
On Thursday, April 12th, 2018, the first meeting of Stakeholder Integration Group of the INTEGRA project took place at the premises of Prague Integration Centre (ICP). The meeting was attended by five group members, including representatives of the Prague municipality, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the NGO sector and migrants. During the meeting, the participants were introduced to the INTEGRA project, its objectives and activities, as well as to ICP employees in charge of the project and to each other. They were also acquainted with their roles within the project and the possibilities of involvement in the planned activities. The participants were encouraged to take part in the upcoming activities, namely the focus groups, city safety audit and the photovoice project and to provide tips for other potential participants. The participants showed much interest and enthusiasm towards the project and agreed on getting together for another SIG meeting at the beginning of November 2018.

The EU faces significant labour shortages in certain sectors, which have the potential to limit growth and competitiveness – a challenge to become more pressing due to Europe’s aging demographic profile. While legal channels for skilled migrants offer a solution, attracting them to come and settle in the EU goes hand in hand with tackling the challenges of the refugee crisis. More efforts are needed to integrate the 20 million non-EU nationals residing legally in the EU.
The new INTEGRA project, the lead partner of which is of Sofia Development Association, aims to help the process of long-term integration of third country nationals in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy and Slovakia through city-to-city knowledge and experience sharing.
The project partners SDA, Riskmonitor Foundation - Sofia, Integration Center Prague, Research Center on Security and Crime – Italy, Center for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights – Osijek, Croatia and ETP – Kosice, Slovakia met in Sofia from February 21 to 23rd, 2018, for their first project meeting. The consortium team combines vast expertise: in research (RISSC and RiskMonitor), in minority and TCN integration (IPC, ETP), in human rights and campaigns (Center for Peace), in urban policies (SDA). The partners agreed on how to work together effectively, on the approach, roles and their shared idea of success. The methodologies for the innovative City Integration Audits as a participative tool for city integration performance were also discussed.
The INTEGRA project has received funding from EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

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