The program’s participants represented city governments and agencies, non-profits and social services, immigrant and refugee organizations, faith communities, local businesses, law enforcement, and others who work to integrate refugees and immigrants in their local communities and to engage receiving communities in the welcoming process. WCTE participants were selected to represent this diversity of local experiences. They brought a unique understanding of the challenges facing local communities on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as a commitment to cultivating the positive potential of increasingly diverse communities.
2018 marks the third year of the Welcoming Communities Transatlantic Exchange, a program that brings together US and German community leaders to share strategies for welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees.
This past spring, 25 integration practitioners from the cities across Germany traveled across the US to see how American cities tackle the challenges and opportunities of refugee and immigrant integration.
The Welcoming Communities Transatlantic Exchange is a unique opportunity for leaders in Germany and the U.S. to share promising approaches to welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into their communities. Applications for the 2017 cohort are due by December 1, 2016 (Midnight, U.S. Eastern Time).
From September 23 to October 1, sixteen American integration professionals and public officials will travel to Germany for a nine-day, five-city visit, to learn about Germany's approach to refugee integration. The visit is part of the Welcoming Communities Transatlantic Exchange (WCTE), a reciprocal exchange program bringing together integration practitioners from Germany and the United States to share ideas and best practices on welcoming and integrating refugees into their respective communities.
Integration practitioners to share best practices and develop concrete efforts to establish welcoming infrastructures in local U.S. and German communities: hbs North America, in partnership with Welcoming America and Cultural Vistas, is pleased to announce the Welcoming Communities Transatlantic Exchange!
