Nine recommendations have been put forward by the Action ‘Facilitating evidence-based integration policies in cities’. Emerging from a Working Group bringing together cities and EU data stakeholders, they are a roadmap for the way forward with regard to integration data on urban-regional level, the role of cities in European statistics on integration and migration, and increased know-how transfer among cities. With this, the Partnership Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees responds to the need for an improved knowledge base for cities’ integration policies, including reliable data, monitoring systems and other tools. The Options Report calls to:

• include but also go beyond existing EU indicators for common indicators on urban/regional level and develop them through multi-level cooperation;
• aim for a most comprehensive assessment in urban regions & fully capitalise on major trends in data gathering;
• make use of the new possibilities resulting from the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation;
• concentrate on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) as a primary and up-to-date data source, and to exploit it as much as possible;
• explore and create incentives for National Statistical Institutions to increase sample sizes and/or oversample cities, and to make EU funding available for this;
• develop the ownership of cities in EU-wide data, and improve multi-level communication among data providers and -users;
• exploit existing surveys with regard to the urban level, and improve the relevance for cities of future editions;
• enhance knowledge management and dissemination of EU data and tools; and
• facilitate know-how transfer and exchange between cities and use of related EU funding opportunities.

In parallel to the discussions of the Stakeholder Working Group, and as a key step towards better availability of comparable integration data on urban-regional level, Eurostat has been testing the possibility of publication, to the widest possible extent, of the existing EU integration indicators on regional level and by 'degree of urbanisation'. As a result, Eurostat has already started to publish new data on integration outcomes at these infra-national levels and scales, as well as a related Statistics Explained analysis focused on employment. 

Download the report below: