Viennese Monitor for Integration and Diversity

Policy Response DateApril 9, 2010 Country: Austria Address: Vienna General Type: Discrimination, Institutional discrimination, Equality/Integration Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-migrant/xenophobia
Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Refugees, Asylum seekers Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Employment - labour market, Housing, Health and social protection, Education, Sport, Political participation, Anti-discrimination, Integration - social cohesion, Daily life

In April 2010, a monitor for integration and diversity was presented to the public. It is a tool to capture the outcome of integration measures and to evaluate the performance of the city’s diversity approach. Although the monitor identifies progress in social advancement of people with a migration background, inequalities can still be noticed. The publication observes a decrease in naturalisations to one sixth between 2003 and 2008. Without equal rights, the possibilities to participate in society are curtailed significantly. For instance, 20 per cent of the Viennese voting age population do not have the right to cast their vote in national and communal elections. The monitor identifies insufficient permeability within the educational system, a high number of employees with foreign citizenship in low qualification sectors, a higher risk of unemployment as well as of deskilling for those employees. The monitor sees people with a migration background concentrated in residential areas with accommodation of inferior quality.
Compared to the National Action Plan of Integration the language used in this report is much more sensitive to discrimination, it also integrates data on discrimination in assessing the social climate and it refers to EU MIDIS.

Source: http://www.wien.gv.at/menschen/integration/grundlagen/monitoring/ (2011-09-29)