In their council meeting this Tuesday, the City Council published a declaration regarding their commitment to being an intercultural city.
More than 21,000 immigrants now live in Reykjavik.
City Councilor Sabine Leskopf, chair of the city´s Intercultural Council and an immigrant herself, says:
„The main idea behind this approach is called the „diversity advantage“. That means we focus on the positive contribution of immigrants to our city. Reykjavik acknowledges that immigrants are an important resource for the economic, social and cultural development here. Our goal must be to make Reykjavik an intercultural city where everyone can fulfill their potential. Having a guiding light like this, will help us to face existing challenges.“
Intercultural Cities
The City of Reykjavik has been a member of the support network of Intercultural Cities since 2014. This Council of Europe programme offers tools and support for cities in developing diversity strategies and becoming truly intercultural societies. This declaration which was agreed upon unanimously, is meant to document the City's commitment to apply an intercultural lens to all their policies and services.
The declaration as a whole:
As a city, we constantly strive to become more intercultural.
We embrace diversity, equal rights, interaction and inclusion.
We are proud to be a city where so many different cultures meet.
We are proud of how far the City has progressed in applying the gender or LGBT lens in so many areas of life. Now, we are committed to use this knowledge and experience and apply the intercultural lens in just the same way.
We invite other communities and authorities in Iceland to stand together with us in this endeavour.
We encourage full participation of immigrants, so they can make use of the city ́s services and opportunities and are aware of their rights.
We make sure that intercultural values are reflected in all policy making and services.
We are grateful for the contribution of immigrants who have enriched this city on so many levels.
We want to make the positive contributions of immigrants more visible.
We know that diversity skills and creative input is an asset for our city - if everyone can fulfill their potential, we all win.