Migrations Programme - [11/10/2006]

European cities and the challenge of immigration, in the plajovebcn conference

Gemma Pinyol, Co-ordinator of the CIDOB Foundation’s Migrations Programme, reflected on the challenge immigration poses to European cities and the role of youth as protagonists of the migration flows in the plajovebcn [BCN Youth Plan] conference held in the Casa del Mar building.

In her presentation, Pinyol indicated that “it is not a marginal role that the local world can play in the management of integration”. This concept “should be understood as a bi-directional process, which involves efforts on the part of the recently-arrived population but also on the native one”. In addition, the Co-ordinator of the Migrations Programme pointed out that one of the characteristics of a good part of the immigrant population is “its youth”, for which reason “the public administrations should reinforce and adapt public services, especially the education system and the mechanisms of insertion into the job market”.

Organised by the General Directorate of Youth of the City Government of Barcelona, the act was held with the aim of presenting the municipal government’s new Directive Plan for Youth for the 2006-2010 period. This project is part of Projectejovebcn , an initiative which defines and fosters actions that the Barcelona City Government has to undertake in all of the issues relating to young people.