On April 22, global cities and local neighbourhoods around the world celebrated Earth Day and our shared role in supporting our planet. At Cities of Migration, we take pride in the way our webinars are able to connect global cities and bring people together around good ideas -with no carbon footprint. In recognition of Earth Day, we invite you to look at some Good Ideas on environment and stories about healthy cities.

Newcomer populations are often the most vulnerable to environmental hazards, due to deficits in local housing and neighbourhood  or in workplaces where they may be unaware of their rights and  responsibilities (see, for example, Bologna’s Chinese textile workers).

Cultural diversity and the environment are still terms that don’t always overlap. However, this is changing. Groups like People Organising to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER) from San Francisco’s Southeast neighbourhood recognize that economic, environmental and racial justice are interconnected and can be addressed effectively by unifying community voice.

Healthy cities?  Explore community gardening in East London, or follow Copenhagen’s lead and get on your bike!  Toronto has.

The Toronto Cyclist’s Union and CultureLink are making their city a healthy, safe place for all Torontonians.  This spring, the Toronto Cyclists Union and CultureLink received the 2010 Innovation of the Year Award from  US-based Alliance for Biking and Walking for it’s Partnership for Integration and Sustainable Transportation. The partnership promotes cycling among newcomers to Toronto with posters, a Cyclists Handbook, and workshops available in 16 of the city’s most commonly spoken languages.

Yvonne Bambrick, Executive Director of the Toronto Cyclists Union: “This project is helping us to grow roots in Toronto’s diverse communities, and to exchange knowledge about sustainable habits here and around the world.”

For more environmental Good Ideas see:

• San Francisco – Traffic! Advocating for Environmental Health
• Auckland – Twin Streams Project: Common Ground for Environmental Sustainability
• East London: Digging in for Community
• New York – Engaging Newcomers in City Parks
• Copenhagen – Integration in Action: Cycling Lessons for Better Social Inclusion
• Bristol – The Bristol Bike Project

E Pluribus Unum Awards for 2010

Upwardly Global

Cities of Migration would like to congratulate the 2010 winners of the E Pluribus Unum Awards!  We are especially excited to report that two of the winners have previously been featured as Cities of Migration Good Ideas: from the City of Durham the Latino Community Credit Union, and from New York City, Upwardly Global.

The E Pluribus Unum Prizes were established lat year (2009) to recognize excellence in the immigrant integration field in the United States and help us learn more about US initiatives working to strengthen the relationships between native-born and foreign born Americans in order to create stronger, more unified and successful communities.

The awards program is coordinated by the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy (NCIIP) – a hub for groups and individuals around the United States who seek to build their knowledge and skills in the area of immigrant integration.  The four annual $50,000 USD prizes are funded by the J.M. Kaplan Fund with the goal of inspiring and providing program models to others around the United States who might also undertake such efforts.

For further examples of E Pluribus Unum Award Winners, see also:

• New York City: Staying In Touch: The Library Responds To A Changing Community

Our first international conference, From Migration to Integration: An Opportunity Agenda for Cities, The Hague, October 3-4, 2010, is a two-day event that brings together international city leaders, migration experts and local practitioners in a practical dialogue on one of the most important global challenges facing cities today: the integration of urban newcomers.

Join us for a dynamic event designed to engage urban leadership on this essential dimension of city prosperity and growth. Explore the opportunity agenda, find out why cities matter and what we can learn from 100 Good Ideas in Integration.

The conference is convened in association with the City of The Hague and the 15th International Metropolis, “Justice and Migration, Paradoxes of Belonging.”

For more information, visit the 2010CoM conference website!

Last month, our learning exchange showcased two good ideas which support financial inclusion by creating opportunity and providing financial tools. The webinar featured, Fair Finance, a Good Idea that began in Dhaka Bangladesh and made its way to the streets of East London to address unethical lending practices. From the City of Barcelona, we featured Barcelona Activa, a good idea that is supporting the entrepreneurial sprit of newcomers.

• Missed it? You can download the Presentation (PDF)
• Why not re-play the whole event? Watch the Webinar Recording!

