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Building welcoming and inclusive cities

20 January 2025

As Europe continues to face migration and social challenges, city leaders underscore the need for inclusive policies that uphold dignity, equality, and rights for all. 

Local governments are at the forefront of these efforts, implementing innovative initiatives to integrate migrants and refugees while addressing inequalities. Yet, despite their crucial role, cities are often excluded from migration policymaking and lack direct funding to address these challenges effectively. 

Mayors are urging the new European Commission, in its first 100 days, to recognise cities as integration stakeholders. One of the Mayors’ 10 priorities for European citizens and cities is ‘Welcoming and Inclusive cities’. It calls for local leaders to be included in migration and asylum policymaking, including in the upcoming implementation of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, and providing direct funding to integrate refugees so as to combat rising inequalities. 

Cities need EU support

City leaders are partners of the EU, but they’re also the closest level of government to citizens, working at the governance level that implements policies in people’s daily lives. Cities bridge the gap between national migration policies and local realities, providing housing, tailored education, and employment programmes. While cities continue to be open and committed to welcoming asylum seekers, they are clear that this can also place a significant strain on municipal budgets and resources. 

As highlighted in the 6th Integrating Cities Report, “migration developments in Europe have significantly impacted cities, requiring them to adapt and update their integration policies constantly,” says Katharina Bamberg, Head of Migration at Eurocities. These strategies focus on welcoming and assisting migrant communities to consolidate not only their integration but also their real inclusion. 

Local governments have been welcoming newcomers consistently over time, accommodating over six million refugees from Ukraine being the most recent challenge. This effort would not have been possible without the commitment of citizens, diaspora, migrant-led and NGOs.

While EU initiatives like the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund have supported cities’ efforts through projects such as UNITES and CONSOLIDATE, these funds are insufficient as they mainly concern the development of new or innovative integration solutions. Cities, however, need more structural funding for long-term integration support to ensure that Ukrainians have not just found facilities to shelter, but new places to call home. And, in cases of an unexpected rise in the number of refugees fleeing conflicts to find protection in cities, immediate and easily accessible emergency resources to reinforce local services and coordinate with civil society.  

As part of their #100daysEU campaign, city leaders call European and national authorities to provide additional emergency funding and guarantee that it is accessible in an immediate, direct and easy way to cities to enable them to face this monumental challenge. 

Bringing cities’ voices to the table

“Cities are not merely places where migrants settle,” says Rutger Groot Wassink, Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam and Eurocities Shadow Commissioner for Welcoming Cities, “but dynamic laboratories of inclusion, where communities co-create vibrant societies.” 

Cities bring invaluable practical experience and facilitate knowledge exchange, making them essential partners in shaping Europe’s migration policies. City leaders are urging EU policymakers to include them in planning and implementing migration legislation to ensure effective integration services. 

The collaboration between European cities and the European Commission is the catalyst for a functioning implementation of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Simona Bieliūnė, Deputy Mayor of Vilnius and Eurocities Shadow Commissioner for Welcoming Cities, stresses that, “Cities are the closest to the challenges and solutions surrounding migration and integration. If we want to build inclusive communities, it’s essential that local leaders have a direct seat at the table when it comes to shaping migration policies that affect the lives of migrants every day.”

For example, while cities are in favour of an equitable distribution of refugees and asylum seekers across all EU member states, they recognise that the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, fully entering into force in 2026, is set to have a considerable impact at the local level (distribution of asylum seekers, migrants’ rights, standards for the reception of asylum seekers), but their voices have been largely absent in the development of the New Pact. Once implemented, the full impact of the pact on cities’ integration policies and practices and the situation of migrants on the ground remains to be assessed. 

The New Pact

At the same time as helping refugees from Ukraine, cities need to ensure that all refugees, regardless of their origins and identity, no matter the colour of their skin, their gender, sexual orientation or religion, are receiving the same right to protection.  

The message for inclusion that cities promote is confronted with a changing landscape of asylum, migration and border management policies brought about by the New Pact, populist speeches and ongoing global developments. This has a clear impact on integration prospects and outcomes at the local level, which cities will have to face as main integration stakeholders. 

Cities are concerned that the legislative files making up the New Pact are likely to undermine human rights standards and European values. The agreement should not only avoid criminalising migration but also should oppose populist narratives that increase harmful stereotypes and put migrants and racialised people at risk of exclusion and discrimination. 

Preserving migrants’ rights

City leaders assert that international and EU laws that guarantee equal access to rights and to protection in Europe for all refugees and people in need of protection must be upheld and applied fairly. More concretely, cities call on the EU to ensure that the new migration and asylum legislation upholds each person’s right to asylum and provides equal access to asylum procedures for those seeking protection. 

This is especially pertinent in the context of border procedures and return procedures, during which migrants and asylum seekers, including children, can be detained at the border and may have limited access to legal recourse and support. The European Commission and its agencies – the European Border and Coast Guard and the EU Agency for Asylum – should be held to a high standard for a human rights-based implementation of the legislation. 

Local governments remain committed to integrating migrants through the Integrating Cities Charter. The signing mayors acknowledge the significant contributions migrants have made to European cities, bringing fresh perspectives that enrich our communities. In 2024, five more cities – Bologna, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Grenoble Alpes Metropole, and Vilnius – signed the Charter, reinforcing their pledge to promote inclusion. 

In an increasingly polarised world, cities demonstrate that inclusivity is not just possible but essential for a shared future. Together with the EU and national level, local governments can make inclusion a reality across Europe. 


 Previous articles in this series include: 

Contacts

Katharina Bamberg Head of migration
Marta Buces Eurocities Writer

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