In what ways can the Municipalities, as the institution closest to the citizen, promote more positive messages regarding the refugee and migrant population? How can we combat myths, stereotypes and misinformation?
These are some of the questions raised in the online discussion held on 21 October 2020 at the initiative of the Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee issues (ACCMR), the Cities Network for Integration (CNI) and ActionAid Hellas in the framework of the European CIAK MigrAction program.
Nine municipalities of the CNI (Athens, Heraklion, Ioannina, Karditsa, Larissa, Livadia, Nea Filadelfeia – Chalkidona, Tilos and Trikala) and journalists had the opportunity to exchange good practices and highlight the challenges of promoting and communicating the refugee issue. The discussion was prefaced by Melina Daskalakis, Executive Advisor for Migrants and Refugees, Municipality of Athens, and Gerasimos Kouvaras, General Director, ActionAid Hellas.
The CNI participated at the international conference of the European Coalition of Cities Against Racism (ECCAR) – an UNESCO – led Network. The title of this year’s conference was CommunicAction: Together to protect human rights at local level. The CNI with its participation in the workshop “Speaking UP! Youth, media voices, and narratives to communicate new cities”, had the opportunity to be introduced to and communicate with municipalities and organizations from all over Europe!
