The intercultural city step by step - Practical guide for applying the urban model of intercultural integration

Book excerpt: Most countries in Europe and indeed around the world are facing the challenges of international migration and integration of minorities. It falls primarily upon cities to design and implement policies that foster community cohesion and turn cultural diversity into a factor of development rather than a threat.This guide is designed for city leaders and practitioners wishing to learn from the Intercultural Cities pilot project run by the Council of Europe and the European Commission in developing an intercultural approach to diversity management and integration. This approach has been built on the basis of experience in dozens of real-life cities in redesigning their policies and reshaping their governance to ensure equal opportunities and realise a diversity advantage.The guide recommends steps and measures to help develop an intercultural strategy and monitor its implementation. It illustrates the elements of such a strategy with analytical questions, suggestions and examples of practice in various European cities.It is expected that any city embarking on the Intercultural Cities agenda is a confident and competent entity that is able to creatively adapt the general concepts and actions contained in this guide to local circumstances.This guide is therefore not an instruction manual but rather an aide-memoire to support cities as they create their own trajectory.