Benchmarking Integration Governance in Europe’s Cities

Cities all over Europe are playing host to increasingly diverse populations. It is also in cities that the opportunities and challenges presented by this diversity are felt most immediately. Whether in Malmö or Milan, practitioners developing local integration policies and practices are confronted by many similar questions. However, the solutions they formulate and the governance arrangements they choose are developed within potentially very different local – and national – parameters.

It was with an awareness of the existence of common challenges, and with an appreciation for the diversity of approaches adopted in different cities, that the INTI-Cities project was designed. The aim was to provide a platform for municipal integration experts to meet with counterparts in other cities and find inspiration in approaches to local integration policy taken elsewhere. The ambition was to organise this exchange in an intensive and focused way. To this end, the project chose to implement a peer review process based on a common benchmark and standardised methodology.

The INTI-Cities peer-reviews represented an intensive learning experience both for the reviewers and for the cities under review. With this publication, we attempt to share the wealth of learning that was generated through the project, reflecting on peer-reviews as a tool for mutual learning, and on the lessons learnt about how cities can set up appropriate structures for successful integration governance.

The publication is available for download below in several languages.