March 24, 2009

Webinar: Routes to belonging: the role of cities in the civic and political integration of immigrants. Click here to view archived webinar.

The first event in our 2009 series is on the role of cities in accelerating the civic and political integration of immigrants, with city representatives from Dublin and New Haven, Connecticut. Join us for a 60 minute seminar about successful municipal integration strategies, introduced by Howard Duncan, International Metropolis project, and hosted by Ratna Omidvar, Maytree. Revised participants include:

Cormac O’Donnell, Strategic Policy Manager, Intercultural Unit
Dublin City Council (Ireland)

Kica Matos, Community Services Administrator
City of New Haven, Connecticut (USA)

Howard Duncan, Executive Head, International Metropolis
Project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (Canada)

Both of these cities are featured in our Good Ideas in Integration collection for their groundbreaking work: Dublin for its recent immigrant voting campaign, and New Haven for its brave “Elm City ID” card for non citizens, the first of its kind in the USA.

Click here for archived webinar. For further information: citiesofmigration@maytree.com

Time: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 (Past event)

Registration is closed. These are free, open learning events.*
* Registration is limited, so please register early.
* No special technical requirements; see registration for details.

Participant Bios

Kica Matos
Community Services Administrator
City of New Haven, Connecticut

Kica Matos is the Community Services Administrator with the City of New Haven, Connecticut. Ms. Matos is formerly the Executive Director of Junta for Progressive Action, New Haven’s oldest Latino, community based organization. She is also a clinical visiting lecturer in law at Yale Law School. For most of her adult life, she has devoted herself to advocacy in the area of human rights and civil rights, working in non-profit organizations including Amnesty International and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In 2005 she was the recipient of the national “New Frontier” award.

Cormac O’Donnell,
Strategic Policy Manager, Intercultural Unit
Dublin City Council

Cormac O’Donnell is the Strategic Policy Manager of the Intercultural Unit of Dublin City Council. He has undertaken and overseen an array of research and consultative work in the areas of housing, social inclusion, new community development, interculturalism and integration and led the development of policy and practice at local government level. In 2008 Cormac coordinated Dublin’s 2008 Migrant Voters Registration Initiative. Cormac’s was awarded a 2008 ‘Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Award’ for his work with the Central-Eastern European Network.

Howard Duncan
Executive Head, International Metropolis Secretariat
Ottawa, Canada

Howard Duncan is the Executive Head, International Metropolis Secretariat, Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Metropolis is an international network for comparative research and public policy development on migration, diversity, and immigrant integration in cities in Canada and around the world.

In 1997, Howard joined the Metropolis Project as its International Project Director and became the Executive Head of International Metropolis in 2002. He has concentrated on increasing the Project’s benefits to the policy community by creating effective opportunities for direct and frank exchange between researchers, practitioners, and policy makers, increasing Metropolis’ geographic reach, and expanding the range of issues it confronts.

Ratna Omidvar
President, Maytree
Toronto, Canada

Ratna Omidvar is President of Maytree. Maytree is a private Canadian charitable foundation established in 1982, committed to reducing poverty and inequality in Canada and to building strong civic communities. Maytree is Canada’s only private foundation that focuses on the acceleration of immigrant and refugee settlement. Maytree has developed well-recognized in-house expertise on creating and implementing practical solutions through its programs, policy insights and grants. As an independent voice, Maytree has demonstrated its capacity to raise public awareness and to speak on the issue of immigrant inclusion from a basis of fact and substance, and in the interest of nation building.

Ratna also serves as a director of the Toronto City Summit Alliance. She was the first executive director of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) and is its founding chair. In 2006, Ratna was appointed to the Order of Ontario.

Thanks to everyone who joined us on Tuesday, March 24th, for the our first Learning Exchange event, “Routes to Belonging: the role of cities in the civic and political integration of immigrants”. My name is Kim Turner and as the project lead for Cities of Migration, I can say that after months of work it was thrilling for the Cities of Migration team here at Maytree to have over 120 participants from over 36 global cities including Madrid, LA, Essen, Belfast, The Hague, London… and many others. Even better was the way that particpating cities began connecting directly to one another - our chat log shows Malmo talking to Boston and Vancouver, London talking to Dublin and so on. That kind of direct city to city conversation, whether in our hosted forum or directly offline is what this project - and this blog space is all about, broadening the lens on “integration” by connecting people to great ideas.

