«Fun and functional» are the target-orientated watchwords of the new city strategy laid down by Helsinki to significantly simplify the administrative structures of the Finnish capital, and they also apply to the city’s work on integration. An example of this is the «Skill centre» project which provides a one-stop-shop for work-orientated educational measures for refugees and other target groups, using various innovative approaches.
Helsinki’s integration policy was, however, just one of the topics on the table at a Eurocities meeting of the Migration and Integration working group, which featured 30 participants from 23 different cities. There were also discussions on the collaboration with the UNHCR, the «Urban Partnership on Migration», the basic rights of «Sans Papiers» (people without legal documents), as well as on current developments both in individual cities and across the EU. This revealed, amongst other things, problems affecting many cities, namely that at present, only 23% of rejected asylum-seekers are returned to their homelands. Also, many of the unaccompanied minors who came to the EU in 2015 are now over the age of 18 and have been refused asylum, and that popular acceptance of refugees is now at very low levels, with Latvia for example having 50% of the population with a negative impression of migrants from EU countries – a figure which rises to no less than 86% for migrants from non-member countries.
Christof Meier, Urban Development, Department of the Mayor
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