Good Ideas about successful integration practice are easy to export and are traveling from city to city. It makes good sense. Proven solutions, tested program models and peer recognition all add up to better outcomes, reduced risk and cost savings.  At Cities of Migration, our Good Ideas also travel from reader to reader. We want to share these stories with you.

On the trail of Good Ideas…

This month Valeisha, from Toronto, connects a Good Idea about Chinese textile workers in Bologna to Mauritius and French Europe. Do you have a story to share ? contact us: citiesofmigration@maytree.com

Name: Valeisha Sobhee, Human Resources & Communications Professional

Her Cities: Vacoas to Cambridge to Montreal to Toronto

The Good Idea that really caught my eye was: Bologna’s “Social Justice Is Better Business: Integrating the Chinese Business Community Into the Mainstream”.

Why: Mauritius welcomes temporary Chinese workers; the good idea acknowledges the presence of a foreign community and actively seeks to build a bridge, through translated manuals, and by using Chinese radio programs to transmit ideas and tools to help that community integrate better. This leads to improved quality of life for the workers and businesses, rather than letting them live in an artificial and isolated bubble within the country.

How did you share it: I forwarded it in English to some of my Mauritian friends through social media. Those are people who somewhere down the line may be policy makers or are already socially involved. Such practical ideas can be adapted and implemented locally. I also forwarded the French version of the article to my French family. They are based in Europe, and it can be interesting to open their perspective to this reality and the actions that can be taken.

Any feedback: Some people were surprised at the realisation that “Made in Italy” can also be “Made by Chinese”. The whole idea of proactively integrating foreign workers is still a work in progress and the feedback was that it’s refreshing to see how easy it can be.

We are interested in what you think about our Good Ideas, and your own experiences. If you have a story to share, please contact us at citiesofmigration@maytree.com.

Meet the Fundación Bertelsmann, our new partner in Spain. We are delighted to be able to introduce you to some of the foundation’s history, their mission and our work together.

Located in Barcelona , Fundación Bertelsmann was founded in 1995 as the independent ‘sister’ of our German partner, the Bertelsmann Stiftung (Gütersloh), with a focus on developing the reading and media culture in Spain.  This work resulted in major efforts to benchmark 20 public libraries and promote cooperation between public libraries and schools in seven Spanish cities.

Strong economic development during these years made Spain one of the top immigrant-receiving countries in the European Union, requiring cities like Barcelona to devise and implement new initiatives that are redefining neighbourhoods like Tot Raval and community relationships on a daily basis.

As part of its ten year anniversary, Fundación Bertelsmann responded to these new realities by shifting its focus to the promotion of civic engagement in Spanish communities and enhanced dialogue and exchange between different cultures.  In partnership with the Fundación Bertelsmann, Cities of Migration will be bringing more Good Ideas to you from cities around Spain in the months ahead and making them available in Spanish!

Fundación Bertelsmann:
A Pioneering Institution in Civic Responsibility

Since it began its work in Spain in 1995, Fundación Bertelsmann has become a catalysing institution for social reflection and a meeting point for intellectuals, business men and women, politicians and citizens, always seeking to foster the positive progress of Spanish society through a combination of analysis and action.

The initiative, developed by Reinhard Mohn and now led by his wife, Liz Mohn, has shaped a pioneering institution in social development, whose work is based on three major objectives:

1. Promoting social change by identifying latent social challenges;
2. Preparing society for the future by providing it with the competences that will enable sustainable development; and,
3. Contributing to the promotion of social responsibility, based upon the conviction that community involvement is the essential pillar of social progress.

These objectives are being fulfilled through innovative projects for creating community foundations, managing cultural diversity, raising awareness of a value-based business culture and the fostering of youth participation. The common denominator in these four large projects is the Foundation’s capacity to lead its ideals forward and attract specialised talent in each subject, thus enabling it to create multi-disciplinary work teams that are in direct contact with the social reality. After leading the phases for identifying challenges, proposing and broadcasting solutions, the Foundation stewards the transfer of successful projects to independent institutions in associated areas of interest, thus leading to the consolidation and sustainable development of the concept.

In the areas of immigration and cultural diversity, Fundación Bertelsmann pours its efforts into spreading good practices among different groups, with the aim of achieving a strong social impact: on the one hand, it engages in activities focused on children and young people, whose primary setting is the school; on the other hand, it is partnering with the international Cities of Migration project to identify examples of good integration practices on Spain where active community engagement has actively contributed to local success.

