“All citizens. Innovative services for a changing local community” was a capacity-building project financed with EIF (European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals) funds. It involved seven municipalities in the northwest of Milan, members of the local administration network Comuni Insieme (Baranzate, Bollate, Cesate, Garbagnate Milanese, Novate Milanese, Senago and Solaro).

The project aimed to reorganise Spazio Immigrazione (Immigration Space), an office providing foreign citizens with information, advice and guidance on the laws and services, and to foster its integration with the front-office services of the municipalities most affected by the presence of foreign citizens.

The main objectives of this project were the integration of different skills and improvement in the quality of service, i.e. the ability to meet the needs of non-Italian citizens, streamlining resources and offering broader and more efficient services. These objectives were achieved through a process involving three Spazio Immigrazione employees and about 50 workers from the front-office services of the municipalities (Registry Office, Vital Records, Public Relation, Technical Office, etc.).

The project was developed in several actions. One was a training course for workers, with lectures and interactive workshops, to increase their knowledge of the socio-demographic and legal context and to improve their communication skills in multicultural scenarios. Other actions included activities to support services to identify the most critical issues in the interaction with foreign users, to facilitate access to services by people with a migrant background and to find more effective ways of responding. In addition, Tutti Cittadini took the form of workshops to share and generalise experiences and good practices among the employees of the various municipalities in order to improve the procedures, tools, and methods of collaboration between the various municipal services and Spazio Immigrazione. Finally, a multilingual information App was developed. Citizens with a migration history can access services or follow specific procedures – such as residence permits, family reunification, citizenship applications and many others – simply and quickly, using smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Photo ☉☉ Frederik Vercruysse