EU Urban Agenda and the refugee crisis: two sides of the same coin

Cities face specific challenges when it comes to receiving and integrating refugees, especially in terms of housing, healthcare, education and labour market integration. In order to address these challenges, the EU is called upon to support cities — politically through legislation that takes systematic account of urban issues, financially by providing support to cities, and in organisational terms by promoting the exchange of experience. It is therefore important that the Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees is one of the EU Urban Agenda’s four pilot partnerships and that it began its work in March this year, before the official launch of the Urban Agenda at the end of May.

Berlin has joined the pilot partnership on Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees so that it can contribute its own experience. However, Berlin is also keen to learn from other participating cities (Amsterdam/coordinator, Athens, Barcelona and Helsinki) and, together, to be able to have a say on future legislation, financial support and the exchange of knowledge. With the 79 000 refugees who came to Berlin in 2015 and the 40 000 refugees still living in public institutions, Berlin is like almost no other city in the EU in terms of the challenges it faces to take in and integrate refugees.

The good thing is that Berlin has years of experience in integrating people with a migrant background. Take, for example, the integrated urban development projects which for many years have been promoted using the European Regional Development Fund. The specific aim of such projects is to help migrants become involved in society and integrate into the labour market. It therefore makes sense to build on this experience and apply it to the integration of refugees. The Senate’s pilot project Refugees become neighbours is helping to meet this goal. The aim is to help the local population and refugees live side by side through community-building measures. In addition, refugees should be given the individual skills to play an active part in community life and to become involved (empowerment). Two neighbourhoods in Neukölln and Lichtenberg were chosen to take part in the pilot project. The results of the pilot project shall be Berlin’s contribution to the partnership on Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees.

The previous two meetings of the partnership on Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees revealed considerable interest on the part of stakeholders. However, the national level is still not properly represented. To ensure success - and not only of this partnership - it is important that Member States are firmly committed to the multilevel approach (EU, Member States and cities). The Committee of the Regions will need to do more to persuade the Member States to play an active role in the partnerships.