EVIDENCE BASED INTEGRATION - URBAN INDICATORS

INTRODUCTION

One of the Common Basic Principles for Immigrant Integration Policy in the EU states that developing clear goals, indicators and evaluation mechanisms are necessary to adjust policy, evaluate progress on integration and to make the exchange of information more effective. 

Evidence-based policy-making in the integration field has become a key objective across EU countries.
Considerable progress has been made across all levels; however, on local level the Urban Agenda Partnership on Inclusion of Migrant and Refugees has identified specific challenges and bottlenecks:

• Uneven availability of migrant integration statistics on local level

• Increased attention for data on urban/regional level, but need for cities’ involvement, exchange and synergies

• No comparable integration indicators on urban-regional level

• Few knowledge transfer among cities on evidence-based integration policy-making

This Action addresses the need for more evidence-based integration policies in cities. The objective is the creation of a Europe-wide knowledge base on migrant integration at the urban/regional level according to cities’ needs and a European toolbox for evidence-based local integration policies. The final output of the Action is the ‘Options Report of the (better data) action on evidence-based policy-making’. From November 2017 to October 2018, a structured reflection and development process took place through regular meetings of a Stakeholder Working Group.

KEY TIMELINE

22 November 2017
Stakeholder Working Group 1: Kick-off & work programme

February 2018
Eurostat migrant integration employment and education regional series available

16 February 2018
Stakeholder Working Group 2: EU instruments & cooperation for analysis of immigrant integration in cities

23 April 2018
Stakeholder Working Group 3: Integration data, monitoring & evidence-based policies in cities

3 October 2018
Stakeholder Working Group 4: Draft recommendations & way forward

4 December 2018
Presentation of recommendations & outreach at the Partnership Conference

13 February 2019
Release of finalised Options Report

OUTCOME 1 - RECOMMENDATIONS

Nine recommendations have been put forward by the Action ‘Facilitating evidence-based integration policies in cities’. 

Emerging from a Working Group bringing together cities and EU data stakeholders, they are a roadmap for the way forward with regard to integration data on urban-regional level, the role of cities in European statistics on integration and migration, and increased know-how transfer among cities. With this, the Partnership Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees responds to the need for an improved knowledge base for cities’ integration policies, including reliable data, monitoring systems and other tools.

The Option Report Calls to:

EU INDICATORS
Include but also go beyond existing EU indicators for common indicators on urban/regional level and develop them through multi-level cooperation

COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT
Aim for a most comprehensive assessment in urban regions & fully capitalise on major trends in data gathering

NEW EU STATISTICS REGULATION
Make use of the new possibilities resulting from the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation

LABOUR FORCE SURVEY
Concentrate on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) as a primary and up-to-date data source, and to exploit it as much as possible

MULTI-LEVEL COMMUNICATION
Develop the ownership of cities in EU-wide data, and improve multi-level communication among data providers and -users

INCENTIVES FOR MEMBER STATES
Explore and create incentives for National Statistical Institutions to increase sample sizes and/or oversample cities, and to make EU funding available for this

SOCIAL SURVEYS
Exploit existing surveys with regard to the urban level, and improve the relevance for cities of future editions

KNOW-HOW TRANSFER
Facilitate know-how transfer and exchange between cities and use of related EU funding opportunities

AWARENESS RAISING
Enhance knowledge management and dissemination of EU data and tools;

OUTCOME 2 - RECOMMENDATIONS (CONTINUED)

In parallel to the discussions of the Stakeholder Working Group, and as a key step towards better availability of comparable integration data on urban-regional level, Eurostat has been testing the possibility of publication, to the widest possible extent, of the existing EU integration indicators on regional level and by ‘degree of urbanisation’. As a result, Eurostat has already started to publish new data on integration outcomes at these infra-national levels and scales, as well as a related Statistics Explained analysis focused on employment. 

EXAMPLE FINDING

This graph (pictured right) taken from the report outlines that in cities, the lowest activity rates tended to be recorded among non-EU citizens.