During the YOUMIG Open Conference in May 2018, Ursula Eltayeb (City of Vienna – Municipal Department 17 for Integration and Diversity) presented the city’s policies for the integration of people moving to Vienna. Currently 1,867,582 people are living in Vienna and by 2025 it is expected that the city will have two million inhabitants. Except for the last decades of the 19th century and the post-war eras in the beginning of the 20th century, the main trigger of the city’s growth is, and has always been, immigration (Stadt Wien, 2018). Currently more than one third of the population in Vienna was either born outside of Austria and/or does not hold an Austrian citizenship. Looking more closely at the numbers, it can be seen that immigrants from the seven YOUMIG countries make up almost 40 percent of those immigrants (Statistik Austria, 2018). That is why a solid integration and diversity policy is needed.

In the following interview, Ursula Eltayeb explains about the Viennese One-Stop-Shop, StartWien, that was awarded the “EPSA Best Practice” certificate by the European Institute of Public Administration in 2017. From Ursula Eltayeb and the city of Vienna the local partners of the YOUMIG consortium are able to learn what a city can do to improve the quality of life for all of its inhabitants, how integration of newcomers to the city can be managed, and what pitfalls might be avoided during the implementation of new policies. The interview gives an insight into the Viennese way of integration and puts forward important advice for other policy makers dealing with the topic of integration.

Q: What is the “Viennese way” of integration?

Urusula Eltayeb: Before talking about the Viennese approach it is important to mention three fundamental facts: First, integration is a two-sided process that includes the immigrants but also the receiving society. Second, every immigrant has individual needs that need to be recognized and addressed, and third, for a successful integration the first two years after arrival are seen as very important. With these three rules in mind the StartWien programme was designed and implemented to support and help new inhabitants arriving and living in Vienna. Besides giving orientation, providing information on the Austrian system and structures, informing them about their rights and duties and supporting the study of German as a new language, the main task of StartWien is to make people feel welcome and respected.

Q: Imagine I am an immigrant from Hungary, who has just recently moved to Vienna. What can I expect from the StartWien programme?

UE: The StartWien programme is a two-step procedure. First of all you get a Start coaching that includes nine different information modules that are relevant for you. Afterwards you can get answers to all kinds of individual questions at the Second-Level-Coaching. In most of the cases the coaching sessions are conducted by people who are also immigrants and most importantly, speak your language. So it is easier to understand complex issues and the start in Vienna is made easier. During the Start coaching you also get the ‘Wiener Bildungspass’ (Viennese education pass), where every integration measure (e.g. language course, training course, consultation) that you attend is noted down. This way you and the people involved can see what actions you have already taken and decide on the next steps. It is also important to note it is not mandatory to join the StartWien programme, but there are some incentives. For example, you get a discount on language courses at certified language centers when you have completed an information module. The certified language centers are required to list their different courses on the StartWien website. During the Start coaching phase your supervisor and you can look up all the different offers and decide, based on your education pass, what language course might be useful. So it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved in the integration process.

This procedure is designed as a One-Stop-Shop since the immigration office refers people directly to our Start coaching where we can give clients all the information needed combined, in a structured and multilingual way. Besides that we also carry out a 60-minute initial interview to discover the immigrant’s potentials and individual needs.

Q: What role do other municipal departments of the city play in StartWien? Are there strategic partners from other administrative units involved in the programme?

UE: During the development and conception phases it was highly relevant to involve different stakeholders. Not only had other administrative units worked together during this time, but also educational experts, prospective trainers and the local communities were asked to join the discussions. This was important for us to figure out what the target groups are going to need. Additionally a study was conducted to understand how other European cities are handling integration, and we asked 135 immigrants after receiving their residence permits for their inputs for the planned measures.

The educational pass, for example, was designed by eight different institutions – people working at different aministrative units, such as MA 17 (Integration and Diversity), MA 35 (immigration) but also the Austrian Public Employment Service (AMS), the Austrian Chamber of Labour (AK), the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO), the Volkshochschule (adult education centres) and other information centres dealing already with migration. The benefits are, on the one hand, that we are now able to deliver profound knowledge on a wide range of topics, such as the legal aspects of the Austrian immigration system, the labour market, housing, education, health and so on. On the other hand, the involved institutions learned a lot about what it takes to integrate with our society. In the end we also noticed that such a broad approach eases the daily work in a long term, because everyone involved got an idea of what the other project partners are doing in their daily work and how they can support each other.

Q: One big issue we have encountered during our research for YOUMIG is dequalification on the labour market, and respectively, the overqualification of immigrants. Are you also dealing with this issue in Vienna?

