On May 24, 2019 the EMN Luxembourg together with the Directorate-General Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), in partnership with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Luxembourg Directorate of Immigration organised an event “The role of EU cities in managing migration – opportunities and challenges” which brought together different stakeholders and provided ground for active discussions. The aim of the event was to understand what are the needs of the cities and municipalities, to better manage migration related questions.
During the event great importance was attributed to the role of strategic relationships with key actors at all levels of government as well as with cross-sector stakeholders (civil society and international organisations, private sector entities). At the same time, more close communication between cities should be established to provide a platform for experience exchange and to look for creative solutions for existing challenges just to name some, availability of funding, availability of housing, integration, healthcare, irregular migrants, discrimination etc.
Representatives from several European cities (Athens, Utrecht, Frankfurt, and Freiburg) talked about the challenges their respective cities are facing as well as presented their approaches to address them.
Seeing the need of further experience exchange the possibility to organise next event is being considered for the second part of the year.
