Speaking on behalf of the EA group, our first vice president and member of the Flemish Parliament Karl Vanlouwe said that it is the local and regional levels of government that are primarily confronted with the opportunities and challenges of the integration of newcomers.

"In an increasingly diverse society, it is necessary to allow legal newcomers to become a full part of our society. Strengthening our social cohesion is crucial if we want to turn migration into a positive story," he added.

Mr Vanlouwe particularly stressed the importance of language learning in the process of integration, as newcomers must be able to interact with their neighbours, classmates, colleagues, teachers and be a fully-fledged part of a new society as soon as possible.

"But knowledge of the language is not enough," he added, "In order to safeguard and strengthen social cohesion, we must focus on community building. We must introduce newcomers to local and European norms and values through a tailor-made process with social orientation. We call this integration or “civic integration”: ensuring that newcomers do not remain newcomers forever, but they do become an integral part of their new society."

"It must be clear that integration is a story of rights and obligations," Mr Vanlouwe concluded.

Mr Vanlouwe is the current CoR rapporteur on the EU Counter-Terrorism Action Plan (due to be adopted at the CoR's October plenary session) and a former rapporteur on the integration of third-country nationals.
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