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Project Management

Co-ordination of the project

Giulia CANTALUPPI
E-mail: g.cantaluppiqec-eran.org

Tel: +32 (0) 2 524 45 45
Fax: +32 (0) 2 524 44 31

Project Presentation

General Contest

2010 will be the Year against poverty and social exclusion. The European Commission has announced a series of actions to help Member States and other actors to tackle the gaps in health and wealth which exist between and within countries in the EU where 78 million people live in poverty.

Health, Poverty and Social Exclusion are strongly inter-related concepts. Health is not only the absence of disease but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.

Everyone coming to Europe should benefit from high level of protection of their health in different aspect. The health of the population is critical to economic performance. Net migration into Europe is increasing, and is now the largest component of population change.

From IOM organization, the number of migrant population in Europe in 2010 will be 69.8 million, 9.8% of the area's population

Background

As a response to the request of The Hague Programme strengthening freedom, security and justice in the European Union 1 , the Council of 19 November 2004 adopted Common BasicPrinciples for Immigrant Integration Policy in the European Union (CBPs) 2 . In September 2005, the Commission put forward 'A Common Agenda for Integration' which constitutes a framework for developing a European approach to integration of third country nationals in the European Union 3 .

The Council Conclusions on a Common Agenda for Integration of December 2005 underlined the need to further enhance a common approach to integration policies and measures 4 . In addition, in the Council Conclusions ona Comprehensive Migration Policy, of December 2006 5 , the link between legal migration policies and integration strategies and the need for further measures to strengthen this approach were underlined.

In May 2007, an Informal Meeting of EU Ministers Responsible for integration took place in Potsdam, Germany. The following Council Conclusions on the strengthening ofintegration policies in the European Union by promoting unity in diversity of June 2007 6 stress the need to promote a global and coherent approach to integration policies, migrant flow management and co-operation with the countries of origin, as well as the complementary linkage between migration and integration. A Third Annual Report onMigration and Integration 7 , published in September 2007, analyses changes and describes actions taken on admission and integration of third-country nationals at national and EU level and provides an overview of policy developments. A Summary Report on Integration Policies and Recent Developments in the EU-25 was attached as an annex to this report.

The idea that integration is a dynamic two-way process involving both immigrants and the host society, and the need to continue to strengthen the managing of diverse society, were also emphasised. In this respect, the role of local stakeholders, including, in particular, local governments and cities in designing and implementing integration programmes was underlined.

Within this context, in order to reflect the integration strategies agreed in these policies instruments, and taking into consideration discussions within the framework of the network of National Contact Points on integration, the 2008 work programme identifies a number of priorities and objectives to be pursued through Community actions. Recommendations for successful policy initiatives, resulting from the two editions of the Handbooks on Integration for Policy-Makers and Practitioners 8 , have also been taken into account.

Project Objectives

• Establish local partnerships in partner locations engaging migrants, representatives of migrants associations, healthcare professionals, local politicians and other involved stakeholders. These people will form a Local Forum that will be involved in all the activities of the project and will feed the content of the project in terms of good practices and experience sharing. Each Local Forum will have a cross-section composition (gender-wise and cultural-wise).These working groups will have a connection with the professionals and local politicians through the organisation of collective meetings at the local level.
• Each Local Forum will undertake a local mapping in order to identify three most relevant issues in the field of Migrants health and poverty that need to be dealt with in their location.
• Transnational Exchange Programme will be built upon the findings of partners' local mappings. It will consist of Three Transnational Workshops supported by external experts where good practices, experiences and policies will be exchanged between the representatives of Local Forums, and of an on-line interactive platform (blogs, chats, individual profiles ). The platform will serve as a tool for ongoing communication, ideas sharing and a continuously growing database.
• In terms of dissemination we will produce after each Workshop a booklet with a resume of good and bad experiences and recommendations on the subject coming out from the workshop, this booklet will be translated into local languages and distributed in the places of interest: health care centres, municipalities, migrants associations, welcome centres etc .. All the materials will be also available on the website. We will also produce a final report which will bring together the conclusions from the whole project.

The project will also provide a possibility to sustain engaged work through the community of practice which will be established on the back of the on-line platform

Expected Results

The project would have the following outcomes:

• The production of three peer review exchange reports.
• The production of an "overview" report
• The production of at least 20 good practice case studies documented and at least 30 relevant documents and links to relevant organisations 
• Eight local mapping reports and linked action plans
• An online good practice exchange and development forum.
• Two local events for consultation and dissemination

Project Steering Group (PSG)

The Project Steering Group consists of one representative from each partner. The PSG is responsible for the development and implementation of an agreed action plan to achieve the project goals as well as undertaking regular monitoring of progress against stated targets and outcomes. The project steering group will meet for 2 days at the start of the project and thereafter every six months for 2 days.

Members of the Steering Group:

First Steering Group Meeting