easyRights workshop at the #EURegionsWeek was a total blast

Migration governance and the integration of third-country nationals in host countries have been increasingly framed as key political, social, and economic challenges and have come to the forefront of international political agendas during the last decades. The Working Towards an Inclusive Future for All: Strategies and Tools for Public Authorities and Migrants online workshop organised under the scope of the #EURegionsWeek event took place on Wednesday, 12th of October 2022 and tackled

1. the EU's latest approach towards integrating third-country nationals which is, the Skills and Talents package,

2. the role of local and regional authorities in implementing the EU policies,

3. the role of technology in aiding migrants integration and

4. the easyRights approach to service design and innovation developed for public authorities and (im)migrants.

A fantastic line-up of speakers: Ms. Hinano Spreafico - European Research Executive Agency, European Commission; Mr. Luca Barani - DG Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission; Mr. Emilio De Capitani – Fundamental Rights European Experts Group, Dr. Karen Hough – Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research, shared with us their knowledge and latest information on the aforementioned topics.

Along with offering solutions for making the life of (im)migrants easier, and simplifying access to public services, the easyRights project aims at introducing a new quality standard, the Mediation Grammar, for service accessibility. The Mediation Grammar is a collection of minimum requirements for enforcing the informational rights of foreign (non-EU) immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees legally entitled to stay in the territory of a Member State of the European Union. In order to become a standard, the Mediation Grammar has to pass through a specific process that is under the guidance of the Italian Standardization Body (UNI). Within this process, a series of 4-5 workshops with relevant stakeholders will be organised by UNI at EU level from September to December 2022. The ultimate goal of these workshops will be the development of a document that will be the first draft of the standard. Following up on these steps, UNI will bring the new standard to the recognition of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). Any interested person can participate and have his/her say in the Mediation Grammar CEN Workshops!

One of he takeaway messages of this workshop was that the measures taken for the Ukrainians at the EU level should be a blueprint for the integration of other migrants. Migrants should be integrated from Day 0 and this can be achieved by twofold actions: the migrants should know and understand their rights and also the hosting community should know and understand the rights of migrants and the benefits that their society will have by integrating the newly arrived migrants in a quick and effective way.

The presentations and the workshop recording can be found here.