The Intercultural Cities programme is pleased to announce the publication of the Policy brief on “Data collection for refugee reception at community level”.

Cities are necessarily at the forefront of the process of receiving asylum seekers and refugees, as services to support them are mostly delivered at local level. Further, the workplaces where persons with refugee background contribute to the economy of receiving countries are mostly urban; similarly, interactions with other residents and with civil society, that support intercultural integration over the longer term mostly happen within towns and cities.

How can city authorities find out about groups of residents newly emerging within their population – about their numbers and composition, but also about their needs, the challenges they face, and their aspirations?

The new ICC policy brief explores the challenge of collecting data about (and with) asylum seekers and refugees, taking as starting point the experience of municipalities in Poland and other European states which received people fleeing Ukraine following the Russian military aggression.

The brief offers an overview of methods for gathering information about newly arrived  refugees, backed up by technical and academic analysis, as well as by best practices. The document aims to guide local authorities in reviewing their options in this field, proposing a Code of Practice setting out values and principles to steer the search for data and other information. The brief further makes suggestions for cities to select and combine the most appropriate methodologies to gather data and information. Finally, there is a summary conclusion, with an appendix offering a checklist for cities aiming to enhance their practice in this field.