Community foundations, institutions devised and managed by citizens to improve their surroundings, are the instrument through which the Fundación Bertelsmann promotes community involvement. Five foundations in Spain have already joined the network created in 2009 and another two are in the process of joining. Thanks to this initiative, towns all over Spain have managed to involve numerous institutions, businesses and people, confirming that involvement can serve as a powerful generator of development. Cities of Migration will be profiling the work of Fundación Bertelsmann with Spain’s first community Foundation, Fundacio Tot Raval, in the coming weeks.

With regards to promoting a value-based business culture, we highlight our in-depth analysis of the current situation in this area through publications and meetings: the most notable example of these being the annual Dialogue and Action conference that Fundación Bertelsmann organises to encourage debate about an active civil society.

In the youth area, Fundación Bertelsmann drove the “TO2 for youth participation” initiative, a project that began in 2007 to promote young people’s participation in society. Its innovative philosophy has succeeded in awakening the interest of numerous public and private Spanish institutions. The Foundation has also made numerous materials available to the educational community, families and many young people to guide them towards success in their entrepreneurial activities. From a youth website (www.todosporlaparticipacion.org) to a comic book (“Jóvenes emprendedores sociales”), we explore different forms of communication to raise awareness among Spanish youth and to create a growing culture of young social entrepreneurs.

For Spanish Good Ideas see:

• Barcelona – Barcelona Activia
• Barcelona – Tot Raval (a Good Idea We Are Watching…)

Fore more information about Cities of Migration in Spain, please contact:

Monique Dissarz

Fundación Bertelsmann
Pg. Picasso, 16
08003 Barcelona
Tel.: + 34 93 268 72 34
Fax: + 34 93 268 71 73
e-mail: monique.dissarz@fundacionbertelsmann.org
URL: www.fundacionbertelsmann.org

Hola y bienvenido! Cities of Migration se complace en anunciar que su sitio está ahora disponible en español.

This month, Cities of Migration welcomes a new partner, the Barcelona-based Fundación Bertelsmann and its ambitious new program to promote good immigrant integration practice in cities in Spain. Spanish speakers can now explore the Cities of Migration website, en español, whether they are in Madrid, Miami or Los Angeles. Our readers can look forward to more Good Ideas from urban Spain like our recent profile of Barcelona Activa and its ODAME program,  or the community-based energy of Tot Raval.

Cities talking to other cities is an important part of learning how to improve integration outcomes at home and create a vibrant urban culture. Whether it’s about business incubation in Helsinki and Antwerp or crossing cultural divides in city classrooms and sporting fields, it’s what Cities of Migration is all about.

This month we talk to Irene Guidikova, Council of Europe and Intercultural Cities about her work with eleven of Europe’s new immigrant gateway cities, including smaller and medium-size regional centres like Oslo and Neukoln. These “intercultural champions” understand diversity as an advantage and are piloting strategies and developing policies that use the talents of all their citizens and make migration a benefit for everybody. We will be keeping our eye on this rich source of ideas about urban success.

For more on the growing role of gateway cities in transforming the immigrant experience, join us on May 19th for a webinar discussion on Local Gateways to Citizenship, with new Good Ideas from the cities of Fort Wayne and Oslo (co-hosted by the National League of Cities).

The British Council has launched the Understanding OPENCities report. Featuring case studies from Amsterdam, Auckland, Dublin, Madrid, and Toronto, the new report compares and contrasts their strengths and weaknesses, and highlights how each city has embraced openness in its bid to build a successful world brand.

Greg Clark, city expert and lead advisor on the British Council’s OPENCities programme, sees a bright future for cities with strong leadership and the determination to evolve and grow:

“OPENCities encourages the exchange of positive ideas between forward-thinking world cities. Creating an environment where locals and new migrants can live in harmony is another key element of the programme. For the first time, cities will have a specific way to gauge their openness and help their leaders develop successful strategies to compete on a world-stage.”

Read the press release for more information, or download your free copy at www.opencities.eu.

