Interaction between people of all kinds is the cornerstone of the intercultural approach and is what creates its distinctive value. The more contact people of different backgrounds and lifestyles have with each other, the less likely they are to think and behave in prejudicial ways. The conditions are however important. There needs to be equality between participants and recognition of each other’s cultural/identity backgrounds.

An intercultural city needs to counter prejudice and segregation through the development of a range of policies in all areas presented in this guide, and, together with a wide range of allies, encourage more mixing and interaction between diverse groups and individuals in all areas of its work. It takes deliberate efforts to foster a climate of mutual respect, understanding and co-operation where persons belonging to national minorities are recognised as integral elements of society, who effectively enjoy equal access to rights and resources, while being provided with opportunities for social interaction and inclusion across differences.

Next, please take the time to familiarise yourself with pages 26-28 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Has the city adopted a process of policy consultation and/or co-design including people of all ethnic or cultural backgrounds?
• Does the city provide trainings and tools to increase intercultural competency among staff and residents?
• Does the city seek support and inspiration from a broad range of organisations and people?
• Does the city try to find examples and experiences from others?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Develop or support initiatives that put people together around issues of common interest.
• Open up intercultural centres or museums dedicated to celebrating all kind of diversities for residents of diverse background to develop a sense of belonging to public places that are appealing to all.
• Reach out to people where they are (workplaces, shops, schools, religious places, public markets, sport facilities, etc.), to inform them on the opportunities offered by other public spaces of the city.
• Support youth and other projects aimed at promoting a desegregated use of public space.
• Provide facilities where people of all origins, ages and genders can meet and interact.
• Develop feedback mechanisms and indicators to track changes and identify gaps.

Participation can take different forms and occur formally or informally. Intercultural integration makes the assumption that a more equitable division of powers and responsibilities across different policies is necessary in an age of diversity. An intercultural city therefore actively seeks the participation of all residents in the various decision-making processes in the city, thus increasing support, and thereby the sustainability of local policies, while reducing the economic costs of social exclusion and instability.

Next, please read pages 28-31 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• If your city has adopted an intercultural action plan, was this the result of a consultation process including people with migrant/minority backgrounds?
• Has your city introduced participatory mechanisms, other than voting rights or a consultative body, to enable all city residents, irrespective of their migrant/minority backgrounds, to participate equally in the decision-making process?
• Does your city monitor the participation of city residents with migrant/minority backgrounds in the decision-making process?
• Does your city take action to ensure residents with migrant/minority backgrounds are fairly represented in institutions and organisations, on boards or ruling bodies of trade unions, public schools, work councils, etc.?
• Has your city introduced mechanisms to ensure gender equality is respected in organisations participating in the decision-making on matters related to the inclusion of residents with migrant/minority backgrounds?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Promote inclusive participation through the development of tools and training for public authorities, including on intercultural competence.
• Develop tailored actions to reach out to vulnerable groups.
• Create open spaces and channels so that citizens, political leaders and practitioners can work together.
• Empower the citizens through targeted capacity building activities.
• Keep communities informed about opportunities to participate, and the results.
• Consider implementing also artistic and cultural actions as tools to generate interest, commitment and participation.

Discrimination occurs when people are treated less favourably than others in a comparable situation only because they (are perceived to) belong to a group or category of people; or because people in different situations are subject to norms that do not account for their situation. Discrimination may occur on the basis of age, disability, ethnicity, origin, political belief, race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, culture and many other grounds. An intercultural city assures every effort to ensure non-discrimination. The city works in partnership with institutions and organisations, focuses on interactions where hidden processes of inequality may exist, collects relevant data and monitors the impact of policies.