If you missed it or if you would like to take another look or listen to the presentation, please click on: Routes of Belonging for a recording of the event.

Over the next couple of weeks our presenters Kica Matos from New Haven and Cormac O’Donnell from Dublin will be responding to particpant questions that we couldn’t get to. In the meantime, we invite you to post your thoughts and comments on some of the issues we discussed, such as:

What is the role of cities in accelerating the civic and political integration of immigrants?

And if the term “integration” means something different in every country, where is the common ground for how to improve the quality of integration in our global cities?

The first event in our 2009 series was on the role of cities in accelerating the civic and political integration of immigrants, with city representatives from Dublin and New Haven, Connecticut, and introductory remarks from International Metropolis.

Each of these cities is featured in our Good Ideas in Integration collection for its groundbreaking work: Dublin for its recent immigrant voting campaign and New Haven for its brave “Elm City ID” card for non citizens, the first of its kind in the USA.

Over 120 participants joined us from across Europe and North America. You will see some of their questions and comments below. You can access the archived webinar here.

The reality of migration is stressful - for both the immigrant and the host communities. Long term residents of a city may feel displaced, threatened and suspicious of the newcomers. When left unaddressed, these emotions become the root cause of social and cultural tension.

Truly successful integration involves practices that allow both groups to adjust and build a genuine relationship. The value of this relationship building is at the heart of the Bremen-based integration program called “Mentoren für Migranten” (memi) or Mentors for Migrants.

German families volunteer to “sponsor” immigrant families as mentors in order to help them get started and adjusted to their new lives. Along the way, both groups have the opportunity to learn about each other and build their relationships.

The Memi program was started by Diana Altun, the 26 year old granddaughter of a Turkish migrant who first came to Germany to work in the local steel mill. The program is built on the idea that genuine social integration comes from mutual acceptance and tolerance between different population groups.

“Most [migrant] families don’t want help with concrete kinds of things [e.g. visiting authorities or handling paperwork]. For them, it is all about getting to know someone from their new cultural sphere. The ideal result is friendship between two families. If they simply part ways after a year, then our program has failed in its efforts.”

The mentoring project is the only one of its kind in Germany at the moment, although it has received a great deal of interest from other cities and states. The program has had over 131 participants from many different countries of origin and resulted in strong, longterm connections across two generations -both the parents and their children. Diana Altun’s fresh idea has turned into a successful project and is now funded by the Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees.

For a selection of library resources related to this Good Idea, see sidebar at right.

The increased focus on the quality of our physical and natural environment is theoretically open to and for the benefit of everyone. And yet, the reality is that “immigration”, “inclusion” and “the environment” are still not often issues that overlap - even though new-comer and low income communities are often the most vulnerable to environmental hazards.

For instance, the Excelsior District in the Southeast area of San Francisco is the only district in the city where the majority of residents are foreign born. The District also has the lowest per capita income in the city ($19, 176 USD) and is ground zero for traffic pollution.

Relative to the city at large, this community experiences significantly reduced air quality as a result of pollution from short cut diesel truck routes, diesel buses and a steady stream of toxic dust coming from the freeway and busy through-fares in the neighborhood.

Commercial and industrial trucks regularly travel through the neighborhood and traffic in the Excelsior has been measured as being two to three times higher than in other neighborhoods. The majority of buses that service the neighborhoods are still diesel vehicles as opposed to new hybrid buses.

The result is that Excelsior residents are being disproportionately exposed to environmental health risks and for six years in a row, the neighborhood has had the highest overall number of people hospitalized for asthma.

In 2004, People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (”PODER”), along with the Chinese Progressive Association and the Environmental Law & Justice Clinic at Golden Gate University, launched the “Immigrant Power for Environmental Health & Justice Initiative” to empower the low-income and immigrant communities in Southeast San Francisco to address their exposure to these environmental hazards.

PODER is a grassroots, environmental justice organization located in the San Francisco’s Mission district but that works with communities throughout the Southeast side of San Francisco in neighborhoods like the Excelsior, Portola, Visitacion Valley, and Bayview Hunters Point. PODER works to organize immigrant families to find local solutions to the issues they collectively face by actively involving them in decision making process.

