- X23 The Innovation Bakery
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.