A Guide For Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation

Last updated:

12/04/2025

Publication Date:

12/09/2023

Content Type:

Tools & Guides

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Strong Cities Network A Guide For Cities

Chapter 9: Navigating Difficult Issues

In delivering prevention, cities will need to navigate sensitive and difficulties issues. Building social cohesion can be divisive, and interventions will often require conscientious communication and deliberate trust and consensus building to avoid stigmatisation and limit division around contentious issues. This chapter will explore some of the difficult issues a city may encounter with prevention and present some approaches that cities globally have taken to address them. The topics highlighted below are far from exhaustive, but they were among the top issues raised by cities consulted for this Guide. They include:

Engaging with historically marginalised or hard-to-reach groups
Balancing immigration, refugees and other new arrivals with social cohesion
Managing protests and balancing free speech against public safety
Responding to crises

Engaging with Historically Marginalised or Hard-to-Reach Groups

Exclusion and marginalisation offer fertile ground for hate, extremism and polarisation and make affected groups particularly vulnerable. While this makes them important target groups for secondary prevention, they are typically more difficult for a city to engage, as an increased will to engage by the city may be met by barriers from the affected groups. Exclusion often becomes a two-way process: if a group is marginalised consistently over time, they may self-exclude and instead pursue their own mechanisms for support outside the services provided by a city. Trust is likely to be extremely limited, if there is any. The cities consulted for this Guide offered three key learnings for engaging with historically excluded or marginalised groups.

Engage via a trusted intermediary or third party who may be able to mediate engagement based on an understanding of the needs and perspectives of both the city and the marginalised group. This could be a civil society organisation, or another trusted stakeholder with credibility in the eyes of the group.
Invest in building long-term relationships with groups that exist separately from any specific intervention around security or hate, extremism and polarisation. Cities need to engage communities in good faith, not merely to gather information about threats. Historically marginalised groups that hold longstanding feelings of exclusion need to feel valued and validated rather than viewed only as a potential threat, which would likely just reinforce perceptions of exclusion and/or discrimination.
Remember that the objective of trust building exercises is not necessarily for all parties to agree. Instead, it may be more important for all parties to hear and understand each other’s perspective, establish common goals and open a safe space for dialogue.

Gdánsk (Poland) established the Gdańsk Centre for Equal Treatment to provide excluded groups with a safe space and dedicated services to improve their sense of security and support from the city. The Centre was established in partnership with seven non-governmental organisations that specialise in working with socially excluded people. It thus offers a ‘one-stop shop’ uniting a variety of service providers in one physical location: ‘this vast network of places of support in the city support people experiencing discrimination and violence due to their identity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, non-denominationalism, ethnic background, or nationality’. It is the first action of its kind in Poland funded by local authorities.

Balancing needs of new arrivals and existing communities for social cohesion

Cities are places where new people arrive all the time; their diversity and growth can be a valuable asset in building a respectful, tolerant and inclusive society. At the same time, the challenge of welcoming significant numbers or responding to sudden refugee or displacement crises can stretch services and resources and create challenges with integration and social cohesion, especially where resentments build, tensions grow, and volatile situations are manipulated or inflamed by those sowing division and hate or fanning polarisation by spreading disinformation and conspiracy narratives. Some key learnings from cities experienced in managing such difficulties include:

Establishing welcoming plans and/or committees and identifying induction and activities like familiarisation with local services and institutions as well as cultural and religious dialogues.
Prioritise language provision, which can mitigate the risk of exclusion and marginalisation and empower newcomers to engage more with a city’s services as well as with other communities.
Offer wider education, training and employment support, or identify partners that can.
Develop public communication and awareness raising on the benefits of immigration as well as tackling prejudices and discrimination.
Recognise that integration is a two-way process: newcomers must have a desire and a motivation to integrate into a new society or community, but there is a role for the welcoming community to accommodate the newcomers and recognise their contributions.

Considerations for supporting social cohesion and welcoming new arrivals: examples from Cities

Communication & Addressing
Misinformation & Disinformation

Bilbao (Spain) has a section dedicated to ‘Awareness and Social Impact’ in its Third Intercultural City Plan, which recognises that no integration or inclusion strategy is complete without efforts to actively address all forms of intolerance and discrimination. The Plan therefore commits to sensitisation and awareness campaigns (delivered via social and traditional media) to dispel anti-migrant narratives and otherwise promote tolerance and positive narratives about their contributions to the community.

