Maytree Lessons for and from Toronto » Maytree

Graphic from Good Magazine

Ratna Omidvar’s report of the recent Cities of Migration Berlin conference. Worth reading:

For all the self-criticism that we Torontonians like to inflict on ourselves, we secretly know that our city is admired all over the world as a place that works well with its diversity. But lest we feel too smug, let’s remember that world leaders don’t keep their titles without continuous learning and innovation. They should, in the words of Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz, “Oppose the idea that there’s nothing to change any more.”

At the international Cities of Migration conference in Berlin convened by Maytree in June, practitioners, policy makers and private sector leaders shared lessons on good practice in immigrant inclusion from their own cities: Helsinki, Nashville, Tokyo, Lisbon, Auckland, Sao Paulo, Athens, and many more. From this global hub in Berlin come many ideas for and a few from Toronto.

One of the founding principles of Maytree’s Cities of Migration project is that good ideas can travel. That a smart policy working in Seattle can be tweaked to also work in Halifax. That a successful initiative from San Francisco can be replicated in London. This is because cities are often better placed to address immediate needs that are local in nature, such as employment, home ownership, success in school, and neighbourhood inclusion. As Khalid Koser of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy said in his keynote, “While states are building walls, cities are building bridges.”

Maytree Lessons for and from Toronto » Maytree.