Next, please read pages 31-33 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Has your city carried out a systematic review of all municipal regulations to identify mechanisms that may discriminate residents with migrant/minority backgrounds?
• Does your city have a charter or other binding document proscribing discrimination against persons or groups of persons on grounds of race, colour, language, religion, nationality, national/ethnic origin, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation in the municipal administration and services?
• Does your city have a dedicated service that advises and supports victims of discrimination?
• Does your city regularly monitor/research the extent and the character of discrimination in the city?
• Does your city run anti-discrimination campaigns or raise awareness on discrimination in other ways?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Set up anti-discrimination structures able to understand and deal with discrimination, support victims, and detect/suggest remedies to systemic discrimination.
• Foster diversity competence of public and elected officials.
• Dispense an urban pedagogy of human rights, intercultural dialogue and multiple identities, prevention of multiple discrimination, via official public discourse, education, partnerships, social media and anti-rumour strategies.
• Design intersectional activities, involving relevant organisations, to help raise awareness of multiple and compounded discrimination, and design effective strategies.

People arriving in the city for an extended stay (whatever their circumstances) are likely to find themselves disorientated and in need of multiple forms of support. The degree to which these various support measures can be co-ordinated and delivered effectively will have a major impact on how the person settles and integrates. What is often overlooked, but has a powerful impact on intercultural relations, is whether the rest of the city’s population is prepared and open to the idea of welcoming newcomers in their capacity as citizens. Again, it is the message the authorities convey on diversity, in communication or through concrete actions, that determines to a certain degree attitudes towards newcomers.

Next, please read pages 33-34 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Does your city have a designated agency, unit, person, or procedure to welcome newcomers?
• Does your city have a comprehensive city specific package of information and support for newcomers?
• Do different city services and agencies provide welcome support for particular groups of newcomers?
• Does your city have specific welcoming and integration courses for refugees?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Create a welcoming ceremony where new residents have a chance to meet
• Ensure there is material available in various languages
• Ensure information on important services are easy to access
• Spread information on associations and other leisure time activities which can be helpful for new arrivals in your city

Schools have a potential to reinforce or challenge prejudices through the physical, pedagogical and social environment as well as values and knowledge. Ideally, initiatives to reinforce the intercultural impact of the school system are not limited to isolated projects but address all elements and factors – from the diversity of the student and teaching body to the physical appearance of schools, the educational content and the relationships between schools and the community.

Next, please read pages 34-35 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Does your city have a policy to increase ethnic/cultural mixing in schools?
• Do schools carry out intercultural projects?
• Do schools make efforts to involve parents with migrant/minority backgrounds in school life (other than parent-teacher meetings)?
• Does the ethnic/cultural background of teachers reflect the composition of the city’s population?
• Is ‘intercultural competence’ part of the school curriculum or the subject of projects outside the curriculum?
• Are teachers trained in intercultural competence?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Aspire for mixing of pupils and provide mother tongue classes (or recognition of knowledge of mother tongue).
• Partner with parents and involve them in school policies/life; implement measures to reach out to and involve migrant parents; ensure informal ways of approaching parents.
• Link to schools of other faiths (for faith-based schools).
• Aspire for a diverse teaching body.
• Interact with the local community and intercultural projects.
• Represent diversity in the school design/decoration.
• Educational process/curriculum: teach about different religions, ensure an intercultural angle in all disciplines and teach about multi-perspectives in history teaching.
• Encourage migrant pupils to take active part in democratic processes in schools.
• Organise intercultural training for teachers.
• Organise peer mentoring for pupils.

There is variation in the extent to which patterns of residential settlement are connected to culture and ethnicity and there are also varying opinions on whether the state should intervene or if the market and personal choice should be the prime determinants. An ideal intercultural city does not require a ‘perfect’ statistical mix of people and recognises the value of ethnic enclaves, so long as they do not act as barriers to the free flow of people, ideas and opportunities both inward and outward.

The level of neighbourhood cohesion is an important indicator of integration as well as of positive attitudes towards diversity. Research shows positive correlation between perceived levels of neighbourhood social cohesion and securing the benefits of diversity. People who perceive low levels of social cohesion in their neighbourhood are more negative on most aspects of immigration. Perceptions change over time, particularly following increased levels of interaction between migrants and host societies.

