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Liverpool chosen for Inclusive Cities project
LIVERPOOL is 1 of 5 Cities that will take part in an
international project run by Oxford University aimed at helping new arrivals to
integrate.
The 2 year programme; being run by the Global Exchange on Migration and
Diversity; looks to support Cities to improve their approach to helping arrivals
from abroad to settle.
It will draw on ideas and experience from within Europe and innovative
approaches from Cities in the United States, as part of the highly acclaimed
Welcoming America initiative.
A local taskforce will be set up by the end of 2017 to put together and
implement an action plan to help make sure newcomers and their neighbours
integrate.
Liverpool has been chosen because it has experienced significant migration over
the last decade and has a diverse demographic and economic profile.
Councillor Frank Hont, Cabinet member for housing, who will lead on the
initiative, said:- "Liverpool has a proud reputation dating back hundreds
of years as a welcoming city and our population is growing at a rate we have not
seen for many decades. We're fortunate in that there is lots of regeneration
happening in communities right across Liverpool, but that can cause challenges
as some places have seen rapid changes their population. People understandably
get nervous when they see the dynamics of their community changing, and in some
parts of the city that has been considerable over the last decade or so. Our job
is to work with others to help communities through that process, whether their
new neighbours are students or others moving here from both home and abroad. The
Inclusive
Cities programme has the
potential to help us become a leading City in doing that."
It comes as the City Council's Cabinet has today approved the recommendations of
a year long look at community cohesion.
A panel of stakeholders including:- the community and voluntary sector,
Merseyside Police, Mersey Fire and Rescue Service and education representative
have spent a year looking at the issue.
They have made a series of recommendations aimed at breaking down barriers
between people of different backgrounds, faiths and races in the City, and make
it as open and inclusive as it can be.
They include:-
► Creating a campaign to promote local people's identity whatever their
background.
► Continuous conversations with communities and encouraging people to come
together to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.
► Creating a sense of belonging to Liverpool.
► Providing leadership that challenges issues that create tension and seek to
divide.
Councillor Emily Spurrell, Cabinet member for Neighbourhoods and Community
Safety, said:- "There is already lots of good work going on through
organisations such as Merseyside Polonia, Asylum Link, our housing associations
and the School of Sanctuary. What we want to do is help spread that wider and
further and embed it throughout the City. We can't be complacent because,
although people in Liverpool voted to remain in the EU, the vote for Brexit and
events such as the international migrant crisis and terrorist attacks all have
the potential to caused cause anxiety, nervousness and suspicion. Like
everywhere else, we have seen a rise in reported hate crime which is why it is
so vital we work harder than ever to encourage cohesion, bust myths and promote
and celebrate different cultures."
Liverpool City Council is planning to submit a bid to the Government's
'Controlling Migration Fund' to secure funding to deliver some of the
Community Cohesion report recommendations.
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