Apartment building in russia the blasts in the city of magnitogorsk happened early in the morning when residents were asleep authorities believe it was caused by a gas leak rescuers continue to search for survivors. People around the world have been celebrating the new year australia welcome twenty nine thousand and spectacular style sydney hosted its largest fireworks display ever cities across asia and the pacific have held fireworks displays music and light shows. Right now immigration and integration are major challenges for most cities and towns. Many people are asking how these two complex issues can be tackled effectively. To communities one in germany the other in belgium seem to have found a way to help people from different cultures come together better as one community. And. Its the first day of the new school year in mechelen belgium people from one hundred thirty eight different nations live in this town. Its a complicated situation especially at schools. Most of the pupils at St Peters School arent native born belgian children theyre from migrant families who live nearby. School principal directly attends wants. To create a broader mix in the classrooms and thus promote integration its never too early to start. We want to i. Ask what is a kind of Integration Point in these neighborhoods and they are together that is to get and to learn to. Cope together to to Work Together to Learn Together to. Have fun but also have discussions still to see that there are different people in this world and i think its very rich. School Integration Programs like these seem to be working thats also thanks to bad samas whos been mayor of mechelen for eighteen years hes made a lot of positive changes. I resoldered there are what we call him in belgium concentration schwartzs school st only for a vast majority of people with a migration background and white blue cross parents wouldnt centipedes any more to those schools because theyre afraid of the quality of the school and also afraid that there could be a little bit the only one as soon stand alone in the school and no parent like that id be. Getting so some us decided to invest in a program that actively encourages the belgian parents to send their children to the nearest school regardless of the ethnic mix. Even if it village to raise a child thats true but you also need the parents your central unit and have to understand for a little what their task is in the education of their kids. In the school guarantees quality education and officials track the students academic performance that gives the belgian parents confidence so much so in fact that the number of non migrant pupils is now rising. Nora has been attending st peters for a year now. In belgium children start school at the age of three her parents hannah and vincent decided to send her to their neighborhood school. The noble lie in it we want our children to attend a school that reflects our town. We want them to meet children from different cultures. From amala sort on our third. Noras parents arent worried her education will be worse off for it on the contrary. They say look for on the much of its a win win situation for us michael in this way we can meet other parents and the children can play together you know but out of. At the end of the one nine hundred ninety s. Such Integration Programs were few and far between the town had a number of problems and many blamed the immigrants. Come out of very difficult periods where for example extreme right in more than thirty percent of votes it was a polarized city a city with a lot of negativity the most difficult thing is hes always refined the balance between having a city where people respect rules and at the other and having an inclusive city and finding that. Equality between safety and inclusion thats a big challenge. Mayor summarize set out to meet that challenge. In stuttgart the capital of biden voted back in germany integration and inclusiveness have been a top priority for decades about six hundred thirty thousand people live in chicago for more than one hundred sixty Different Countries around two hundred seventy thousand people immigrated here thats nearly forty three percent. For the city of integration means creating conditions of equality for all residence. Hall. You could have that multiculturalism just means there are lots of different cultures and one city makes society diverse but we all belong to start we all to play by the same rules for the both want then those bounds everyone can be themselves one of the few that fighting for. Integration and integration have been a natural part of life in stuttgart for nearly fifty years it is no i mine is preparing an exhibition for the city museum part of it focuses on immigration in the one nine hundred sixty s. A number of turkish guest workers arrived in stuttgart this small statue portrays one of them. Lets meet them first then its fascinating that most people instructor at a migrant background have some sort of keepsake like this from one their parents first arrived in the sixtys and seventys i have a photo of my father when he arrived hes at the train station with his friends. This is a german language course on records they were donated by a greek immigrant. For doesnt go forward as the scope of them how much land he bought the records in greece before he came to germany even though he didnt own a record player. But he was sure that as soon as he found work in germany he could buy one at all but according to the principle twice and. By the one nine hundred seventy s. The challenges that immigration posed for the city of staccato were obvious this official report is from one nine hundred seventy six this is a sudden and provides a summary of the situation at the time i along with some proposals for the future. One of the situations that we still face today were outlined in this document document. That was absolutely. Thats got a chapter on integration and how to make