As a result, the goal of the “Immigrant Power Initiative” program was not to simply advocate for environmental changes on behalf of the afflicted communities but to actually empower them to become their own advocates and through this, improve their access to and participation in health, environmental programs and policy making.

To do this, the “Immigrant Power Initiative” went into the community to train members to use technical devices to monitor pollution. This enabled the community to track pollution levels independent of both city government and outside providers and to have the information to challenge scientific analysis that did not reflect their lived experiences. Education seminars helped the community understand and be able to navigate and lobby the government to bring about change in their communities. Art and other creative activities were also used to communicate important information about environmental health and justice.

Success…

Just as the “Immigrant Power Initiative” was the result of the joint effort between PODER, the Chinese Progressive Association and the Environmental Law & Justice Clinic at Golden Gate University, training members from across the community enabled them to learn about and build alliances across traditional and cultural divides. It also increased the reach and network of community leaders who were now familiar with how to negotiate the political system to change and support an issue that they are all invested in.

It is a long-term effort but their have been regular victories along the way.

For instance, most recently PODER has been working to lobby the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (MTA) which regulated one of the leading sources of pollution in immigrant neighborhoods - diesel exhaust and matter coming from medium and large sized trucks. Based on both PODERS own independent research (at one residential intersection in the Excelsior volunteers counted over 107 medium and big trucks passing over the hour period and amounting to 10% of the overall traffic) as well as that of the Public Health Department, the Excelsior District was identified as having over 17 hot spots where diesel pollution is being linked to sickness. Leaders from PODER and the Chinese Progressive Association have been lobbying the MTA Board of Directors and Supervisors to overhaul how the city plans for traffic in their neighborhoods. Community residents testified on the impact that this pollution is having on their health and lives and helped lobby and rally to show their support.

On Monday November 17th, 2008, celebration was in order when the Board of Supervisors of the MTA took its first step to pass a resolution that would require the MTA to plan for health and environmental justice and reduce the diesel pollution in these communities.

It has come to our attention that Tariq Ramadan has been removed from his posts as community adviser to the city of Rotterdam and visiting lecturer on religion at Erasmus University. Regardless of this recent turn of events, Cities of Migration remains impressed with the initiative taken by the City of Rotterdam to co-sponsor an academic appointment with the university to help interpret and implement its integration policies and advance its “urban citizenship” model. –Kim Turner, Cities of Migration, September 3, 2009.

Cities around the world are seeking new ways to create and encourage effective dialogue between cultural communities, new immigrants and the larger community.

As part of their efforts, the city of Rotterdam has recruited a high profile and recognized international commentator to draw greater attention to integration issues and foster the sort of proactive discussion that can prevent racial and religious tensions from building.

As a platform for this, the municipality of Rotterdam has provided the funding for the creation of the Chair in “Identity and Citizenship” (Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of History and Arts) at Erasmus University. This Chair is part of the city’s commitment to urban citizenship.

On May 11, 2006 the City announced an official commitment to “Urban Citizenship” in reference to their adoption of an integrated framework for all activities in Rotterdam during the 2006-2010 political term - with a focus on the areas on integration, participation, emancipation and citizenship.

Following on this commitment, on January 1 2007, renowned philosopher and theologian Prof. Dr. Tariq Ramadan was appointed as the Visiting Professor in charge of the Chair: “Citizenship and Identity” at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, a position he will hold for a two year tenure. In this role, he will advise the city of Rotterdam within the context of the “Citizenship, Identity and Sense of Belonging Project.”

Ramadan is a Swiss Muslim academic with a focus in Islamic Theology. He has been ranked by Prospect and Foreign Policy as the 8th most influential contemporary intellectuals in the world. He holds an MA in Philosophy and French literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, he had training in classic Islamic scholarship at Al-Azhar University.

He is also a Senior Research Fellow at St. Antony’s College (Oxford), Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan) and at the Lokahi Foundation (London), as professor of Islamic Studies. He is also the president of the European think tank: European Muslim Network (EMN) in Brussels.

