Integrating cities – Amsterdam

Daphne CostesAgency for Internal AffairesFlemish Autority

How to measure what counts - integration monitoring and indicators

Belgium a brief reminder

• 1 federal state• 3 communities : Flemish, French & German• 3 regions : Flanders, Wallonia & Brussels

• Different policies by different authorities

• “Integration” is a competence on regional level.

Integration policy in Flanders

- Inburgering (1st phase of integration): = a categorial policy (mainly for newcomers)

- Flemish Parliament Act on “Civic Integration” - Integratie (2nd phase of integration):

= mainly an inclusive policy, however, categorial when necessary - Flemish Parliament Act on Integration

Inburgering: a specific programme as a first step

• Coordinated by welcome office• Consists of:

- Training programme:› Elementary Dutch course› Social orientation course› Career orientation

- Supported by programme counselling

Integration is not something you just do in en classroom

Encouraging the persons integrating to:

build up a social network, to get to know their local town or community, to practice their Dutch, to sign up to become a member of a local association or sports club, to take up voluntary work,…

Integration: horizontal and inclusive policy

• Focus on the entire society, with special attention to the targetgroup (1st and 2nd generation + social deprivation factors)

• 3 main goalsParticipation,Accesibility of organisations and services,Sociale cohesion.

• Importance of local authorities

Local integration policy

• Financing (granting of a subsidy) of local authorities willing to implement a proactive integration policy

• Financing based on:Request of the local authority (no obligation),Conditions: minimal presence of the target group +

problems of social deprivationAgreement between the Flemish authority and the local

authority (goals, actions, indicators)

→ current situation: 46 local authorities have an agreement

Local integration monitor

• Goal:To develop a local integration policy based upon a set of

reliable and valid indicatorsNot an instrument to evaluate policy

• Selection of indicators:Environmental indicators, no process indicatorsOnly quantitative, no qualitative indicatorsCollection of data from flemish or federal databases, not

at local level (avoiding extra workload for the local government)

Local integration monitor

• Result:Set of 34 indicatorsOn demography, employment, education, housing,

welfare, poverty and participationNot all indicators were available in 2011

• Form:A digital report for each community/cityPer indicator:

› A score for each indicator› A comparison with the average of similar communities/cities› A comparison with the flemish average

Local integration monitor

• Future:Short term: addition of education indicatorsAnnual update with the most recent dataAddition with new indicators when databases come

available/accesible

http://aps.vlaanderen.be/lokaal/integratiemonitor.html

Local integration monitor

• Demografie: 4 indicatoren

Local integration monitor

• Demografie: vreemdelingen

Local integration monitor

• Demografie: vreemde herkomst

Local integration monitor

Second best operationalisation:

Approaching the official definition as close as possible, taking into account the available data

Local integration monitor

Thank you for your attention !

daphne.costes@bz.vlaanderen.beTel: 00 32 2 553 33 42