Le istituzioni locali e il mondo associativo per la costruzione di una rete in materia di cooperazione, cultura di pace, integrazione multietnica, promozione dei diritti umani e della solidarietà fra i popoli.
The good example of Emilia Romagna
The seminar on the 13th of July based in Bologna was about the right of citizenship and democratic participation for foreigners, and the Emilia Romagna Region has presented its reports about immigration policies which have demonstrated to be very efficient in this field.
The themes presented during the seminar were focussed on the data of the regional law n.5/2004 dealing with social integration for foreigners and others such as the triennial project for the inclusion of immigrants, 20 millions of euro a year for these projects, 250 cultural mediator, 130 front office for information for immigrants, 20 intercultural centres, 10 city councils elected by residents in Italy and more than 2100 women saved from slavery till 1999. If you consider that foreigners in Emilia Romagna represent 7,6% of population (320.000 persons), the report is a good example of a good policy.
The project-The seminar is part of the project Erlaim (European regional and local authorities for the integration of migrants) and involves 30 local administrations and 8 European Countries such as Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, United Kingdom and Sweden.
The aim of the project is to compare experiences and good practises between countries, to promote information about policies and fund community raising and to encourage the participation of local administrations to European projects.
During the seminar participants have discussed not only about integration´s policies of Emilia Romagna, for instance health care, education, job of immigrants, but also about the actions of the Region to fight against illegal immigration such as the protection of refugees and the actions against slavery and discriminations. Besides the good example of Emilia Romagna, other experiences and point of views have been expressed from the Senate of Berlin, the Diputaciò of Barcellona, the Junta of Andalusia and Prefectura of Ilia.
The project Erlaim in the future- The next meetings will take place first in October in Nicosia to discuss about foreign children, then in November in Leeds to speak about the democratic participation of immigrants, and then in 2008 in Siviglia about the intercultural communication, and finally the last one will deal with foreign women (to be specified time and place).
Moreover the activities of Erlaim, which have also received a funding from European Commission in the Inti project (Integration of third country national), are available on the Internet on a new website and a newsletter to aware all participants about news on immigration policies in local administrations.
