5 European cities on the migration frontline
The municipalities opening
their arms to refugees.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI 2/9/16,
5:30 AM CET
Europe’s
mayors are angry.
On the frontline of
the continent’s fight against migration, city leaders see national
governments and the European Union drawing up plans to tackle the
refugee crisis that do little, if anything, to protect their
citizens. Some are taking matters into their own hands, and tapping
into years of experience in integrating migrants into the local
community.
“We local
authorities cannot accept anymore the hypocrisy of heads of
government that arrive at the European Council saying that they will
tackle the issue but then don’t fulfill their commitments,” said
François Decoster, mayor of Saint-Omer, 40 kilometers southeast of
Calais, the French port city where about 5,000 migrants are thought
to live in a makeshift camp known as the “Jungle.”
“As a mayor I am
able to integrate, but not if I am confronted with huge numbers,”
said Decoster.
The role of local
authorities in tackling global crises like migration has grown to the
point where Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has
talked about “city diplomacy.” There’s a lot still to do; the
mass sexual assaults in Cologne highlighted the flaws not just in
Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy but also in local
authorities’ ability to assimilate large numbers of migrants.
Success is being
measured by “avoiding a disaster,” said Thomas Jézéquel, policy
adviser at Eurocities, a network of more than 130 of Europe’s
largest municipalities.
Here’s how five
cities across Europe are coping with the crisis:
Munich, Germany
Pegida marches in
Munich
Pegida marches in
Munich | Getty Images
Population: 1.4
million
Number of migrants
registered in 2015: Around 24,000
When the migrants
started coming, the Bavarian city was ready. A temporary reception
center was set up, as were medical facilities and special train and
bus services. More than 5,000 volunteers came out to help.
Munich took in
24,000 refugees in 2015, out of the 155,000 that Bavaria had to take
in according to Germany’s quota system based mainly on population —
a system that Merkel wants to export to the rest of Europe.
While the dominant
political party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union — the more
conservative sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union —
has made no secret of its opposition to Merkel’s migration policy,
attitudes are different in Munich, even in the wake of the Cologne
attacks.
“After Cologne the
feeling has changed but not in Munich,” said Stephan Dünnwald,
spokesperson of the Bavarian Refugee Council. “Here the police are
strict and people feel that what happened there, cannot happen here.”
Gdańsk, Poland
The city of Gdansk |
Patrik Stollarz/AFP/GettyImages
The city of Gdansk |
Patrik Stollarz/AFP/GettyImages
Population: 460,300
Total number of
migrants: Around 1,000
At an anti-migrant
rally last September, demonstrators chanted: “We will do to you
what Hitler did to the Jews.”
Yet that same month
the local council voted unanimously to welcome refugees and make city
buildings available to them. Weeks later, the Law and Justice party
won national elections, prompting a surge to the right on many
issues, including migration.
When EU leaders
backed a European Commission scheme to relocate refugees across the
bloc, “the former government asked cities to find locations for the
refugees,” said mayor Paweł Adamowicz. “The new government
hasn’t asked us about it.”
In a city of nearly
half-a-million people, the number of migrants is fairly small —
around 1,000, mostly from Ukraine with a few from Chechnya.
Adamowicz believes
that the younger generations are less tolerant towards migrants than
older people, but added: “I feel that my city has a mission to
explain to the Poles that we must be open to refugees.”
Utrecht, the
Netherlands
Migrants collect
clothes in Utrecht, The Netherlands | Robin Utrecht/AFP/Getty Images
Migrants collect
clothes in Utrecht, The Netherlands | Robin Utrecht/AFP/Getty Images
Population: 300,300
Number of migrants
housed at one time at Jaarbeurs, an exhibition and convention center:
500
“During the week
of September 7-13 the city had to respond within 24 hours to an
urgent request from the COA [the Dutch agency for dealing with
asylum-seekers] as 4,200 asylum-seekers arrived in the Netherlands,”
according to a Eurocities report.
The city did
respond; making sure that refugee children were signed up for schools
within three days. There is even a Facebook page called “Refugees
Welcome to Utrecht.” That’s far from the message given out by one
of the country’s most high-profile politicians, far-right leader
Geert Wilders, who has called the refugee crisis an “Islamic
invasion.”
Local authorities
said that an “eat and meet” scheme in which migrants were given
dinner by Utrecht residents became over-subscribed — with locals,
not migrants.
Barcelona, Spain
A manifestation in
support of Syrian migrants, in Barcelona, Spain | JOSEP
LAGO/AFP/Getty Images
A manifestation in
support of Syrian migrants, in Barcelona, Spain | JOSEP
LAGO/AFP/Getty Images
Population: 1.6
million
Number of migrants
arriving in Catalonia since November: 1,200*
The Spanish city
last year announced the launch of a register of local families
willing to open their homes to refugees. Similar systems are in place
in Belgium and Italy — Milan announced that every family hosting a
refugee will be paid €350 a month.
The number of
asylum-seekers with host families in Barcelona is not huge (a few
thousand in a city of 1.6 million) and they come mainly from Ukraine,
Syria and Pakistan.
The city has
launched a number of other initiatives, including an “anti rumor”
strategy. It started after local citizens were asked “what factors
make it difficult for Barcelona’s culturally diverse residents to
live together.”
Some 48 percent of
respondents said it was the “lack of knowledge of the other, as
well as current rumors, stereotypes and prejudices about the other,
unknown person.” So the city has been training “anti-rumor
agents” who aim to counteract the often negative messages spread
about refugees.
* According to the
mayor, with roughly half in Barcelona.
Tampere, Finland
The city of Tampere,
Finland | Jorge Franganillo/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
The city of Tampere,
Finland | Jorge Franganillo/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Population: 216,300
In a speech in
parliament last week, Finnish president Sauli Niinistö said “we
have to ask ourselves whether we aim to protect Europe’s values and
people” or “inflexibly stick to the letter of our international
obligations with no regard for the consequences.” Finland’s third
city has already picked sides.
Even before the
migration crisis hit Europe last year, Tampere was on the frontline:
In 2014 it had already committed itself to receiving 50 Syrian
refugees. The same year Tampere received the “City of the year”
award from the Finnish board for ethnic relations.
There are now
several hundred asylum-seekers in Tampere, most of them from Syria
and Iraq, with the city authorities given €3,000 per adult refugee
by the national government.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário