2nd International Symposium on Integration
Creating Opportunities – Integration, Employment and Social Mobility
In all OECD countries, the income and asset distribution gap has been widening since the beginning of the 1990s. This development is one of the biggest challenges facing modern society. Creating individual opportunities for upward mobility which enable active and equality-based participation in society is a political and civil society priority, particularly with regard to the integration of migrants. That is why the 2nd International Symposium on Integration is called "Creating Opportunities – Integration, Employment and Social Mobility: European Experiences and Scope for Manoeuvre".
Structure and Organization
The German government's Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration, Stiftung Mercator and the Vodafone Foundation Germany hosted the symposium on 26 January 2009 at the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology in Berlin.
Representatives from politics, science, business and civil society took part in an evaluation of the European labour market integration situation - particularly with regard to persons with a migrant background - and discussed conditions of social mobility. After a keynote speech by sociologist Professor Heinz Bude and the scientific evaluation in the morning, the afternoon programme included speeches by the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr Angela Merkel, and the Federal Government's Minister of State and Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration, Professor Maria Böhmer.
Specific action fields and projects were also considered in terms of good practices. Foundations - as forward thinking organizations in these fields - detailed their experiences and explained how good practices can supplement and improve the existing portfolio of employment promotion measures.
Objectives
The objective of the symposium was to bring together representatives of politics, science, business and civil society in order to debate the issue of "Labour Market Integration". It provided an international framework for the current debate on the integration of young migrants in the labour market from the perspective of science, politics, business and civil society. The speeches and panel debates also identified the areas in which the most urgent action requirements exist and offered the international participants the opportunity to network and report on their work.