Are you involved in supporting inclusion and participation of migrants in your city?

A particular area of focus for UNIC CityLabs is Diversity and Inclusion. Under this theme, a number of CityLabs are exploring how we can better support inlcusion of migrants in our cities.

Through this initiative, led by Cork, our network of ten UNIC University and City partners extend an open invitation to grassroots, community and civil society organisations who provide migrant services and supports in our cities to connect with us and with each other on this topic.

We will host an online meeting in Autumn 2022 to open dialogue between community actors across the UNIC network. In advance and as first steps organisations and services are invited to:

1. Add yourself to this open map- Simply:
   • Use the Red Plus Sign(+) button and type your address or city
   • Use the orange link icon to insert a link to your webpage or Facebook
   • Type your organisation name as title and add a nominated contact name and email adress for us to keep you informed on the iniative and Autumn event

2. Share your examples of what works well on this open noticeboard

• During the the discussions so far, many people from the diverse European cities shared examples of activities and strategies from their cities. These highlighted what, in their experience, works well to reduce barriers and support participation of migrants in politics and as active members of society. The group identified that this a practical way of sharing and learning from each other. This tool provides a platform for this - for organisations and groups to showcase their own activities or projects, browse what's worked well elsewhere and learn from each other's experience.
• Simply use the plus icom (+) to add a post with a link, picture, text or upload a PDF to share your examples.

About the Initiative:

CityLabs Cork (Ireland) have worked in partnership with community organisations on exploring barriers and opportunities to political participation of migrant and minorities, for grass-roots, bottom up and community-led dialogue.

Many issues, barriers and oportunities identified were related and relevant to inclusion of migrants as active participants in wider society (e.g. racism, language, participation in labour market or educational opportunities), whilst other specific barriers and opportunities exist in relation to participation in politics.

During the process, community partners in Cork identified a key opportunity - that it would be of added value and benefit to local actions and services to create ways to better connect grassroots services and supports across the UNIC cities, for shared learning, experience, exchange and possible collaborative action.

This idea was brought to a workshop with European partners in June and there was a strong appetite to take the idea forward.