WELDI baseline report

Sosnowiec (PL)
179,000 inhabitants
Local coordinator: Senior Specialist at the Department of Culture and City
Promotion
From mastering the emergency to a strategic approach in reception and integration
With the Russian aggression on
Ukraine, Sosnowiec has become an
arrival destination literally overnight.
The city saw an enormous
mobilisation of support for the
newcomers and found new solutions
together with partners from civil
society.
Now that the crisis has been managed,
a new mobilisation is needed
to provide support for refugees to
take the next steps, and to ensure
that all have access to education,
decent housing, work and childcare.
Developing relations between newcomers
and established residents is
another priority.
In order to achieve these goals,
Sosnowiec needs to define a longterm
vision and strategy for working
together between the city departments
and other stakeholders with
a view of increasing the capacity to
support current and future arrivals.
This will be particularly challenging
as resources (such as funding) that
were provided for the emergency
seem to be slowly waning.
Preliminary focus of the integrated action plan
▷ Develop digital guidance for
migrants arriving in Sosnowiec.
▷ Consolidate governance and
capacity of reception and
integration support, e.g. through
training of local administration
on human rights.
▷ Develop a sustainable
cooperation structure between
stakeholders.
▷ Create more opportunities for
encounters between Ukrainian
refugees and locals, e.g. through
cultural and sport events.
▷ Promote the “resident’s card”
(already used by some residents)
as a tool to strengthen the sense
of belonging to the city both
among “old” and “new” residents.
Partner profiles 55