MEDITERRANEAN CITY - TO - CITY MIGRATION

CITY CASE STUDY TURIN

A GRASSROOTS APPROACH: THE MORUS ASSOCIATION FOR INTEGRATION

COMMUNITY-LED SOCIAL COHESION ACTIVITIES

ENTREPRENEURIAL DECENTRALISED

VIENNA

TURIN LYON

CULTURE

MADRID HOUSING

LISBON

TUNIS BEIRUT

TANGIER AMMAN

Implemented by This case study was developed in the frame- project has sought to nurture a peer-to-peer work of the Mediterranean City-to-City dialogue and mutual learning on specific ur- Migration Project (MC2CM), a project coor- ban challenges such as socio-spatial cohe- dinated by ICMPD and funded by the Europe- sion, intercultural dialogue, employment and an Union and the Swiss Agency for Develop- provision of shelter and basic services for ment and Cooperation. The MC2CM project refugees and economic migrants, among has been working since 2015 with Amman, others. The case study was selected by the Beirut, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Tangiers, Tunis, Municipality of Tunis in order to showcase Turin and Vienna to increase the knowledge a practice that contributes to socio-spatial base on urban migration. Additionally the inclusion of migrants at the local level.

COMMUNITY-LED INITIATIVE TRIGGERS MULTI-STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION TO SUPPORT REFUGEES HOSTED OUTSIDE TURIN IN THE LANZO VALLEYS

ABSTRACT

Morus is a voluntary association that focus- In addition, this process helps identify es on migrant inclusion. The association cultural and sporting activities capable of supports a small number of refugees in the building relationships between new arriv- Valli di Lanzo region, northwest of Turin. als, longstanding residents and local au- The association works with those individ- thorities. To date, the Morus association uals who have been granted refugee status has supported a range of inter-cultural in Italy in order to help them find housing projects such as the fashion initiative (Mo- and employment in the region’s rural towns roStyle); a community choir (ComoMoro); and villages. To this end, volunteer workers and a football team (MoroTeam). take time to map the individual needs and competencies of refugees with a view to matching individuals with appropriate op- portunities in the area. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES spectively. Neighbouring villages within the Valli di Lanzo region, Ceres and Pessinet- to are located approximately 50km from The Metropolitan City of Turin seeks to pro- Turin. Ceres has a population of 1000 and mote an integrated approach to migration Pessinetto of 600. Most of the refugees and refugee governance. Effectively, this hosted in this region come from Gambia, entails facilitating collaboration across Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Senegal. different municipal departments in order to develop inclusion pathways for recent Responding to the settlement of refugees arrivals, along with the promotion of coor- in the area, several local community mem- dinated responses between local public, bers offered clothing and Italian conversa- private and civil society stakeholders. In the tion classes. As the local volunteer network case of the Morus Association, the active grew, bi-weekly co-ordination meetings engagement of Metropolitan Turin has, to- were held in Pessinetto, drawing in civil so- date, been relatively limited. ciety actors from other host municipalities in the region, such as Balangero, Coasso- The Metropolitan city of Turin further adopts lo and Lanzo. These meetings provided a a decentralised approach to migrants in- platform to share volunteer challenges and tegration. Approximately 10, 000 refugees practice and also promote collaboration are hosted in decentralised locations with cooperatives managing refugees host- throughout the Piedmont region of Italy. This ing programmes such as Babel and Liberi represents a conscious strategy designed Tutti. to direct migrants and refugees into moun- tainous areas in order to repopulate de- Between 2014 and 2016, the network or- clining communities and reduce pressures ganised the following activities: on inner-city / suburban neighbourhoods. Responding to this decentralised approach, • Local internship and apprenticeship op- the Morus Association, located in the val- portunities for refugees with enterpris- leys north-west of Turin, was founded in es offering on-the-job training; March 2016. It is a civil society initiative, • Italian language classes; designed to support the coordination of • Local meet-up opportunities for refu- various integration activities offered by lo- gees and the settled community; cal volunteers for those refugees who have • Support for decentralised hosting with- been resettled to the Valli di Lanzo area in the homes of local residents. since 2014. As activities in the region increased over The association emerged after two Tu- the period, the Morus Association, set up rin-based cooperatives (Babel and Liberi in 2016. Tutti) chose, in 2014, to host groups of 18 and 42 refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa in the villages of Ceres and Pessinetto re- IMPLEMENTATION • CoroMoro: A choir project that connects West African refugees with local resi- dents in Ceres as a way of promoting Morus’ human rights based approach can intercultural exchange and facilitating be seen through the provision of additional the acquisition of Italian language skills. housing opportunities for refugees that go The choir’s repertoire (available on their beyond the initial hosting offered by local YouTube channel) combines music cooperatives. To this end, Morus volunteers from both the local Piedmont and West work with newcomers to build a profile that African Mandinka traditions. The choir maps their needs, skills and aspirations. has been invited to perform at a range This approach is not only essential to iden- of events across Italy. In January 2016, tify suitable housing/hosting opportunities for example, Turin Municipality invited in the area, it also enables the association CoroMoro to perform at their “Un Natale to support refugees in finding appropriate coi Fiocchi” concert in Piazza Castello. employment opportunities. More recently, having collaborated on a music video for MAU MAU, a well known In addition to mapping migrant housing Turin-based band, CoroMoro have been needs, Morus has also established strong touring with the band. connections with local estate agents to identify available housing options. The as- • MoroTeam: A football team for refugees sociation also provides interest-free depos- set up in June 2015 with the support it to foster refugees’ access to the private of volunteers from Ceres. The team as rental sector. since competed in regional and national competitions. This initiative promotes Morus volunteers also support access to the active and equal participation of ref- gainful employment for refugees. The ini- ugees in Italian social life. tial migrant profile is crucial to matching newcomers’ skills with the local labour • MoroStyle: A fashion enterprise initiated demand. So far, five refugees have been by five refugee tailors producing African placed within local businesses, whilst oth- inspired clothing. Emerging as a unique ers are currently benefiting from a retrain- brand and style in the region, MoroStyle ing programme designed to help refugees regularly exhibit their clothing designs access employment in the understaffed during summer cultural and tourism social-care sector. events. Since March 2017, MoroStyle has secured a regular sales pitch at the Another dimension of Morus’ work, is the Turin’s Gran Balun open air market. promotion of inter-cultural activities foster- ing social cohesion between local and refu- In addition to supporting migrant opportu- gee communities: nities in the areas of housing, employment and cultural life, Morus Association also provides an element of “civic education” to newcomers. Migrant and local volunteers Mountain Development. The report, pre- are drafting a handbook on refugees’ rights pared by the Intergruppo Parlamentare per and duties to be translated in English and lo Sviluppo della Montagna (Parliamentary French, and disseminated in the region. Mixed Group for Mountain Development), acknowledged CoroMoro and MoroTeam as positive contributions to refugees’ local integration. FINANCING AND RESOURCES

