MIGRATION FORUM 3-4 APRIL 2019

On 3 and 4 April, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the European Commission

organized and hosts the 5 th edition of the Migration Forum. The focus of the discussion was the role of

civil society and local authorities in the management of the migrations and their support in ensuring

regular pathways to the EU

The 2019 forum, at the end of two days of workshop and fruitful discussions between 250 professionals

from all around Europe belonging from local, regional and national authorities and EU institutions

produced 10 recommendations. (see below)

The final report represents a list of suggestions that was sent to the European Parliament and will be

hopefully taken into account by policy makers to improve the EU legal migration framework.

Fondazione Eris, coordinator of the EUStartGees project co-funded by the EU (DG Grow), was one of the

selected participants of the 5th Migration Forum and, gave its contribution to the discussion. In

particular, we were involved in the workshop 4: “The role of civil society and other non-public actors in

enhancing cooperation with third countries on managing migration” and workshop 5: “Migrants’

empowerment for better integration policies”.

Firstly, the workshop 4 stressed the importance of strengthen the cooperation among civil society and

diaspora organizations to support their effort to provide information and incentives for reintegration of

migrants in the countries of origin. Moreover, the improvement of the dialogue at the regional level

through the realization of platforms with a view to creating public-private partnerships.

On the other side, regarding the topic of the workshop n°5, it was underlined the importance to increase

the pilot projects across the EU to ensure access to human rights for all, including undocumented

migrants. Moreover we focused on the need of funding and supporting the local and grassroots

organizations that work with the most vulnerable to develop gender-sensitive actions and policies at

local/regional/national/EU level through multi-stakeholder approach.

EUStartGees, in line with this approach, has planned a series of events to aggregate the local

communities and authorities around the topic of refugees self-entrepreneurship. the first event

happened the 13 of June in Milan, in the following weeks other events are going to be delivered in

Spain, Austria, Finland. As suggested by the 5th Migration Forum a particular attention will be given to

the multilevel dialogue that includes the grassroots organization so that all the stakeholders can

understand the challenges of the others in order to deliver the best service possible to our target

groups.

Beyond the recommendations, what was really appreciated of the Migration forum was the extreme

coherence between the EuStartGees and the most important challenges that everyone has underlined:

the situation of the youngest refugees and the condition of the asylum seekers; the importance of

economic integrations; the usefulness of creating bridges between host country and country of birth;

the effectiveness of a multilevel approach.

EUStartGees is honoured of having been part of the 5th Migration Forum, we are convinced that

working all together during this year we can give our substantial contribution to the improvement of the

management of migration.

THE 10 RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE FORUM:

Workshop 1: From global to local governance of migration: the role of local authorities in managing

migration

1. Include a social cohesion clause in EU/national funds that target migrants and make it

mandatory to also involve people from the host community.

2. Develop institutionalised multi-stakeholders platforms at local level that can bring together local

authorities, NGOs, migrants’ organisations, among others, to guarantee accessible, inclusive and

relevant services to migrants, regardless of their status.

Workshop 2: What is the future of the EU legal migration policy?

3. Establish a structured process for consultation of NGO, local authorities and social partners in

the management of legal migration.

4. Adopt a horizontal directive harmonising admission conditions and rights for all categories of

non-EU nationals, that also includes equal treatment rights, intra-EU mobility and family

reunification.

Workshop 3: The role of civil society organisations in developing and enhancing safe channels for

humanitarian and protection reasons

5. Expand extended family reunification programmes in the EU as part of complementary

pathways to protection.

6. The European Commission should take steps to harmonise processes among EU countries for

welcome and integration of migrants, regardless of ways of arrival, country of origin etc., with

specific attention to the special needs of vulnerable groups and the critical need for specific

accessible funding available in the new Multi-annual Financial Framework for civil society

organisations, grassroots organisations and local authorities.

Workshop 4: The role of civil society and other non-public actors in enhancing cooperation with third

countries on managing migration.

7. Strengthen cooperation among civil society and diaspora organisations and support their effort

to provide information and incentives for reintegration of migrants in the countries of origin.

8. Foster regional dialogue and platforms with a view to creating public-private partnerships for

mobility

Workshop 5: Migrants’ empowerment for better integration policies

9. Develop pilot projects in local authorities across t he EU to ensure access to human rights for all,

including undocumented migrants, generally aiming at supporting social cohesion.

10. Fund and support local and grassroot organisations that work with vulnerable groups to develop

gendersensitive actions and policies at local/regional/national/EU level through multi-

stakeholders approach.