OSCE/ODIHR Workshop on Migrant Integration Held in Tbilisi

On 29 November 2018, at the initiative and co-organization of the SCMI Secretariat, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR) held an expert workshop on migrant integration issues.

The workshop aimed at awareness raising and facilitation of good practice exchange among the OSCE participating states including EaP countries, which recently started to face the migration challenges and established the coordination mechanisms, institutional and legal frameworks for migrant integration. Hence, the workshop gathered officials from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine and experts from EU Member States (Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Sweden) working on migrant integration as well as the international and non-governmental organizations on the ground, to exchange the information on the integration policies and programs running in their respective countries. The discussions were focused on the existing challenges in four key areas as identified by the participating States, namely labour market integration, the development of national integration plans, the specificities of refugee integration, the integration of unaccompanied minors and the best ways to address them in line with relevant OSCE commitments, international legal standards, national legislation and good practices.

The present workshop with extended scope of expertise was built on the previous three interventions carried out by the OSCE/ODIHR in Georgia in recent years in cooperation with the SCMI Secretariat.