Besides, Morus’ activities fostered refu- Morus activities are self-financed and, to gees’ access to employment. The trainee- date, have not received any financial con- ship sponsored by the Piedmont regional tributions from local authorities. This said, authority named “borsa lavoro”1 offered some in-kind support from local authorities work placements to refugees. In collabora- has been mobilised, such as the inclusion tion with the Babel and Liberi Tutti cooper- of CoroMoro in events organised by Turin atives, Morus monitored 15 of such place- Municipality. In 2016 the various Morus ac- ments in local enterprises. They included tivities (especially CoroMoro) and sponsor- one agricultural enterprise operating in ships generated revenue totalling €48,000. Cantoira and Ceres; a forest enterprise in These resources were used to cover op- Chialamberto; and breeding enterprises in erational expenditures and finance Morus Pessinetto and Lanzo. initiatives. The Morus association also participates Since 2016, Morus has been exploring the in the Senza Asilo network. This civil so- possibility of establishing partnerships ciety-led network is jointly run by citizens, through responding to international and lo- social workers and organisations work- cal funding calls to support the association’s ing with refugees, and coordinating about on-going activities. Morus is also exploring 100 organisations. The network pushed the idea of generating income by starting a for Turin local authorities to increase lo- restaurant and catering service (RistoMoro) cal labour market flexibility in order to for African and Piedmont cuisine. This initia- facilitate refugee workers’ integration. tive could also be coupled with food produc- Morus’ activities were central to creat- tion activities carried out by refugees. ing the so-called “51 File”, a document providing evidence that 51 refugees in the region (of which three members of RESULTS AND IMPACTS CoroMoro) had access to permanent hous- ing and sufficient work experience to be granted clearance to work. To date, no formal evaluation of Morus’ ac- tivities has taken place. However, a number Morus facilitated the hiring of two refu- of Morus activities were quoted in a 2015 gees to support pupils learning English and report to the Italian Parliament addressing French at the local Valli di Ceres second- ary school, between November 2016 and tion centres have been reluctant to pro- May 2017. As well as providing short-term vide training opportunities to refugees, employment, this opportunity also provided who have no choice but to travel to Turin. a space for the refugee workers to share Strengthening collaboration with local au- experiences from their home countries thorities would support Morus’ case in this and cultures.This inter-cultural exchange sense, given that municipalities fund edu- received very positive feedback from both cation centres, and provide the necessary students and their families. identity card for enrollment.

