Publications by subject - Diversity - 2009

Chronic illness and disability play a key role in unemployment and exclusion from the workplace. When reading about ‘people with disabilities’, most people think of people born with an obvious disability or who have acquired a disability through illness or injury later in life. However, in relation to the labour market, the term refers to people who have previously worked but are now receiving disability benefits due to long absence from work. They have lost connection with their employer and are claiming either short term sickness benefit or longer-term disability benefit. Most of them have acquired their disability during their working life.

The results of Eurofound’s second European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS 2007) show that older people run the risk of being socially excluded. The highest proportion of people reporting a feeling of being ‘left out of society’ is in the over-65 age bracket. Compared to younger age groups, a much higher proportion in this group feels that ‘life has become so complicated today that I almost can’t find my way’. Feeling excluded reduces quality of life and is associated with poorer physical and mental health.

The main aim of the workshop was to examine the rise in the number of young people claiming disability benefits. In many EU Member States, there is increasing policy concern about the growing numbers of young people who are entering long-term disability schemes. It appears that the nature of the illnesses which qualify people for these benefits is changing, with evidence of growing numbers of people categorised as disabled due to mental health problems.

Breda is a medium-sized city in the southern part of the Netherlands, with a population of 170,495 inhabitants (January 2007). About 10% of the population of Breda consists of non-western immigrants, including the second generation immigrants with at least one parent of immigrant origin, while another 10% of immigrants is of western origin. Breda’s current integration policy is set out in the latest policy document entitled ‘Integration Agenda 2005–2006’. This policy document was based on the ‘Integration monitor 2004’ and on three principles: equality of cultures, equal chances and opportunities and reciprocity.

Malmö is Sweden’s third largest city, with 280,000 inhabitants in December 2008. During the period 1990–1993, the city lost almost 20% of its job opportunities. The crisis coincided with a strong increase in the immigration of refugees and other new immigrants from war-torn areas in eastern Europe and the Middle East. The proportion of the population with a foreign background now stands at 37%. Today, Malmö may be described as ethnically and socioeconomically segregated, with middle class neighbourhoods in the west and working class neighbourhoods in the south and east. Currently, 171 different nationalities are living in Malmö.

Amsterdam is the largest city in the Netherlands, with 743,104 inhabitants (January 2007). Although The Hague is the seat of government, Amsterdam is the capital of the country. Immigration to Amsterdam is as old as the city itself. The proportion of foreign born nationals in Amsterdam was consistently about 30% of the total population in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the beginning of the 20th century, immigration was at its lowest point, but it increased again from 1960 onwards. The proportion of indigenous Dutch people is 51% (January 2007). The other half of the population is a mixture of western (14%) and non-western groups (34%). Of the non-western groups, 58% are first generation immigrants and 42% are second generation. Surinamese and Moroccans are the largest ethnic groups.

The city of Valencia has a population of 807,396 inhabitants and is the centre of an extensive metropolitan area which brings the number to a million and a half people. This total represents 18% of the population of the Valencian region and makes Valencia, in terms of population, the third largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona. It is also the third largest city in terms of registered immigrants. Foreign nationals – just as Spaniards – have to register in the municipal census. The city population increased throughout the 20th century and was stable during the 1990s. At the beginning of the 21st century, a strong migratory inflow has led to a new dynamic increase in the population.

Located on the western coast of Turkey, İzmir is the third largest city in the country. The total population, comprising the city centre, urban municipalities and surrounding rural areas, is over three million people. The administrative status of the central city has changed with the inclusion of 19 sub-provinces and 38 first-tier municipalities located within a radius of 50 kilometres. The population of the District of İzmir, which is Turkey’s third largest city also in terms of population density, steadily increased during the period 1927–2000. While the population of Turkey increased five-fold over the last 73 years, İzmir’s population increased 6.3 times. According to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat), İzmir had 18,025 immigrants in 2000.

Because of its flourishing economy, Brescia is one of the Italian cities which has attracted a large number of migrants, especially in the last decade. In the field of employment, people with a migration background are employed by the city only within the office providing services to the migrant population – the Office of Integration and Citizenship. However, no specific policy is devised to improve the access of people with a migration background to jobs in the local administration. The main reasons for this are that immigration is a young phenomenon in Italian cities, and the requirement to hold an EU passport to be allowed to work in the public sector.

Turin is one of the Italian cities that has attracted a large number of migrants, especially in the past decade. As is often the case, labour migration has been followed by the settlement of migrant families, and the migrant population has developed significant needs in all spheres of economic and social life. In addition, in recent years, the city has hosted a growing number of refugees and asylum seekers. The lack of a comprehensive national policy for the integration of migrants into Italian society has meant that Turin has engaged in the planning and implementation of many initiatives and practices aimed at fostering the process of migrant and refugee integration in a local context. Thanks to the efforts of the local administration and the social partners, Turin shows a high commitment to receiving newcomers and giving them access to national and local welfare systems.

Altogether, in Arnsberg, the percentage of people with a migration background is about 15%. As in most German cities, migrant integration has primarily taken place by opening up the core institutions, such as the education system and the labour market, and by including the migrants in the national welfare system. Within the last decade, the municipality has restructured its administration by bundling all migration and integration-related responsibilities into one single office, and has implemented a comprehensive integration concept that regards diversity as a benefit to the city as a whole.

