Q: What remains to be done in order to harness the full development potential of migration? What are the future priorities and challenges of the SDC in Poland?
A: With our projects, including also an NGO fund, we have the objective to contribute to increase these figures and to facilitate the integration of migrants in Poland. Another goal we have is to bring together Polish and Swiss migration authorities and other concerned entities, and allow both our countries to share knowledge and gain precious experience.
Integration is a dynamic, two-way process of mutual adaptation of migrants and local community in the economic, social, cultural and political dimensions. Migrants’ participation in the life of host society constitutes a basic mechanism of integration. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, activity of migrants’ associations is particularly low in Poland. In the report „Migrant Integration Policy Index” (2011) opportunities that Polish politics creates for migrants’ participation in the public life have been described as particularly non-supportive to their integration – Poland was rated 30th among 31 countries covered in the report (i.e. second but last)...
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Swiss Contribution Office supports migrant political participation in Poland
Thomas Huddleston
Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Group
Thomas Huddleston is a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Group, a European think-and-do-tank. He coordinates MPG’s research for European cooperation on national integration policies, including the second and third editions of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) (published in February 2011) and the third edition of the European Commission’s Handbook on Integration.