UE: Yes, even though this issue has been on the national and international agenda for some years, and we did start a few actions to counteract dequalification, it still is a reality that for immigrants it is very hard to find an adequate job. Getting a foreign diploma or your education that you received in your home country certified takes persistency and also costs a lot of money. Unfortunately a lot of well-educated immigrants choose jobs for which they know they are overqualified. For them, and for the whole integration process, it is more important to prove that they can support themselves, that they are earning their own money to support their families.

Dequalification is also a topic for young migrants: For example a lot of teenagers with a migration background who are not in obligatory education anymore (generally until the age of 14 or 15) drop out of school here in Austria, because of a low level of German skills, even if they used to be good at school in their home countries. Therefore the MA 17 is now starting educational programmes especially for this group to counteract dequalification in the long run. Immigrant women with children are another risk group for dequalification. They are often facing the problem that they want to join a language class but have no one to take care of their children in the meantime. For this challenge, the MA 17 supports language courses that offer special childcare services during the time of the courses. Unfortunately there are still not enough courses for women.

There is already a lot of activities happening to prevent dequalification in Vienna, still a lot of work needs to be done – and as you can see it is a rather complex and intertwined issue.

Q: An issue raised during the YOUMIG conference was the question of how to justify the exclusivity of programmes for immigrants. Very often there is resentment on the side of the autochthonous population, a feeling that they are “missing out” on information on e.g. housing, health and education programmes. Do you have any experiences with this issue?

UE: Even though there are certain offers for immigrants only, the diverse information modules regarding for example housing, the school system or health are generally free and open to everyone. We also offer modules in German and everyone is welcome to join. Yet the resentment we notice, especially within the StartWien programme for refugees, is getting more intense. Legal changes like the recent reductions of the federal budget are leading to a rising uncertainty among the refugees. Consequently it is not easy for them to stay positive and focused while the legal system is changing or people think you are an Islamic terrorist because of your religion. Negative press statements regarding refugees, non-differentiation and generalizations are making it harder for them to take a stand for themselves. To this day a lot of participants in the workshop “fundamental human rights” are asking if those rights are actually applied in Austria, since they are very often victims of racism and discrimination, and they ask about possibilities to defend themselves. Another aspect is that it becomes increasingly difficult for the people working in this programme to maintain a positive and motivating spirit so that their participants keep an open mind about the receiving society, stay focused and keep their integration process smooth.

Q: What are the main challenges for StartWien in the near future?

UE: One of the central tasks is to keep up-to-date with the constant changes, such as the above-mentioned changes in the legal system or the emergence of new target groups. Keeping this in mind, flexibility and regular exchanges with partners and other departments are essential. For instance the programme started in fall 2008 with the aim to support the integration of immigrants from outside of the European Union. Due to recent and past events we adapted the programme and since 2011 we have clients from EU/EEA-countries and since 2015, refugees. But not only is our target group constantly changing, also the content of the programme is expanded and adapted. For example, there are now new interactive elements like workshops and discussions on specific issues such as “Voting in Austria”, “One city – many religions”, “100 Years Republic of Austria”. The programme was also adjusted for different age groups recently. With all those changes our employees, trainers and everyone involved need to stay on track and up-to-date as well. Trainings and regular team meetings are mandatory. To figure out what changes should be made next, we also depend on the feedback of our clients. For this we implemented a questionnaire for the participants. The suggestions and feedback on the programme are regularly evaluated and used for the ongoing improvement of the StartWien programme.

Q: The StartWien programme has been granted many awards and can be seen as a Best Practice. Since YOUMIG is also aiming to develop new strategies towards immigration and integration with local partners on the administrative level, can you make some recommendations for them?

UE: Most importantly, to stay flexible enough in order to adapt to changes. Further, we often hear from our participants that they were positively surprised by the fact that our employees could speak their language. Speaking in your mother tongue about problems, or for example, about legal issues can help a lot to understand faster how the Austrian system is working and how one can adapt to this new situation. In general the main aim of StartWien was and still is to assist immigrants in the first few years after moving to Vienna, so that they can live independent and self-determined lives, participate in social processes and feel an equal part of the city’s society as soon as possible.

Interview, photos by Petra Köck (UNIVIE)

Further information on the topic:

The StartWien programme is offered to all newcomers to the city in more than 25 different languages: http://www.startwien.at/

The Municipal Department 17 for Diversity and Integration runs many other programmes for integration. It also publishes the “Diversity Monitoring of the city of Vienna” every three years.

https://www.wien.gv.at/english/social/integration/

https://www.wien.gv.at/english/social/integration/basic-work/presentation-monitor.html

More information (in German) about the history of Vienna and its diverse triggers of growth can be found here: https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php?title=Migration

Statistical data about migration in Vienna can be found here:
http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/menschen_und_gesellschaft/bevoelkerung/bevoelkerungsstand_und_veraenderung/index.html