ITALIAN INTEGRATION PORTAL
Targets
Migrants, professionals, employers, and all the actors dealing with integration policies- Ministries, Regions, Local Authorities, private and tertiary sectors.
Purpose
Be a hub and provide guidance on services that can facilitate the integration of immigrant citizens in our country, through an institutional, interactive and updated "map".
Objectives
- Provide users (migrants, professionals, employers) with information and services concerning the learning of the Italian language, work, access to housing and essential services, minors and second generations, intercultural mediation.
- Establish a national focal point for integration policies, fostering the connection and the exchange of information between public (central and local) and private Administrations and third sector bodies working in the field of integration policies.
Context
The Italian Integration Portal is a project co-funded by the European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals and coordinated by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, which avails itself of the support of its technical agencies Isfol and Italia Lavoro, as well as of the contribution of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Ministry of International Cooperation and Integration.
In order to guarantee the implementation of services, the General Directorate of Immigration and Integration Policies has involved Regions and local administrations as partners.
The portal provides a mapping of the services offered throughout the country by the public-private network dealing with integration activities. The aim is to promote the access of foreign citizens, as a precondition to facilitate their integration into the Italian society.
The services are classified by target, territory and type of service: Italian Language, Employment, Housing, Essential Services, Minors and second generations and Intercultural mediation.
To date, portal users can access information concerning approximately 8,000 services, offered by either the associations/organizations listed in the national register of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies or other bodies working for the social integration of foreigners.
In addition to these services, the portal highlights the most important innovations in terms of legislation, institutional initiatives and activities undertaken at supranational, national, regional and local levels. The documentary section will be enriched by the studies performed by six accredited research institutes specialized in this sector.
A partnership is already operative with some Regions so as to enable, through a dedicated network of contacts, a constant flow of information on the services active [available] on the territory. In the coming months, through the ANCI, the municipalities shall provide the mapping of social integration interventions implemented at the local level.
On this basis, the General Directorate has tasked ANCI with testing the portal in some local contexts, including Rome and Milan as major metropolitan cities, and Prato due to the presence of a significant Chinese community.
The same commitment will be required from the associations listed in the Register of Associations that carry out activities to help immigrants, as an active part of the network coordinated by the General Directorate of immigration and integration policies.
The portal will be enriched by the information service Linea Amica Immigrazione, (toll-free 803 001), provided by Formez, starting in February 2012.
Telephone Information Services will be available in English, Italian, Spanish and French and will be accessible at no additional costs.
The contents and services offered by the Integration Portal will be promoted through a communication campaign that includes the organization of targeted events and the production of information materials to be disseminated via the media targeting foreign communities.