Local Governments’ Integration Policies and Measures

Integration is a shared responsibility and involves many actors. European countries and their local authorities often face similar challenges and questions when integrating immigrants or minorities, while the answers or solutions to these problems may vary considerably from one country to another. Each country’s approach to integration is strongly influenced by its immigration history, its definition of nationality or ethnicity, and the traditions and understanding of its political system in finding an ethnopolitical regime that suits its own needs.

The transfer of good practices or administrative “success models” involves a number of challenges and risks: first, there is no model that can be transferred from one situation to another without change or adaptation. However, it is always necessary to consider the local context, as the implementation of specific integration measures may have different efficiencies in practice or in practice due to regional or local differences. As a result, several European countries have begun to go along with delegating various responsibilities to support the development and design of local governments’ own integration policies in accordance with local circumstances.

Consequently, in order to ensure that local authorities are sufficiently involved in the integration process as a whole, a certain degree of consultation is needed, both between policy-makers and the institutions actually implementing integration, both in terms of adequate feedback and access to policy-making.