1 LAUNCH OF THE PROJECT “BENCHMARKING INTEGRATION GOVERNANCE IN EUROPEAN CITIES” Pekka Sauri Deputy Mayor, City of Helsinki INTEGRATING CITIES II CONFERENCE MILANO, 5TH NOVEMBER 2007

2 THE CONTEXT A need for practical knowledge about successful integration A need for practical knowledge about successful integration

3 WHY CITIES ARE IMPORTANT IN INTEGRATION - pathways into society - assistance through services on daily basis - housing, education, employment, health - non-discrimination, equality, respect for human rights - cities profit from the presence of immigrants

4 WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES FOR EUROPEAN CITIES? -coordination in the delivery of services -coordination and implementation of immigration policies and programmes -development of participatory ways and involvement of immigrants in the design and delivery of services

5 “BENCHMARKING INTEGRATION GOVERNANCE IN EUROPEAN CITIES”: INTI-CITIES PROJECT -Partners: Milan, Genoa, Lyon, Barcelona, Maroussi, Duesseldorf, Tampere, Malmo, Belfast, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Helsinki -Peer Review host cities: Genoa, Lyon, Dusseldorf, Malmo, Rotterdam and Helsinki -Eurocities is the coordinator of the project -Migration Policy Group and Ethics etc are expert partners -co-financed by the European Community under the INTI- Programme -duration 18 months Project looks into three levels of integration: 1)individual empowerment 2)administrative cooperation 3)working in partnership

6 POPULATION OF HELSINKI Total population (31 Dec 2006)564,905 Women 53.4% Men 46.6% Finnish speaking 85.6% Swedish speaking 6.1% Other languages8.2% Russian 1.9% Somali 0.9% Estonian 0.8% English0.5%

7 WHAT DO WE EXPECT FROM INTI-CITIES PROJECT? A new forum where knowledge of innovative ways dealing with the challenge of integration can be shared Cities also want to measure the effectiveness of integration policies against certain benchmarks, identify gaps and be able to improve policies in a concrete manner

8 PEER REVIEWS SCHEDULE IN 2008 HELSINKI FEBRUARY ROTTERDAMMARCH MALMOAPRIL GENOA MAY DUSSELDORFJUNE LYONJUNE

9 We wish all success to the Inti-Cities Project!