Next, please read pages 36-37 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• How many districts/neighbourhoods of your city are culturally/ethnically diverse?
• Does your city have a policy to increase the diversity of residents in the neighbourhoods and avoid ethnic concentration?
• Does the system for allocation of public housing and/or the private housing market contribute to ethnic concentration?
• Does your city encourage actions where residents of one neighbourhood meet and interact with residents with different migrant/minority backgrounds from other neighbourhoods?
• Does your city have a policy to encourage residents with migrant/minority backgrounds to meet and interact with other people living in the same neighbourhood?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Has your city considered focussing on community development and neighbourhood cohesion? Along with participatory structures and processes, neighbourhood projects enabling residents to work together on goals are a key tool. This includes e.g. community centres with diverse staff/volunteers; educational, civic and festive events, mediation and spaces where people of different backgrounds and ages feel welcome and at ease.
• Has your city considered an intercultural approach to urban heritage? An intercultural approach to the heritage sector for example, allows a city to open the urban identity to all communities, increasing trust, mutual recognition and community cohesion through an identity inclusive to all.

In an ideal intercultural city, public employees reflect the ethnic, cultural and other backgrounds of the population. Cities should initiate intercultural awareness training for politicians and key policy and public interface staff in public sector agencies and encourage the private sector to participate. Conflicts which may stem from cultural relativism, fear, or suspicion towards “the other”, as well as discrimination, racism and hate incidents, are challenges that - where they exist - the local police services and public authorities have to manage.

Next, please read pages 37-39 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Is the city taking action to ensure that the ethnic/cultural background of public employees reflect that of the population as a whole?
• Has the city reviewed or changed the structure, ethos or methodology of its public service delivery to take account of the ethnic/cultural mix of its citizens and staff?
• Does the city take action to encourage intercultural mixing in the private sector labour market?
• What is the role of the police in regard to cultural diversity – does it act as a factor of positive acceptance of diversity or does it reinforce prejudice; does it maintain peace between groups, enforce immigration laws under a human rights perspective, or maintain the status quo?
• To what extent are the police willing and able to take a more proactive role and act as community bridge-builders between groups?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Organise workshops or discussions with officials in mixed groups, across administrative silos and specialisms, and including intercultural innovators with professional, educational and creative backgrounds.
• Organise workshops or other meetings not in the administrative offices but in art spaces or other unusual environments that invite out of the-box thinking. Foster the creative confidence of the administration.
• Encourage civil servants to take part in field projects involving interaction with citizens.
• Ensure the police adopts an intercultural community policing approach.
• Public authorities can extend intercultural awareness training beyond their own staff.

Cities are growingly aware of the benefits diversity in the workforce can bring in increasing competitiveness, attractiveness and entrepreneurship, reducing labour shortages or promoting inclusion and preventing poverty. Micro and small and medium enterprises are generating most of the new jobs in cities. The growth and sustainability of these enterprises are a priority for many cities. Many of these enterprises are owned by people from immigrant backgrounds and other under-represented groups. In addition, migrants and refugees often engage in transnational economic activities, which create new opportunities for cities. The city must encourage business organisations to go beyond formal qualification recognition and look for a greater range of criteria to ensure recognition and optimal use of migrants’ skills and to drive innovation, growth and entrepreneurship.

Next, please read pages 39-40 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it.

Food for thought

• Is there a business umbrella organisation whose objectives include promoting diversity and non-discrimination in employment?
• Does the city have a charter or another binding document prohibiting discrimination in the workplace and/or targets for enterprises working with the cities as diversity employers?
• Does the city take action to encourage intercultural mixing in the private sector labour market?
• Does the city take action to encourage businesses from ethnic/cultural minorities to move beyond localised/ethnic economies and enter the mainstream economy?
• Has the city taken steps to encourage ‘business districts’ in which different cultures could mix more easily?
• In its procurement of goods and services does the city council give priority to companies with a diversity strategy?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Develop partnerships with businesses, organisations, chambers of commerce, trade unions.
• Engage with universities and research institutes to collect data, develop innovative approaches.
• Communicate on migrants/refugees’ economic contributions.
• Ensure diverse staff in city administration.
• Promote gender equality in the labour force.
• Create space for exchange and development of practices and ideas.
• Bring expertise to the city.

