Territorial and urban aspects of migration and refugee inflow Sandra Di Biaggio ESPON Seminar A world without borders.

Territorial and urban aspects of migration and refugee inflow

Sandra Di Biaggio

ESPON SeminarA world without borders

• By the end of 2014, refugees and asylum seekers accounted for 16.2 million people in the world. Around 10% have been granted asylum in Europe.

• Over 60% of the world’s refugees live in urban areas.

• By 2014, Syria had become the world’s major origin country of refugees. One in 5 displaced persons worldwide was Syrian.

• Most people seeking asylum un Europe enter through irregular border crossings. From 2010 to April 2015, 770.000 irregular crossings representing 135 nationalities were detected.

• The number of asylum applications and people granted asylum increased since 2010. Between 2010 and 2015, 2.4 million first time asylum requests have been registered in EU MS.

• By September 2015 the asylum applications were already 29% higher than in 2014.

• Top countries in asylum requests within last 5 years: Germany, France and Sweden.

Facts and trends in a territorial context trends in a territorial context

• Europe’s refugee flows will 1 million in 2015 and the impact on regions and cities is very diverse.

• Major pressure in many countries, regions and cities as entry points, in particularly in Italy, Greece and Hungary, as well as Turkey.

• Main routes chosen by refugees to Europe go via Italy, Greece and Hungary but attention should be given to other places under pressure but less significant in terms of volume such as some Norwegian border municipalities and transit cities in CZ Republic, Serbia and Croatia.

• Refugee flows are mainly directed towards countries with the most favourable economic conditions such as strong job markets.

• Municipalities, cities and towns in arrival, transit and destination countries play a special role regarding the social, humanitarian and financial assistance needed to refugees.

• Refugees arriving to Europe are very diverse in terms of education, skills and culture.

Key messages for policy consideration

• Effective integration policies and efforts need to be put in place at regional and urban level, including support in finding jobs, housing, social services, education…

• Bottom-up approaches involving different actors, levels of governance, stakeholders, locals, civil society organisations seem to be key factors for an effective and successful integration policy.

• Public services and budgets are under presssure due to the economic crisis, which make difficult the capacity to finance integration.

• Potential financial support to cities should be considered, such as direct access for local governments to AMIF.

• EU Cohesion Policy may play a role in providing finance (e.g allocation of funds for implementing integration policy initiatives in regions facing labour shortage, depopulation,..)

Key messages for policy consideration

Thank you for your attention

Inspire policy making by territorial evidence

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