Dr. Ramadan is recognised for his reformist views on Islam, including his emphasis on the difference between religion and culture (which he believes are too often confused) and belief that citizenship and religion are separate concepts.

Urban Citizenship for all Rotterdammer

There are over 1 million Muslims living in the Netherlands and they represent 5.8% of the population and are mostly concentrated in the urban areas such as Rotterdam.

The City of Rotterdam hopes that by appointing an international figure to the lead the integration debate it will help to build trust and mutual knowledge between the both Muslims and Non-Muslims. Dr. Ramadan will be working not only at the university but will also bring the debate to schools, mosques and community centres particularly around the issued of education, employment and media and perception.

Ramadan conducted an extensive city tour of Rotterdam in the spring of 2007, asking various groups how to to develop a model of urban citizenship that recognized the contribution of each citizen and could contribute to a collective sense of belonging. Among the programs resulting from this consultation are a series of education initiatives aimed at building bridges between cultural communities.

For example, with Tariq Ramadan’s co-operation, the City of Rotterdam has recently launched the ‘Joining Hands against Forced Marriages’ campaign. The project began as a local initiative led by SPIOR and is aimed primarily at the Muslim community.

The Europe-wide campaign on forced marriage has been launched in other cities, including Brussels, Paris, Madrid, London, Berlin and Bologna. A booklet published by SPIOR about forced marriages has been translated for the purpose of the European campaign into English, German, French, Italian and Spanish and will be distributed in six European countries.

Whether it’s the launch of a new car, the release of a new movie or an upcoming political campaign advertising in all its forms (print, radio, television and direct marketing) remains the most effective tool to help get a message out and to bring a target audience or consumer base on board.

When the local steel industry began slowing down, the City of Werdohl in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany started observing that the rise in economic tension was leading to increased stress between immigrant groups and the German population. In response, they decided to launch a professional marketing and public relations campaign to address the situation and change people’s views and perceptions.

At over 20%, Werdohl has the highest percentage of foreign born residents in the North Rhine Westphalia region, most of whom have a Turkish background. The Turkish community was particularly impacted by the growing unemployment, with over 38% of the workers laid off from the steel plants being of Turkish background. A consequence of this disproportionate rise in unemployment in the Turkish community was a growing reluctance to integrate with the larger community.

The City Werdohl saw the public relations and marketing campaign as a means to reach out and directly involve the Turkish community in city life and stop the increasing geographic and class segregation that was occurring around Werdohl.

The key message of the campaign was that integration was important and necessary to city life. What made the campaign particularly unique was that the City of Werdohl designed the campaign with the immigrant community and not just about or for them.

Beginning in 2003, the city enlisted in the help of the Institut für interkulturelle Management- und Politikberatung (IMAP, Institute for Intercultural Management and Policy advisory), to develop and implement this campaign.

Together, they worked to build relationships with representatives from the mosques and other community organizations to persuade them to collaborate on the development of the integration campaign. Direct contact and involvement with leaders from the Turkish community resulted in increased contact beyond the immediate community, advancing campaign goals right from the start and shaping both the messages and authenticity of the campaign. By reaching out to women’s groups at mosques, schools and community centers, Turkish women also became involved in the campaign.

The final campaign involved the creation and strategic distribution of flyers, posters and leaflets as well as an email campaign that targeted stakeholders and community members. Corporate sponsors provided funding; schools and other education establishments as well as local businesses all supported the campaign through their newsletters and networks. As a result, the campaign culminated in a series of successful community and neighborhood forums.

The final result was a full professional campaign on the role and necessity of integration that both reflected the concerns of the Turkish and immigrant community while directly reaching out to the larger German community. Among the promotional tactics used were surveys that showed that both immigrants and German born residents felt that it was possible to overcome cultural differences. These results were widely published throughout the city. To move perception away from the problems and instead to focus on the successes, the City of Werdohl began regularly featuring successful integration policies and stories in the main newspapers, radio and television stations. They also prominently featured these positive stories in the Turkish community papers.

For a selection of library resources related to this Good Idea, see sidebar at right.

Hier geht es zur Fallstudie auf der Seite Demographie Konkret (Bertelsmann Stiftung): Werdohl - Werbekampagnen in Stadtteilen.