Leisure activities are often an opportunity for individuals to encounter and engage with people of another culture in a neutral context. However, if leisure is structured along ethnic lines, it may reinforce separation. The city can influence this through activities and resource distribution to other organisations. Cultural activities need to be conceived for a diverse public to work as vectors of intercultural communication and interaction. Cultures must be presented as living, changing phenomena which thrive on interaction with other cultures and stimulate the hybridisation of cultural expressions.

Next, please read pages 41-42 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Does the municipal council use interculturalism as a criterion when allocating funds to associations and initiatives? Are there funding/training schemes to support talent from diverse backgrounds?
• Does your city encourage cultural organisations to deal with diversity and intercultural relations in their productions?
• Does your city organise activities in the fields of arts, culture and sport aiming to encourage people from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds to interact?
• Does your city organise public debates/campaigns on the subject of cultural diversity and living together?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Invite high-level contemporary artists from the countries of origin of major migrant communities.
• Encourage mainstream cultural institutions to programme local migrant artists – international and intercultural programming are not the same. Opening these institutions to contemporary art forms helps to involve more diverse artists and audiences.
• Encourage artistic programmes that promote intercultural collaboration between artists and feature the results of such collaborations.
• Allocate significant resources to neighbourhood and amateur artistic involvement.
• Sponsor artists’ work on intercultural themes, employ artists as cultural mediators for community-building projects.
• Divert the holding of cultural events from mainstream institutions, city centre and prestigious venues, to open spaces, marginalised/poor neighbourhoods.
• Encourage active involvement of people from other communities in cultural events.

Public spaces and facilities are places which most citizens use at least from time to time; they therefore provide great opportunities for encounters between strangers and can reinforce cross-cultural solidarity. Well managed and animated spaces can become beacons of the city’s intercultural intentions.

Next, please read pages 42-44 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Is interaction a priority in the planning of new public spaces?
• Do the city’s main public spaces reflect its diversity?
• Do different groups in the city seek or avoid interaction?
• If spaces of your city are dominated by one group and are considered unwelcoming or unsafe, does the city have a policy to deal with this?
• When your city decides to reconstruct an area, does it use different methods and places for consultation to ensure meaningful involvement of people with different backgrounds?
• Are the city planning and built environment professionals trained in intercultural competence?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• The most important skill for place-makers and planners is to listen to people, and then to work with them to translate this into expert systems.
• Professionals must always be aware of the biases inherent in their own education and training, and regularly seek to review and transcend them.
• Recognise that people express their feelings about their environment through many means but rarely use the language of the professional.
• Whilst professionals cannot become experts in all languages and cultural traits of a diverse community, they can become experts in recognising the key ‘intercultural moments’ when communication is being sought and offered, and in selecting the appropriate medium.
• Many of the best intercultural spaces emerge organically and unplanned and the art of a good place-maker is to know when to intervene and when not to.
• Engagement with people is not a one-off event but a constant process of listening, learning, designing, acting and re-listening.
• Professional place-making teams should constantly seek to enhance the diversity of their membership through training, recruitment and collaboration.
• Do not be afraid of making mistakes or of reversing – good place-making is based on empathy not infallibility.

An intercultural city does not avoid nor ignore conflicts. While embracing diversity, such a city identifies and addresses them. This process is fundamental for living together in a dynamic and communicative community. Indeed, the optimum intercultural city sees opportunity for innovation and growth emerging from the process of conflict mediation and resolution. Collective intelligence, understanding of issues at stake, involvement of key resource persons within communities, promotion of interaction, and sustained engagement with all groups affected are some of the keys intercultural cities use to mediate and resolve conflicts.

