Understanding public attitudes to migrants, focus of OSCE-hosted discussion on International Migrants Day

VIENNA, 16 December 2021 — Marking the 2021 International Migrants Day, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA), will host a discussion on the challenges created by an increasingly polarized discourse on migration and migrants. The event, “Understanding attitudes to migrants beyond polarization”, will take place on 17 December at 2:30 p.m. at the Hofburg in Vienna and online

Moderated by Ambassador Florian Rauning, Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Austria to the OSCE, the event will feature opening addresses by:

• Luca Fratini, Director of the Office of the OSCE Secretary General;
• Nina Kodelja, Deputy Secretary General of Central European Initiative (CEI);
• Michael Shotter, Director of Migration, Asylym and Visa of the Directorate General Migration and Home Affairs/European Commission;
• Tatiana Esposito, Director General of the Directorate Migration and Integration Policies of Italy’s Ministry of Labour and Social policies.

Participants will discuss why bridging the gap between perception and reality about migration matters for social cohesion and the stability of hosting societies.

This event is organized as part of the E-MINDFUL project, an initiative by the OSCE and the International Labour Organization co-funded by the European Commission’s DG HOME. The project aims to provide knowledge and tools on how to re-balance the often biased narrative about migration and migrants.

Markus Pilgrim, Director of the Office for Central and Eastern Europe at the ILO will close the event.

The conference will take place on Friday, 17 December, from 2:40 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. and is open to media representatives. For the Zoom link please send an email to E-MINDFUL@osce.org.