A Place-based Approach to Migrant Integration

Carlotta Fioretti is researcher in urban and territorial development at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in Seville, Spain.

She holds a MSc in Urban Regeneration from Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh, Scotland and a PhD in Territorial Policies obtained at University of Roma Tre, Italy.

She worked as researcher at Architecture and Design Scotland (2007), Censis Foundation (2012-2014), Sciences Po (2016) and University of Roma Tre (2008 -2017). From 2009 to 2017 she taught at Cornell University, Rome programme and University of Roma Tre. She co-founded ETICity association.

Her research interests concern urban regeneration, migration and the city, sustainable urban development, EU cohesion policy.

Alessandro Rainoldi is Head of the Territorial Development Unit at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the science and knowledge service of the European Commission, supporting the urban and territorial articulation of the EU policy agenda, its external investment and global outreach.

Before joining the JRC, he worked extensively for the Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy contributing in particular to issues related to governance, innovation, financial engineering and evaluation.

He is an economist by background. He previously worked at the study and research department of a leading Italian banking group and as a free-lance journalist. He teaches EU regional funds at the European College of Parma.

Sandrine Labory is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Ferrara, Italy. She has a MSc in Economics from University College London, and a Ph.D at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Her research is focused on industrial economics and policy, including analysis of national and regional industrial policies, innovative and productive processes at firm and territorial levels, structural changes and industrial development. Recent work is focused on regional development and policy in times of big disruption such as Industry 4.0, on which she has done research for regional governments and international organisations such as the OECD. She has numerous publications in international journals, as well as books such as Industrial Policy for the Manufacturing Revolution. Perspectives on Digital Globalisation (2018, Edward Elgar) with Patrizio Bianchi.

Paola Proietti holds a BA and MSc in Economic and Social Sciences and a PhD in Urban and Regional Science. Her research is interdisciplinary and cuts across Human and Economic Geography, Political and Public Economics. She has been working for several research centres on demography and development, behavioural and gender economics and for the OECD. While working at the OECD she created the first database on hosted asylum seekers across European regions and cities and took part to the project Working Together for Local Integration of Migrants and Refugees. In 2019 she joined the European Commission where she contributes to the Knowledge Centre for Territorial Policies focusing on spatial inequality, poverty, housing, migration, tourism and Sustainable Development. She is also a member of the JRC Task Force on Equality and non-Discrimination.

Grzegorz Gajewski is Programme manager in DG Migration and Home Affairs. For nearly 10 years, he has been involved in a strategic approach on the use of the funds to address migration and security challenges.  Developing synergies between policy priorities, operational initiatives and funding are among his area of expertise with a focus on integration of migrants. His current endeavour is to develop partnership between public authorities with financial institutions to build capacities and promote the use of social finance for the benefit of third country nationals. He ensure academic activities at Sciences Po Paris.

PhD in Urban, Regional and Environmental Design,  Habil. in Urban Studies . Her intellectual work and activism  covers socio-spatial inequalities, with a focus in recent years on public policies addressing migrants and refugees and housing. In the past, she worked in academic research in Italy, Germany, France, USA. She occasionally teaches and works in urban and social policies at EU level  (e.g. URBACT, UIA, EU Urban Agenda Urban Poverty, Housing, Inclusion, Culture and Cultural Heritage et al.), and collaborates with various NGOs, international organisations and independent civic initiatives in Europe mostly dealing with housing, homelessness and migration.  Co-founder of Tesserae urban and social research,  MiMetis SRL migration, member of the artist collective Oginoknauss and INURA.

Paola Briata Associate Professor in Planning and Urban Policy at Dastu – Polimi, where I teach Urban Planning and Urban Ethnography. Since 2002 she has been teaching and working at Polimi, at IUAV Venice, and at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London.

Her research – empirically situated mainly in Northern Italy and in the United Kingdom – relates to spatial processes and social dynamics.

She has a track record of publications composed by 10 authored books, and more than 50 academic articles. She is a member of the board of the PhD in Planning of the University of Rome La Sapienza, editor of the SCOPUS Journal Territorio, and member of the SC of the SCOPUS Journal Ciudad y Territorio.

Paola is an expert of planning and urban policy in multi-ethnic context and received a Marie Curie Fellowship in 2012.

Marco Cremaschi, an internationally renowned expert in Urban Policies, is full professor of Planning and the director of the Master in Urban Planning and Design at the Urban School, SciencesPo, Paris. After a Master in Planning at the IUAV Venezia, he defends a dissertation in 1991 with A. Tosi et P.L Crosta, on the social meaning of space.

He published or edited 12 books, and more than 140 papers on housing, urban planning, and the European Union programmes for cities. He regularly contributes to the dissemination of research : for instance, he edited around 60 dossiers on different cities in the journal Urbanistica Informazioni or in English  on the e-journal Planum: on Dublin, Durazzo, Delhi, Katmandu, Fribourg, Liverpool, Maputo, Moscou, Mulhouse, Munich, Perth, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Valencia).

