MedCities Association was present at the Summer school “Rethinking migrations in the Western Mediterranean: challenges and new perspectives” organised by the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia in Tunisia, together with the University Mohammed Premier Oujda in Morocco (UMP), with the collaboration of the Catalan Development Cooperation Agency (ACCD), the Council of the Region l’Oriental and the Hassan II Foundation of Morocco. 

The 3-days course was organised at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Oujda in collaboration with the local city council and was aimed to reflect and analyse the main challenges and driving factors of human mobility trends currently experienced in the western Mediterranean basin, by reviewing the policies and development cooperation projects currently in place in Morocco, and touching base on the gender dimension and the local governance perspectives of migration management in Mediterranean cities.

The Secretariat of MedCities, represented by its project officer and contact point for Morocco, Laia Vinyes, presented the results of TangerAccueil, an EU-funded MC2CM city action closed March 2022, and discussed the benefits of empowering local governments in the field of migration for a more human-based and effective governance. The fresh results of the other MedCities-led MC2CM city action in Tunis, focused on providing spaces for participation to migrants in the frame of the city strategic planning process, were also mentioned. 

MedCities’ association participation in the course marks its commitment to further tighten its links with the Government of Catalonia in the field of Maghreb regional relations. It was an opportunity to make contacts with representatives from ACM and Euromed Rights, among others. 

MedCities took this opportunity to also meet with the city council of Oujda, with whom the project LASERMed is being implemented to increase social cohesion and urban ecology locally.