Regional and Municipal Integration Policies and Practices during COVID-19: Ontario and Baden-Württemberg Compared

Regional and Municipal Integration Policies and Practices during COVID-19: Ontario and Baden-Württemberg Compared

It is well known that the pandemic has affected vulnerable people more than other populations. This symposium focuses on migrants and refugees who lack secure status or find themselves in other vulnerable situations. We are interested, in particular, how local and regional contexts have responded to and coped with the situation of these migrants and refugees. Questions of discussion include: In which way has the pandemic affected local migrants and refugees who are in precarious situations? How have municipalities and regional levels of government responded and cooperated in this regard? What have we learned from the past 18 months of the pandemic and how can we improve in a post-pandemic world? Are new creative formats of service delivery and offering security emerging? 

On October 26th, 2021, expert panelists from the partner provinces of Ontario in Canada and Baden-Württemberg in Germany addressed these and other questions in a virtual symposium hosted by the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement (RCIS) at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

• 0:00 (external link)  – Welcome and introduction by Prof. Dr. Harald Bauder, Professor of Geography and Immigration and Settlement Studies at Ryerson University, and Prof. Dr. Birgit Locher-Finke, Head of Integration at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration in Baden-Württemberg 
• 3:24 (external link)  – Message from Thomas Schultze, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Toronto 
• 7:38 (external link)  – Overview of Ontario and Baden-Württemberg by Prof. Dr. Harald Bauder and Prof. Dr. Reinhold Weber, Head of the State Agency for Civic Education (LpB) in Baden-Württemberg 
• 15:23 (external link)  – Introduction to panelists 
• 19:06 (external link)  – Presentation by Vera Dodic, Manager of the Toronto Newcomer Office at the City of Toronto 
• 27:42 (external link)  – Presentation by Prof. Dr. Graham Hudson, Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Ryerson University in Toronto
• 39:01 (external link)  – Presentation by Prof. Dr. Claudia Diehl, Professor of Microsociology at the University of Konstanz in Konstanz 
• 55:12 (external link)  – Presentation by Ayse Özbabacan, Director of the Integration Office at the City of Stuttgart 
• 1:04:28 (external link)  – Discussion with panelists 
• 1:20:13 (external link)  – Farewell message by Prof. Dr. Thomas Reith, Honorary Consul of Canada in Stuttgart

This symposium was a follow-up to a previous event.