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Managing a sustainable and beneficial migration was one of the great slogans of the International Meeting on Migration, City and Border, held on December 15 and 16, 2022 in Cucuta, capital of the department of Norte de Santander in Colombia. The event, which was part of the Inclusive Cities Forums schedule, was organized by the Cucuta mayor’s office together with the Inclusive Cities program, the European Union, UNHCR, IOM, UN-Habitat and USAID. Important authorities, exhibitors and community leaders participated in the event either as panelists or as attendees.
The first day of the event featured opening remarks by various dignitaries, including Jairo Yañez, Mayor of Cúcuta and Elkin Velásquez, UN-Habitat Regional Director for Latin America; the latter highlighted the importance of the new geography to talk about integration, highlighting the humanitarian nexus, development and peace, global agendas as an opportunity for territorialization and action and, finally, the sense of responsibility to welcome and sow migration.
The first panel of the meeting was called Inclusive Cities, Solidarity Communities: The importance of data for decision-making with an impact on integration and development, in which there was a discussion on the program of the same name, led by the European Union and implemented by UNHCR, IOM and UN-Habitat. During the same event, Roi Chiti, Coordinator of UN-Habitat Andean Countries, shared the Urban Inclusion Marker tool, which allows measuring the aggregate level of inclusion of a city, considered as the ability to access goods, services and opportunities offered to its citizens in line with the notion of the right to the city. Subsequently, a panel was held on the socioeconomic integration of refugees and migrants from productive territories, in which Alessandro Cacciapuoti from IOM highlighted the importance of sharing information in order to balance responsibilities in these integration processes. To end the day, three simultaneous panels were held: Cities as platforms for integration: territorial planning, adequate housing and public space, in which there was a remarkable participation of Jennifer Cañaveral, a person with a disability who works for the Bogota’s mayor’s office.
The other two panels were Effective inclusion based on the attention and care of refugees, migrants and host communities with a differential approach and on the offer of services for the returned population, in which participants discussed experiences of attention and care as central axis for the integration of various vulnerable groups and, finally, public management and municipal finances as an instrument for integration, in which the role of public management and municipal finances for integration was addressed.
The second day of the meeting began with a discussion on success stories of civil society organizations in migration management, in which the experiences of the El Pilar Foundation and the organization Comparte por una Vida, both Colombian entities, were shared. Immediately afterwards, the panel The value of border cities and their role as guarantor for safe migration was held, in which the importance of border cities as a gateway for refugees and migrants was highlighted and the experience of cities in promoting programs and strategies for safe and inclusive migration, including Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.
The panel on The contribution to integration from the community, Centros Integrate – Red IntegrHa-bitat took place, having a conversation about experiences of care centers, integration and co-inclusion of the migrant population in the Colombian educational system: balance and habitat creation opportunities, and the importance of networking; There, among the shared experiences, the experience of the Moravia Cultural Center, in Medellín, Colombia, stood out. The last panel of the day was on inclusive governance and participatory tools for the inclusion of refugees and migrants, followed by the launch of the GIFMM Contigo platform, a free tool that helps to be informed about the different assistance, guidance and protection alternatives for refugees and migrants from Venezuela.
The International Summit on Migration, City and Border 2022, marked a milestone in holding events in the city of Cúcuta, sharing experiences and models of sustainable migration management in the region. With this event, the cycle of Inclusive Cities Forums concluded in 2022.