migrants want to stay and want one or both of the local government had already been dealing with the issue for fifteen years or so. They were ahead of their time. For. Germany was in dire need of extra hands in the one nine hundred sixty s. So would recruited people from Southern Europe and turkey to come and work in the booming industrial sector it was a new experience both for the immigrants and for germans. Everybody is going to take that and like out from yugoslavia stayed with me for a while i asked him to stop eating so much garlic you could smell it all over the house but he didnt so he had to leave. The. Mayor at the time. Actively promoted and intercultural dialogue. Not least because he had a vested interest. In my district my mother in law is great but my wife doesnt speak greek. To him it was beyond question that migrants should be able to help shape city policy and vote people blame of those slow many of our migrants citizens who were born here more like locals than foreigners integration brings us closer to each other and our unique problems. But i. Also came up with innovative ideas for integrating the local Housing Market these included a quota program which guaranteed a mix of germans and foreigners in neighborhoods and apartment buildings to prevent segregation. Of these apartment blocks in the district because are managed by the city housing authority. Mimicked bose tamir was a teenager when his family moved here from turkey in the one nine hundred seventy s. And theres a father. Oh i grew up in this neighborhood. There were a lot of germans here back then and not many immigrant. In order for and in there but i made friends quickly sprogs again because i had german friends and that helped me learn the language is the for the not really but it was a vibrant neighborhood when done up and soon more immigrants came. To me as family lived here on the first floor. The same occupancy guidelines are still in place today. Further these policies help promote integration for all but only if germans are part of the ethnic mix the idea is to make immigrants part of society as a result of that. To contribute to that idea most of your serves as a volunteer on the housing authoritys advisory board. Today es meeting a family from macedonia that urgently needs a place to live. The family has been looking for a new home for two years. Bureaucratic red tape is not making things any easier. Right now theyre forced to live separately the father is in a one room apartment the mother and the couples two sons are staying with friends. So the kids want to be with their father. Well thats a problem. Of blame if i want my own room i want to hone. If house or if those dimia knows he can help this family find a home just by explaining their situation to the Housing Office to give them a better understanding of whats going on. Hell do what ever he can. Back in mechelen there are no such housing quotas so mayor summers has had to come up with some new ideas to undo past segregation. In the one nine hundred seventy s. A number of cheap Housing Estates were built. They filled up quickly predominately with immigrants. They were only interested in the quantity but not in the quality of what they were building and so then you put people together in houses have a better quality where you can hear the neighborhood but if you are in a ranch you and you live in a kind of here and get all atmosphere and thats not good because those people deserve better. Housing social supports and the promotion of interethnic dialogue summers works to get everyone on board to face communal challenges together. Gentrys here think that his new ideas have made him something of a celebrity. The town has invested one hundred eighty Million Euros in Public Housing projects so far we want to put middle class families also in those social houses and they have to pay a low rent but they have to give Something Back to us they have to give eight hours a week they have to put in voluntary work in the neighborhoods because its often a problem but in neighbors like this not so many people have a job they see work is he programs they get a bit of network it brings days. Versity. Summers has worked hard to fight segregation and promote ethnically diverse neighborhoods where everyone feels welcome and safe. For us. Its really satisfied in mechelen and then absolutely are used to live in the hague in holland but i like living here. The metal is Great Britain is all of. The interim things are back up the mayor is also responsible for making sure his community is safe because integration can succeed only when people feel secure. A liberal politician someone takes a zero tolerance approach to crime he had more than four hundred surveillance cameras installed around the town. In the beginning a lot of people say it is a right wing politician you see invests a lot in police and security and clean streets but it was an important starts because easy to recreate a trust also for people of difficulties with the changing reality of a diverse city. The security cameras free up more police to go out on street patrols. That increases their presence in the community. So all of the other food civil rights that. Live up to the fourth of the bit. Perhaps most important of all people in low income neighborhoods also feel safer which is open the door to more diversity. Mechelen has shown that it is possible to be tough on crime and to promote integration but it takes a lot of work and the investments seem to be paying off though. In. Most peoples in mechelen that i. No telling me that the cameras are giving them a more secure environment to shop for by example because he hold a shopping areas covered by cameras so they know if something happens they know weve got the possibility the idea identified the author of the crime. The city also uses volunteers counsellors and social workers to stay in touch with the community and help reduce crime to foster integrate