Italy's interior minister Matteo Piantedosi discussed migration funds and related issues at the Giffoni film festival for young people on July 25, stressing how this financial tool is used to foster integrated migration management.

He noted that the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) "can count on a financial endowment of over one billion euros for the 2021-2027 period". These funds, he added, are for the "realization of complementary actions that are in addition to considerable investment for [migrant] reception provided directly by Italy.

So far, over 65 percent of AMIF resources have been invested in projects concerning asylum, integration, repatriation, and humanitarian" issues.

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'Important tool for common European policy'

"This is a very important tool for the developing of a common European policy on the issue of asylum, contributing to effective management of migration flows and promoting integration," the minister said.

"The strategic relevance of the fund is even clearer," he continued, "in light of the values placed at the base of the new asylum and migration pact adopted by the council and recently approved by the European Parliament," which establishes new EU rules for migration management.

Piantedosi noted that, in the pact, "the integration of migrants and common dialogue takes on central importance for promoting more inclusive societies. In many passages, the pact itself focuses on young foreigners, recognizing the value of education for their integration, [acting as] a bastion against marginalization and possible forms of deviance."

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'Inclusive and bidirectional society, attention to the vulnerable'

Piantedosi stressed that it "should not be forgotten that the development of inclusive societies is a bidirectional process that requires efforts by both migrants and the communities hosting them, and thus the making available of places and opportunities to meet and interact."

"The national program," he continued, "is a document for strategic planning that indicates the objectives towards which the use of the AMIF funds aims. It adds value to this process, attributing central importance to the reception and integration of foreign minors. This is a centrality that is based on the strategic choice of privileging a particularly vulnerable target in need of a specific sort of attention, activating services that are complementary to those foreseen for adult migrants, financed mainly with national resources."

In his statement for the festival, the interior minister went on to say that, thanks to AMIF 2021-2027, "it will be possible to strengthen reception services for unaccompanied foreign minors, promote the institute for families fostering minors, improve the inclusion of foreign adults and students in schools, and promote the active participation of second-generation immigrants in the economic, social, and cultural life of the country."

"It will also be possible," he added, "to promote intercultural and inter-religious dialogue as a basic element of getting to know each other, reciprocal acceptance, and an antidote against possible forms of extremism, as well as an essential tool to prevent and counter discrimination. It is clear that AMIF is a tool able to provide a significant contribution to migration policies" of the government.

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