Morus’ third challenge concerns its ability to host more refugees. Under the current BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES system, asylum seekers typically spend an initial 18–24 month period living in co- At present, the Morus Association faces operative hosting sites. After this period, three main challenges. The first relates to however, the cooperatives are no longer resourcing. As a self-funded organisation, mandated (or funded) to host asylum seek- Morus activities are currently dependent on ers. Those unable to secure housing and income generating activities. As activities employment, are at risk of homelessness develop, the association needs to expand and destitution once leaving the housing its resource base. At present, Morus is cooperative. The Morus Association focus- planning to apply for public grants in order es on individuals facing acute difficulties in to support the associations less-profitable obtaining the necessary paperwork and re- initiatives and provide resources for ongo- sources to enter private-rental sector hous- ing management and coordination efforts. ing and, as a higher number of refugees/ asylum seekers are expected to arrive in The second challenge relates to scaling up the coming months, there is an urgent need coordination between civil society-driven ef- to identify both more families willing to forts, such as Morus Association activities, host and support them as well as longer- and municipal services. To date, Morus has term housing solutions. only been successful in inviting two local municipalities - Lanzo and Balangero – to collaborate in hosting refugees. To increase LESSONS LEARNED their impact, Morus needs to scale up this number of local authority partnerships. Morus Association is currently in the pro- Local partnerships would also allow Morus cess of developing relationships with local to tackle further challenges. Local educa- authorities in the region. To date, emergent collaborations focusing on hosting and ref- ugees support have been built with Lanzo 1 http://www.borsalavorodelpiemonte.it/ and Balangero municipalities. However, 2 http://www.senzaasilo.org/ there is clearly still a long way to go. At present, too many local authorities REFERENCES fear that proactively supporting refugees and asylum seekers may trigger opposi- tion within the local population. However, the work of organisations such as Morus • Poma M. (2016) Relazione attività Morus shows that an alternative scenario is pos- Onlus, Ceres (Turin) sible. Importantly, facilitating a smoother transition towards migrant inclusion at • Various Authors (2017) Il mondo in paese. community level – and building relation- Dall’accoglienza all’inclusione dei rifugiati ships with local authorities – requires part- nei comuni rurali del Piemonte. 22 buone nerships. Morus has, for instance, benefit- pratiche di accoglienza di richiedenti pro- ed from the support of associations such tezione internazionale e rifugiati sul terri- as Associazione Mediatori Multiculturali torio piemontese dai territori montani alla Italiani (AMMI, Italian Mediators Associa- città. Servizio Politiche Sociali e di Parità tion) and Stranaidea and DallaStessaParte della Città Metropolitana di Torino, FIERI, Cooperatives, who manage the refugee/ Dislivelli, Torino. pp. 30-35. Available at: asylum seeker hosting sites and provide http://www.torinoelealpi.it/wp-content/ mediation activities for local actors in Ciriè. uploads/2017/07/Buone-pratiche.pdf

There is therefore a strong benefit to be Interviews: gained from supporting the work of these Two interviews with Marino Poma, Morus’ civil society-led initiatives. As such, region- president (August 2017) al and local governments should consider expanding their support (and funding) of these networks within a multi-stakeholder governance framework. Beyond resources, Morus is currently exploring the possibility of appointing a dedicated civil servant to creating and securing partnerships with lo- cal and regional authorities. Co - funded by the European Union Co - funded by

This case study has been prepared by by Alessio Surian under the coordination of Barbara Lipietz and Tim Wickson from the Bartlett’s Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College of London (UCL) and the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights, in the framework of the MC2CM Project.

@urban_migration icmpd.org/mc2cm [email protected]