Today, people from over 170 countries live in Stuttgart: a quarter of the population are foreigners, 38% of the population have a migration background. In 2001, the Stuttgart city council adopted a new comprehensive Pact for Integration between the public sector, the private sector and civil society. Hence, this coalition consists of partners committed to integration and aligned in network structures. The Pact for Integration explicitly states that people with a migration background are seen as a benefit for the city as a whole: the municipal integration policy has been re-orientated towards a resource approach. The pact formulates three goals for municipal integration policy: 1. participation and equal opportunities for everyone, 2. social cohesion, and 3. the capitalisation of cultural diversity to extend competences within the international municipal society.

Denmark is a welfare state in a rather pronounced form. It has inclusive policies, not only for its citizens but also for all legal residents. Equality and equal treatment are keywords in the political discourse. The city of Copenhagen follows the national model to a great extent, but also deviates from the national model in framing the integration process as a mutual process and naming diversity as a potential asset, by stressing less the mandatory nature of measures and more the engagement of various actors in society. Diversity as personnel policy has a longer history in Copenhagen, going back at least to 1998. It has always been broadly defined, including diversity of gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. The major focus seems to lie in recruitment, which corroborates the main political motivation, namely that the work force of the city should reflect its demographic composition.

The city of Terrassa has been confronted with a recent influx of immigrants in the last eight to 10 years, and has started to build up services and to adjust the existing service provision to these new groups. The general assumption is that specific services are only needed to bridge the period until the immigrants can fully participate and use in the mainstream institutions.

Vienna’s integration policy has traditionally been characterised by efforts to overcome conflicts, the development of municipal strategies for problem areas as well as by the promotion of social integration of foreigners. Innovative measures and ‘integration‘ are firmly established as both objectives and points of reference of urban policy. Diversity policy was instituted in Vienna in 2002. People with a migration background are no longer considered primarily as a target group for social-political measures, but rather, quite simply, as Viennese citizens and a normal part of the population. The initiator of Vienna’s diversity policy is the Municipal Department for Integration and Diversity whose ultimate objective is to strengthen intercultural competencies for improved diversity management.

Tallinn’s population composition differs significantly from that of Western European cities in that Russian-speaking residents make up about half of its population. Only in the 1990s did the question of the integration of residents with Russian ethnicity into Estonian society arise. In 2000, the state programme ‘Integration into Estonian Society 2000–2007’ was adopted; which was followed by the ‘Integration Strategy 2008–2013’. Both the state programme and the Integration Strategy emphasise Estonian language proficiency for ‘Russians’. In the end of 2007, the city of Tallinn started to develop its own municipal integration policy intended to ensure equal opportunities for all. A diversity approach in personnel policy has not been implemented yet. In terms of service provision, by contrast, one should highlight a specific service: in order to facilitate access to municipal services by residents with Russian ethnicity, the city provides every official publication and every service in Russian as well in Estonian.

Antwerp is the largest city in Flanders and its population comprises around 13% foreigners. Yet a quarter of the inhabitants have a migration background and they represent 30% of the working population. Until recently, the diversity policy adopted by the city focused on specific target groups – people with a migration background was one of them. It was a categorial diversity policy. And specific departments were in charge to stimulate and support the policy through specific measures and actions with respect to each specific target group. The Integration Service and in particular the IS diversity consultants developed intensive contacts with some other services such as the Urban Poverty Department. The main challenges remain the language barriers and the recruitment procedures of the city.

Today, foreigners from 175 nations live in Frankfurt and make up one quarter of its population. The proportion with a migration background is 38% of the total population of the city. Frankfurt saw the necessity of integration and diversity policies quite early on and created a Department of Integration with an affiliated Office for Multicultural Affairs in 1989. These are engaged in fostering the integration of migrants and make efforts to change the municipality in order to better meet the demands of a heterogeneous population, as far as employment policy and provision of services are concerned.

In this overview, the city of Mataró shows some specific characteristics when compared with other CLIP cities. Mataró is dealing with a large influx of migrants that has developed over the last 10 years; it has to deal with a considerable number of irregular migrants and consequently many immigrants are burdened with legal problems that they have to solve before they worry about integration. The administration has made a great effort to adjust its general service provision, to train its staff in multicultural issues and to establish specific services where necessary.

Immigration in Finland and in Turku is relatively new. It has been predominantly supply-driven (refugees, returnees and family related migration) and is now gradually changing to more demand-driven migration. Policy reactions – both at the national and local level – have been partial and targeted mainly at the refugee category. Migration and integration policies are in an early phase, primarily reacting to specific vulnerable categories of immigrants. Specific policies relating to reception of refugees and returnees have been initiated at the national level first. Local authorities were then urged to develop integration programmes for migrants.

On November 18 2008, the City of Frankfurt, a CLIP network member from the start, the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation and Eurofound jointly organised and hosted a conference on ‘Integration und Diversity in Kommunen’. In this conference, findings from the second module (on diversity policy) have been discussed among experts from German-speaking cities in Europe. The conference has been supported by the Robert-Bosch-Foundation and about 100 experts from Austrian, German and Swiss cities and related institutions as well as representatives from research institutes, unions and local NGO’s actively participated in the conference.