URBACT’s interactive map of EU cities, programs and projects is now online.  This dazzling look at the new Europe ignores regional and jurisdictional divisions in favour of city networks organized around urban issues such as Active Inclusion, Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods, Metropolitan Governance, and Human Capital & Entrepreneurship, to name just a few.  From the URBACT website, click on a city on the map to see associated URBACT projects, or choose one the projects listed in the right column to map the city constellation of its project partners. Lead cities for each project are marked with a star.

Discover, for example, that the mid-sized industrial port city of Duisburg is the City Lead city for the RegGov program which looks at governance issues in the development of deprived urban areas.  The RegGov program prides itself on its integrated approach to urban development but laments that “good practice examples of how to develop, implement and fund such policies are rarely known at a wider European level.”

Good practice and policy is worth sharing. Duisburg is also home to Germany’s largest and least controversial mosque.  Opened in 2008 in the city’s Marxloh District, the Merkez Mosque was planned and built after a broad public consultation using a participatory approach that involved the whole community.  For more about Duisburg city success, see The Miracle of the Marxloh Mosque at Cities of Migration.

What is Urbact?

Established in 2002, and renewed in 2007 with a dynamic slate of work distributed across a network of 255 city partners, URBACTII is a European exchange and learning programme that promotes sustainable urban development, and enables European cities to work together to develop solutions to major urban challenges.

“We help cites to develop pragmatic solutions that are new and sustainable, and that integrate economic, social and environmental dimensions…, reaffirming the key role cities play in facing increasingly complex societal changes.”

URBACT brings together 255 cities and 5,000 active participants with financing from the EU’s European Regional Development Fund and 29 Member States. Visit the URBACT website for more information.

El gato de Raval

Like Toronto’s Kensington Market, or China Town in New York and San Francisco, Barcelona’s Raval is a neighborhood created by waves of immigrants who first came seeking jobs in the city’s 19th century textile mills and today continue to contribute to the character and energy of the district. Almost half of all neighbourhood residents have a migrant background.

Located in the heart of the Ciutat Vella (old city) district of Barcelona, the influx of new immigrants and migrant workers to Raval’s cramped streets has not always been easy. Over the years, a large and varied network of services, associations and ad hoc initiatives came in or were created to address emerging social problems and stresses.

Today, says Nuria Paricio, Director of the Fundació Tot Raval, “Este és otro mundo” (this is another world).

Fundació Tot Raval is the community foundation and umbrella organization at the heart of the Raval neighbourhood.  Since it was founded in 2001, Fundació Tot Raval has acted as a coordination platform for the people of El Raval, empowering the community by working to support and coordinate the efforts of over 60 neighborhood organizations, associations and other initiatives actively engaged in the revitalization of the Raval neighborhood. The foundation’s membership includes organisations such as the Islamic Cultural Council of Catalonia, the National Library of Cataglonia and the A. Rosa Sensat Teachers.

Consell Islàmic de Catalunya

The Fundació provides a variety of work spaces and forums to support community participation (board of trustees, committees, project work groups, seminars, etc.) and collaborative efforts to identify issues and reach common solutions –as well as to pool precious resources.

By enabling the diverse members to work together, the Fundació Tot Raval makes sure that initiatives aren’t duplicated and reinforces the success they achieve. By networking and generating synergies among the neighbourhood agencies and local authorities, the foundation is having a positive impact on the general population.

Fundació Tot Raval encourages cross-cutting actions and multicultural projects that boost coexistence and social cohesion, promote networking, and contribute to better education and employment outcomes. In the entrepreneurial spirit of Barcelona Activa, the Fundació also fosters cooperation between businesses and works to invigorate the local economy and culture with a view to helping make the Raval an inclusive, dynamic neighbourhood committed to the future of all its residents.

Fundació Tot Raval’s unique approach to local development,  cross-cutting nature of its activities, the quantity and diversity of its members, and the participatory spaces it stimulates make it a Good Idea worth watching closely.

For more information,

Fundació Tot Raval
Pl. Caramelles, 8
08001 Barcelona
Tel. 93 442 68 68
Fax: 93 442 68 81
info@totraval.org
www.totraval.org

Irena Guidikova, the Head of Cultural Policy at the Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue Division of the Council of Europe, talks about intercultural integration and good practice in the Intercultural Cities network in Europe.