Former director of the Master in Urban Design at the University Rome Tre, he has been visitor at several universities: 1992, IFU Paris; 1993 Gavle (Sv); 1996 Ucl London; 2003 Pittsburgh (USA); 2008 Milan Polytechnic (Italy); 2009-10 Bauhaus-Weimar (Germany); 2010 Cornell (Ithaca, USA); 2011 IDS Kolkata (India); 2012-13 UNSAM (Buenos Aires, Argentina). He taught also at the Cornell University Programme in Rome (2005-2010).

He received a Marie Curie Fellowships in 1996; and a Fulbright grant in 2003.

A spatial planner and regional development professional by training, his experience in and exposure to territorial development, urban and regional planning and urban regeneration spans a variety of capacities and degrees of responsibility. He started off his career in 1998 as a planning practitioner, working on projects like the formulation of quality of life indicators for the Urban Audit Pilot Project of DG Regio and the Unification of the Archaeological Sites of Athens. He then worked as a planner in the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games- ‘Athens 2004’. He moved to academia in 2003 (University of Reading) and to UCL in 2006.

Since then, he has acted as an expert and advisor to a range of public and private sector as well as civic society actors (international organisations, national, regional and local government bodies, investment funds, NGOs) mainly in EU but also in non-EU countries. Indicatively, he has acted as an advisor to UN Habitat, the European Commission, the Office of the Greek Prime Minister and the Greek Ministry of the Environment. In addition he has offered expert advice to the European Investment Bank and IGLOO Regeneration Fund and have led a scoping study for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Jérémy Mandin is a PhD in anthropology and in Social Sciences, affiliated to the CEDEM since 2011. As a researcher, he collaborated to several projects focusing on urban dynamics, integration and social cohesion. From 2015 to 2020, Jérémy Mandin worked as a PhD student within the “Redefining Home” project (KULeuven, ULiège, UVA). He focused on the emigration practices of young Europeans of Maghrebi background toward Montreal (Canada). This work resulted in the defense of his PhD thesis in 2021. From 2018 to 2020, Jérémy Mandin joined the MITSOPRO project (ULiège) as a country expert for Belgium. Within this project, he also conducted a case study on the migration of French disabled people to Belgium. Jérémy Mandin is currently working on the BBox research (ULiège, KULeuven, Saint-Louis University).

His current research interests include the relation between migration and aspirations, the emigration dynamics and the international mobility policies in Belgium. He also published about the extreme right movements in Italy.

List of Jérémy Mandin’s publications: https://tinyurl.com/2kaskccx

Erica Righard, PhD, is an associate professor at the Department of Social Work and a research fellow at Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM). She received her doctoral degree at Lund University in 2008. Over a couple of years she worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Linnaeus University. She came to Malmö University and the Department of Social Work in 2010, in 2011–2015 she held the Willy Brandt post doc position at MIM. Her research is multidisciplinary and mainly concerns the intersection of international migration and social work/social policy in a broad sense. She is a member of the research program Institute for Urban Research (IUR) and of the research group Studies in Housing and Welfare (Studier i bostad och välfärd, SBV). In 2013–2018 she co-coordinated the research group “International migration and social protection” within the European research network IMISCOE and in 2015–2018 she was chairman of Nordic Migration Research (NMR).

Mikel Landabaso works in the European Commission since 1990. He is Director for Growth and Innovation at the Joint Research Centre, managing the Seville site. Previously he was Director for Strategy and Corporate Communication at DG COMM under the President’s Cabinet. He has also worked as Head of Cabinet of Regional Policy Commissioner and Head of Unit in several Units, including as responsible for Smart and Sustainable Growth and the Structural Funds for Spain, as well as assistant to the Director General of DG Regio. These jobs covered both, policy design and policy implementation. Before joining the EU Commission he worked as Head of the Research Department and Assistant to the Director General of the Basque Innovation Agency (SPRI S.A. a holding company with over 20 subsidiaries) 1986-1990. He has also worked part time as lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium (2001-2007), University of North Carolina (USA) (2000), Deusto University and the public University of the Basque Country in Spain (1987-1990). He was given the 2004 “Christiane Bom Award” for his contribution to innovation in European Regional policy by the European Regional Development Agencies Association – EURADA.

Mikel Landabaso is PhD in Economics (University of the Basque Country 1994, Spain), M.A. in Development Economics (University of East Anglia 1983-84, U.K.), Diploma in Advanced European Studies, with a scholarship from the Basque Government (College of Europe 1985-86, Belgium) and Licenciado en Ciencias Economicas (Universidad del Pais Vasco, 1978-1983). He did his senior year of High school at Moundsview High (Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1977-78, U.S.A.) with an AFS scholarship.