Planning for migrant integration and inclusion in smaller municipalities – Knowledge exchange
This policy briefing looks at:
- Understanding the research base on integration in smaller cities and towns
- Contrasting policy frameworks in the UK and Germany
- Examples of practice
- Key findings and lessons
Summary
- Whilst towns face significant integration challenges, they often lack the resources and capacity to proactively respond
- Integration policy frameworks, whilst often tailored to cities, do apply to towns and smaller cities. However there are distinctive aspects to integration policy making in towns related to:
- Tailoring narratives of inclusion and diversity to the local context
- The importance of the public realm, outdoor spaces and high streets, migrant economies to integration planning in towns
- The potential for more effective community contact approaches in towns and smaller cities
- The outsized role of political support and advocacy, including the central role of Mayors (in particular in the German context of multi-level governance)
- There is a clear role for greater peer based learning and networking between towns and between the projects within the towns and across the country
- The contrasting policy frameworks in the UK and Germany allow for important learning and sharing