Towards a Geographic Information Systems and Data-Driven Integration Management.

Abstract: Integration management in Finland and Tampere is broad task including multiple actors and departments. To manage integration, is to coordinate the cross organizational cooperation of multiple service structures that support migrants with different kinds of services. Although integration work has traditionally been provided through the Employment & growth services,the other relevant services for integration are, amongst others, education, health & wellbeing as well as social and civic services. This work adds to the body of research that investigates spatial accessibility to services necessary for integration and the integration levels of migrants. In this study migrant integration is measured using employment, education- and skills as well as wellbeing indicators. This study produced composite indexes for these dimensions, a holistic integration index as well as integration performance gap indexes comparing the performance between migrants and the native population in the key indicators. The study uses a GIS model that includes information on the bus route system, integration services as well as bus stops and traffic lights to assess and quantify the accessibility of integration initiation services to the integration outcomes of migrants in Hervanta, Tampere’s City Centre and in Koillinen. Accessibility is measured in terms of travel time to integration services. Data for the GIS model was downloaded from public network databases and integration data was accessed from Statistics Finland through the City of Tampere’s Department for International Talent Attraction and Migration. The selection of indicators was informed by experts at Statistics Finland and through questionnaires to integration experts. The process of using a holistic, data driven, and GIS supported approach to studying migration and integration related phenomena was fruitful. When all data was gathered and processed a network model was built and analyzed using the network analyst tool in ArcGIS. A service area analysis and an OD Cost matrix analysis were conducted. It was found that most, over 17 000 migrants in Tampere have good to intermediate access (access within and around about 30 minutes) to integration services and 7% of the migrant population had poor access. The results show that in the study group, migrants who live further away from integration services and who consequently have poorer accessibility, had better integration performance than those living in Hervanta and Tampere’s City Centre. There is a correlation between access to integration services and integration performance, however a causal relationship between the two variables is not established.