Europe – launched the Charter in 2010. It sets out cities’ commitments to the integration of migrants in their role as policymakers, service providers, employers and buyers of goods and services.

The signing ceremony was hosted by the Deputy Mayor of Utrecht, Rachel Streefland and by Eurocities Secretary General, André Sobczak.

Every two years, Eurocities produces a monitoring report assessing the progress signatory cities have made in implementing the charter. This year’s edition shows that while responding to immediate challenges and crises, cities never stop implementing policies for the broader integration of migrant communities.

For instance, more and more cities report having developed a strategic vision of their identity, promoting inclusion, the fight against hate speech and discrimination as the backbone of all work done in the city administrations.

In recent years, cities also further increased the cooperation with migrant-led organisations and moved towards a more inclusive form of decision-making by relying on the unique knowledge of migrants to shape their policies. This important topic of co-design with migrants themselves is further explored in Eurocities’ current project UNITES.

In addition to promoting transnational learning and foster real change on the ground, the partners have produced four toolkits to guide cities willing to develop integration strategies, improve the gender dimension of their integration activities, foster the labour market integration of migrants or set up a one-stop-shop.