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The rural immigrants and their support networks form the primary target group of the project. The support networks and organisations can be public, private or NGO-based - special focus is on agricultural and other rural companies often seasonally employing immigrants. The participating LEADER groups are the secondary target group, gaining a better understanding on the situation and potential of rural immigration on their territories.

Draft project plan (14.1.2010)

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The European Union is one of the major target areas of global immigration. Many member countries are struggling to find a balanced immigration policy. Often the immigrant-based problems are caused by unsuccessful integration of immigrants to the society. Naturally the immigrants tend to form their own ethnic groups in big cities and create sub-cultures that may have a little to do with the mainstream culture and population.
 A recent academic study by Tantarimaki et al. (http://www.helsinki.fi/ruralia/julkaisut/ uusimmat.htm) was looking at immigration to rural areas in Finland. Finland is one of the most rural countries of the EU measured by accessibility and population density, and many rural areas are gradually losing their population. Could immigrants bring new life to emptying villages? 
The rural immigrants interviewed by Tantarimaki et al. in South-West and on the West Coast (Ostrobothnia) regions were actually generally happy with their lives. They appreciated the safe, peaceful and clean environment with good standards of living. Someone who had also lived in a city stated that he felt and was treated more as an individual when living in the countryside. The study perceived the rural immigrants as brave pioneers who were also able to attend the local community life quite soon, bringing their own traditions and knowledge (even establishing new businesses) for the benefit of new neighbours.
On the other hand, the study also showed that the rural immigration is a new phenomenon in Finland and that only few rural municipalities have really invested in it (like Oravainen and Korsnäs in West Coast, where share of immigrants in population is higher than in Finland's capital Helsinki).

 Objectives
INTEGRATION NET is a transnational LEADER project aiming at
-          recognising the rural immigration patterns and trends on local and regional levels in different EU-countries
-          identifying the rural immigrant groups and their support networks
-          interviewing the rural immigrants on their experiences, expectations and needs to better integrate to rural community (bottleneck analysis)
-          identifying best practices of rural immigrant integration
-          identifying best practices of urban immigrant integration and disseminating them to countryside
-          sharing the best practices among the partner LEADER groups
editing a publication on the best practices found.
 
Target area
The European Union's LEADER groups and their territories form the project target area. The project partnership consists of the following groups
Joutsenten Reitti LAG.
Joutsenten Reitti LAG operates in South-West of Finland. The area is surrounded by the major cities of Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Pori all within 100-200 kilometres distance. The total population of the four municipalities is 48 000. Punkalaidun municipality hosts a refugee centre for more than 100 people and has actively invested in local immigration policy. The region has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and also attracts labour-based immigrants, especially to agricultural and metal industries. 
 
Implementation
 The project begins with a rural immigration survey on each partner area. The survey seeks answers to the following questions:
-          Who are the rural immigrants in our territory? Where do they come from and why (refugees/ labour-based immigrants)?
-          What are the rural immigrant's public, private and NGO-based support structures? What about personal social networks? What social guarantees they can get and how available they are?
-          What are the rural immigrants' experiences, expectations and needs to better integrate in the rural community (bottleneck analysis)?
-          What are the professions in which immigrants are good at or in which they are educated? What they are able to do? Are they multilateral (according to point 3)?
-          What are the best practices regarding integration on the territory (either immigrants' own bottom-up initiatives or more top-down solutions)?
-          What is the overall image of the region in immigrant's eyes? How to make it more attractive?
-          What problems are with education and home accessibility for immigrants? What is the barrier to get it successfully? What about entrepreneurship possibilities?
-          What are the obstacles for getting visa number to become a permanent resident? How long it takes to get through the nation bureaucracy? For how long term immigrants can get the visa? How it relate to immigrants family?
 
Budget
The project duration is for two years and the main costs are hiring a project manager (either full or part time) and two information gathering trips. Each partner area has an own individual budget. The project doesn't have joint costs: each partner area bears its own costs. 
 
Project organisation
The partnership is a consortium of individual LEADER projects on the basis of the EC rules for LEADER transnational projects. The project implementer can be the LAG directly or an immigrant-related organisation operating on the LAG territory. All partnership members have signed a transnational project agreement, where they commit themselves in implementing this project plan on their territories.
The transnational project is lead by the transnational steering group, where all partner areas can nominate maximum two members. The group will have four meetings during the project. The first one focuses on planning of the surveys right after the launch of the project, the second one deals with the survey results and best practice identification and dissemination, the third one designs the publication and the final one approves the publication and plan the final seminar.
The partner areas may establish domestic steering groups for the project implementation locally too if they wish.
 
Project monitoring and evaluation
The project is continuously being monitored and evaluated by the partner areas. All transnational steering group meetings also have this point on their agendas. Feedback from the immigrants themselves plays a central role in the evaluation. The progress and results are reported to LEADER authorities based on the EC and national ministry rules.

 Joutsenten Reitti LAG, South-West Finland                       

Finland

Joutsenten Reitti LAG, South-West Finland 
Puistokatu 10
38200 Sastamala, Finland
http://www.joutsentenreitti.fi

English