Country Reports

The Country Reports for the One-Stop Shop?Project are available to download here.?

Each of the six partners produced a Country Report identifying the services that support immigrant integration at a local (capital city) and national level. The Reports also highlighted the difficulties experienced by immigrants in relation to these services. The reports conformed to a standard format, in order to allow for comparison between countries.

The introduction provides a short characterisation of immigration (non-EU only) in each country, comprising: Numbers of immigrants; Proportion of the national population; Top ten nationalities of immigrants; Immigrant population by legal status; Other relevant statistical information. This is followed by the first section of the main report, which provides a brief explanation of the legislative framework that regulates immigration to the country and a description of recent developments in this area.

The second section outlines the official integration policy in the country, with emphasis on recent developments, such as the issue of political participation; language and information programmes; naturalisation; education, employment, health and other relevant areas. This section also identifies the main actors in the area of services to immigrants that support integration, and describes their activities. The following areas are covered: Education, Employment, Health, Housing, Border police and other services that regulate immigration status, Legal advice and legal representation, Financial services, Social welfare and humanitarian assistance, Childcare, Cultural activities, Religious activities, Anti-racism and protection of the rights of minorities, and Others.

In the following?section, examples are provided, where present, of Government departments and agencies working together (?joined-up government?) in the area of the integration of immigrants, as well as partnerships between Government and non-Government actors. Any existing One-Stop Shop models for immigrant integration in the partner country are identified, together with the use of socio-cultural mediators, where present. Examples are provided of the use of new developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve Government integration services for immigrants in the partner country.

The Researcher also examined each Government service according to a number of indicators, and contacted NGOs (including immigrant associations) to provide feedback on these matters.

In the fourth section, the Researcher provided a discussion on the following questions:

• What is the current cost in terms of human resources and capital to central and local Government, of integration services?
• What is the cost in terms of human resources and capital to civil society organisations and other service providers, of integration services?
• If the partner country has a One Stop Shop in place, as identified in section 2.3, provide a cost-benefit analysis of its operations.
• If the partner country does not have a One Stop Shop model in place, would it be feasible to implement it? How might an OSS reduce the costs mentioned above?
• What are the implications for the immigrant?s perception of the receiving State, of the current situation with regard to services?
• Following from this, what are the implications for overall integration outcomes?
• If the partner country has a One Stop Shop in place, as identified in section 2.3, provide a critical analysis of its functions and outcomes in terms of integration.
• If the partner country does not already have an One Stop Shop model in place, could an OSS improve the situation in relation to integration outcomes in terms of immigrants? experience of Government services, and if so, how?

Concluding recommendations were then provided on the feasibility of implementing a One-Stop Shop, or improving existing models, including recommendations for integration policy in relation to immigrants? experience of Government services.