Making Migration Work for Development - Policy tools for strategic planning in SEE regions and cities
The focus of the project is to enhance policy-making, reinforcing the capacity of public administrations to understand, anticipate and strategically manage the implications of demographic change for the growth and cohesion of European regions and cities, and for the overall integration of the SEE area. Local and regional authorities are at the forefront in facing the effects of current demographic, economic and social changes, and their mutual implications in terms of overall cohesion and competitiveness of their territories. They are confronted with the need to actively govern such processes, regaining their full planning and strategic capacity, instead of limiting their action to managing their ultimate effects. Demographic change is a complex process, that includes different trends of transformation in the population structure. The project MMWD is aware that migration flows have become the major force of population change, and that at the same time the knowledge gap is particularly evident when it comes to migration and, even more, to the effects migration flows produce on the economic and social development prospects for specific territories. MMWD takes into account the multifaceted realm of migration processes, which include movements occurring within the same region/country (i.e. from rural to urban areas) as well as across regions placed in different countries (i.e. intra-EU and between EU and non EU regions). MMWD will offer concrete knowledge-based tools to policy-makers and test policy-making processes that make appropriate use of such tools, at both sub-national and trans-national level - in policy areas that are clearly impacted by demographic changes, and particularly by migration, are are critical for sustainable growth and competiveness: labour market (to promote employment), human capital (to raise productivity and economic performance), and the local offer of social services (to ensure their sustainability).