(03 December 2018) – Migration is not an emergency but a global fact. We need to move from emergency measures to long-term policies implemented through multi-level governance mechanisms. This was the message of the ESPON-Interact Joint Conference, on 22-23 November in Athens, backed up by a range of good practices. Patricia Martinez Sáez (AEIDL) reports.
.Following the so-called refugee crisis of 2015, European countries now need to tackle the medium to long-term challenge of integration.
Now it is time to absorb the demand by implementing schemes with more focus on directing migrants to regions with more job opportunities, paying more attention to the needs of vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied minors, exchanging new ideas that can trigger innovation solutions between cities and countries, ensuring multilevel and cross-sectoral collaboration, collecting accurate data and hence, finding the most appropriate way of communicating with the general public.
This would help ensure that populist movements do not win the media battle by showcasing not only negative perceptions of migration but also the benefits that this phenomenon can bring to EU society.