Next, please read pages 44-45 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Is the city policy influenced by the need to avoid the possibility of ethnic conflict?
• Are city officials trained in mediation and conflict resolution?
• Which kind of organisations provide professional services for mediation of intercultural communication and/or conflict?
• Is there an organisation in your city dealing specifically with inter-religious relations?
• In your city, in which context is intercultural mediation provided?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Recognise the full range of contexts and situations in the city where tension and conflict is underpinned by intercultural misunderstanding, lack of awareness or hostility.
• Recognise the full scope for intercultural mediation between individuals, groups, communities and institutions.
• Identify city ‘hotspots’ where intercultural mediation may be necessary if broader progress is to be made on the intercultural agenda.
• Identify professionals/NGOs who mediate as part of their practice. Look if there is expertise that can be applied more widely or in other settings.
• Review support and training needs for authority professionals.
• Look at the scope for developing a pool of intercultural mediators available across the city system.

It is vital for integration that all newcomers learn the language of the host country. However, there are other considerations in an intercultural approach to language, which entail dealing with languages as a resource for economic, cultural and scientific relations and developments in an interconnected world. The aim of the intercultural approach is to foster equal respect for all languages spoken in a city and mutual learning across language-divides. In cities where recent migration or trade connections have brought entirely new languages into the city, which are spoken by a large minority of the population, interculturalism is measured by the extent the majority are prepared to adopt these languages in daily life.

Next, please read pages 46-47 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Does the translation of public information into minority languages in the context of various public information campaigns and in social services encourage or prevent people from gaining command of the majority language?
• Are services offered to support the learning of the host language supported by psychological incentives to people to invest in language learning?
• Are there actions or initiatives in the educational or cultural fields aimed at promoting recognition of minority/migrant languages in the community?
• Does the city have local newspaper/journal/radio or TV programs in languages other than the language of the majority ethnic group?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Is multilingualism promoted in schools and in education? Schools can foster language awareness by using examples of languages spoken by the pupils.
• Are home languages and linguistic varieties present in the classrooms promoted? Language diversity may contribute to a better understanding between children in class and at school.
• Is multilingualism discussed with the parents? Language awareness-raising may be an important instrument to increase the involvement of the parents.

Traditional and social media have powerful influence on attitudes towards cultural and other diversities. Developing ways of working with the media is a dimension of intercultural cities. Local media should be active participants in the intercultural project not simply channels for reporting. Ideally the media should be represented on the task force or at least the wider support network. At the same time, cities should address some of the root causes of the lack of a balanced approach to diversity in the media.

Next, please read pages 48-50 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it.

Food for thought

• Does your city have a communication strategy to improve the visibility and image of people with migrant/minority backgrounds in the local media?
• Is your city’s communication department instructed to regularly highlight diversity as an advantage and in various types of communication?
• Does your city provide support for advocacy/media training/mentorship/setting up of online media start-ups for journalists with migrant/minority backgrounds?
• Does your city monitor the way in which traditional local/national media portray people with migrant/minority backgrounds/?
• Does your city monitor how people with migrant/minority backgrounds are portrayed in social media?
• Does your city engage with the local media when people with migrant/minority backgrounds are portrayed through negative stereotypes?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Define and communicate the key messages of the intercultural initiative locally.
• Intercultural understanding, skills and competence of media professionals, editors and journalists, should be enhanced.
• There is scope for intercultural champions and key city figures to act as ‘ambassadors’ on intercultural issues for the media.
• Pay attention to the scope for ‘catalytic’ events at key points of the initiative to generate media attention and public discussion of intercultural issues and for ‘critical debates’ where complex and sensitive issues are addressed by experts and others to sensitise the media to interculturalism and break down stereotypes.
• Establish a joint strategy with local media and where appropriate journalism schools to gather and present news in a responsible and intercultural way, secure balanced reporting of migrants/minorities in the media and strengthen community media.

