Migration flows and integration policies data evidence and best practices in the EU

This joint ESPON-Interact conference over two days will focus on migratory flows and integration and will shed light on the distribution of asylum seekers and refugees at regional and urban levels and how has this been changing over time as a result of European and national policy decisions in recent decades. This analysis will show how different European regions and cities located in arrival, transit and destination countries are responding to the refugee crisis in terms of providing humanitarian aid, services, community building, internal distribution of refugees and medium and long-term integration. The conference will also examine the skills and qualifications that refugees possess and how does the influx of refugees impact the recipient countries’ regional and local labour markets and demographic imbalances (especially concerning regions which are facing the challenges of losing population and ageing).   The Conference will explore the main challenges and identify good policy responses and the best practices for successful integration of refugees into the local communities, societies and labour markets at regional and local levels.  It will indicate the kind of support they need and evaluate the success of previous integration measures and how to improve the use of existing funding opportunities such as Cohesion Policy and Interreg projects. ESPON and Interact, therefore consider this joint conference as a means of both informing participants of the state of the art of current research and empirical knowledge and to take advantage of the current knowledge of third-sector organisations and practitioners to better focus the relevance of interventions and projects on the ground.  For programme and agenda, please see espon.eu/athens  Register now on http://www.interact-eu.net/#o=events/conference-migration-flows-and-integration-policies --- ERRIN is part of the ESPON TNO 2016-2020