From 5 to 7 December, representatives of Ropaži Municipality Government and Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centre in Mucenieki visited the Elverum City government to learn and gain good practice experience in integrating asylum seekers and foreigners who have been granted refugee status into society.
The core values of Ropaži Municipality's cooperation city Elverum, “Openness, transparency and respect” are reflected in almost all areas that the representatives were given the opportunity to see. The Latvian delegation was welcomed with openness and transparency by the headmaster, teachers, and pupils of the Elverum Folkehøgskole; the sports specialist and director of the Ungdommens Hus Youth Centre; the manager of the Elverum Rolfshallen Football Club; the rector of the Høgskolen i Innlandet; representatives of the Elverum municipality for pre-school and primary education, and representatives of the Elverum læringssenter, the Elverum training centre.
This was the first study visit to Norway within the framework of the project “Integration events in Mucenieki”, which aims to adopt the experience of working with asylum seekers in the local community, focusing on giving advice on efficient use of infrastructure, improvement, and promotion of integration.
During the visit, it was acknowledged that Norway's integration policy experience is significantly different compared to Latvia's approach to this topic. A good practice for successful integration of immigrants is intensive training in language, culture, social skills, and other values in a separate programme once refugee status is obtained. It is a way to help them to continue working successfully, to study at a higher level and thus to integrate successfully into the local community. Educating the local community also goes hand in hand with dispelling discrimination.
The Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centre in Mucenieki is the only one of its kind in Latvia. That makes Ropaži Municipality a unique place. It should be a benefit for local people. Within the framework of the project, not only the stadium is to be built by April 2024, but also various cultural and sports activities are planned to involve foreign children and adults in European society, while educating the local people, learning about different cultures and differences in order to find the common ground that unites them. Football – playing together in mixed groups for children and young people, including parental involvement in organisational matters, will be one of the main tools for learning about culture, ethics, respect, health aspects, etc.
The participants of the study visit were Līga Mekša, project manager of Ropaži Municipality, Liene Mihailova, public relations specialist, Daniels Balodis, sports specialist, Anita Antone, day centres manager and Andrejs Račkovs, support expert of the Asylum Seekers Accommodation Division of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs. The expenses for the visit were covered from the budget of the project “Integration Related Measures Mucenieki” (No. LV-LOCALDEV-0007). The project is implemented under the “Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Cultural Cooperation” programme, co-funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway using EEA Grants.