Although cities have little or no competence in foreign policy, they can actively seek to make connections in other countries to develop business relations, exchange knowledge and know-how, encourage tourism, or simply acknowledge the ties the city may have elsewhere. An intercultural city actively seeks to make connections with other places for trade, exchange of knowledge, tourism etc. The city would be a place where a stranger (whether businessperson, tourist or new migrant) could find legible, friendly and accessible information, with opportunities to enter into business, professional and social networks.

Next, please read page 50 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• What is the external image of the city?
• Does your city have an explicit and sustainable policy to encourage international cooperation in economic, scientific, cultural, or other areas?
• Does your city reach out to foreign students or other youth groups arriving through exchange programmes?
• Does your city seek to develop business relations with countries/cities of origin of its diaspora groups?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Proclaim that the city is open to both ideas and influences from the outside world and also seek to outwardly project its own identity.
• Establish independent trade and policy links with the countries of origin of minority groups, monitor and develop new models of local/global citizenship.

Intercultural integration policies should, just as any other policy, be evidence-based. In an intercultural city, officials have an intercultural mindset which enables them to detect cultural and other differences and modulate their responses accordingly. Intercultural intelligence and competence require a specific know-how when dealing with unfamiliar situations and not an in-depth and often elusive knowledge of all cultures. Such sensitivity and self-confidence is not commonly-seen. It is a technical skill which can be acquired through training and practice. In an intercultural city, the authorities view such skills as equally important and essential to the good functioning of the city as the other professional and technical skills usually expected from public employees.

Next, please read pages 51-52 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can also save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Is statistical and qualitative information about diversity and intercultural relations mainstreamed to inform the local/municipal council’s process of policy formulation?
• Does the local government use this information to directly/ indirectly improve its services to ethnic minority populations?
• Does your city promote the intercultural competence of its officials and staff, in administration and public services?
• Does your city, directly or through an external body, carry out surveys including questions about the public perception of migrants/minorities?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Monitor examples of good practice locally and in other places.
• Gather and process local information and data.
• Conduct research into the state of cross-cultural interaction in the city.
• Establish and monitor intercultural indicators.
• Dispense advice and expertise to local agencies and facilitating local learning networks.

The most powerful and far-reaching action a city can take to be more intercultural is to open democratic representation and decision-making to all residents of the city irrespective of origin, nationality or residence status. Furthermore, the concept of citizenship has wide impact on feeling of belonging – both as a sense of attachment and of political and social membership to the city. To this end, the official recognition of diversity and the right to participation by the city political leaders/administration are essential.

Next, please read pages 52-53 of the guide The intercultural city step by step. You can save the document if you wish to return to it later.

Food for thought

• Can all foreign nationals vote and stand as candidates in local elections?
• Are any elected members of your city’s municipal council foreign-born or dual nationals?
• Does your city have an independent consultative body through which people with migrant/minority backgrounds can voice their concerns and advise the municipal council? If so, is membership based on purely ethnic criteria or on expertise, network and willingness to engage in intercultural interactions?
• Does your city take initiatives to encourage people with migrant/minority backgrounds to engage in political life and be represented in mandatory boards supervising public bodies?
• Does the city nurture cross-cultural leaders outside the formal political and community channels?
• Does your city act so that everyone can express their opinion regardless of their cultural background or situation?
• Does your city promote mechanisms of participatory democracy? If so, is effort made to involve people with different backgrounds?
• Has your city considered mechanisms of urban citizenship using residency as the basis for recognition and rights, as well as access to city-controlled services?
• Does your city look for opportunities to close the gaps in national services?

Tips for your intercultural strategy

• Has your city considered the ability of the citizenry to transform the urban space by leveraging the ideas, competences and capacity of all people, irrespectively of their origin?
• Has your city innovated/tested practices, such as participatory democracy that enable foreign residents to participate in the political debate and even in political decision making?
• Has your city considered urban citizenship?
• Is there universal access to municipal public services (particularly health care) and is access to other public services provided according to the diverse needs of the population?