The city also produced a documentary and publications to highlight the key roles of migrants (with a focus on migrant women) in enriching the city, presenting them as ‘professionals, leaders, thinkers, politicians and entrepreneurs’, and thus addressing anti-migrant narratives that claim they only burden (rather than contribute to) a city’s social and economic landscape.

Anna Valencia, City Clerk, Chicago (IL), USA

Chicago, Illinois, USA is working with community stakeholders to form a united front in welcoming migrants and refugees and addressing mis and dis-information.

Support

Bratislava (Slovakia), set up a Crisis Centre to support and integrate incoming Ukrainian refugees. The centre coordinates local non-governmental organisations, local police and national agencies to deliver substantial support to deal with the crisis.

Columbus (Ohio, USA) launched the New American Initiative to help refugees and immigrants who move to Columbus have immediate access to city services and programmes to help them settle into their new home faster and become “productive and equitable residents”.

Lviv (Ukraine) is home to more than 250,000 internally displaced people and has hosted up to 600,000 at different points since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. These refugees have fled war and many have sustained injuries and psychological trauma that require specialised support on a massive scale. To meet this challenge, the city established UNBROKEN, a “unique ecosystem of humanity that unites more than a dozen projects … provid[ing] a variety of services including treatment, prosthetics, physical and psychological rehabilitation, housing and reintegration”. This includes the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Centre, which has treated more than 15,000 wounded, including 2,000 children.

Integration

Weißenfels (Germany) is integrating immigrants through an innovative approach known as the Weißenfels Way. This initiative focuses on fostering inclusion by actively involving immigrants in local life, emphasising education, language learning and employment opportunities. It encourages collaboration between immigrants and the local community, including mentorship programs and cultural exchanges that help bridge social gaps. Local authorities also work closely with schools, businesses and civic organisations to ensure that immigrants have access to services and resources that support their integration. The Weißenfels Way aims to create a harmonious, multicultural environment where immigrants can fully participate in and contribute to the community.

Berlin (Germany)’s initiative Berlin Develops New Neighbourhoods (BENN) helps migrants and refugees become active members of society by offering job training, as well as guidance for navigating Berlin.

In Trincomalee Town and Gravets (Sri Lanka), the local government organises language classes to help migrants and refugees build their communication skills and strengthen interactions between its diverse communities.

In Milan (Italy), the local government provides job training, language courses and cultural workshops to migrants and refugees. Further, concerned about the disruptions to migrant children’s educations, the city has established a dedicated team of educators and social workers to deliver individualised education plans for children at nationally-managed migrant/refugee reception centres.

Take a Coordinated Approach

To support migration management, the City Council in Fuenlabrada (Spain) established the Mesa de la Convivencia (Coexistence Board) that brings together organisations like trade unions, cultural groups and local NGOs to promote social cohesion, integration and coexistence among the Municipality’s diverse communities. This dedicated body:

Fosters dialogue through creating a platform for open and constructive conversation among different cultural, ethnic, and social groups about their lives in the city.
Promotes integration through developing activities (e.g., cultural exhibitions) that facilitate the integration of immigrants and other minority groups into the broader community.
Implements anti-discrimination measures and promotes equal opportunities for all residents.
Encourages citizen participation by engaging community members in local government decision-making processes.

Further, the City has partnered with the Fuenlabrada Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on a Migrants Labour Integration Model based on Acculturation initiative, which supports migrants with enhancing and/or adapting their professional qualifications to support them with finding employment in the local job market.

Working with Migrants & Refugees

Koboko (Uganda) is a border town in Uganda that hosts a high number of Congolese and South Sudanese refugees. In the past, the city experienced tensions and violence between local communities and refugees, partly caused by the impact of changing demographics on critical infrastructure and access to services, as well as disputes over land given to refugees.

To address this challenge, Koboko did the following:

It first made an explicit effort to map out the concerns and needs of both refugees and host communities.
It then used its needs mapping to develop and implement a number of projects focused on the integration of refugees in all aspects of the city: social, economic, cultural, etc. This included building a trauma centre offering psychosocial support to refugees, as well as building additional schools, markets and sanitation facilities to ensure each refugee had access to basic services.
To sustain this effort, the city then offered training in entrepreneurship and support with seed capital to help refugees start their own businesses and thus contribute to and feel part of the local job market.

Importantly, throughout these efforts, the city emphasised inclusion through ensuring that services and support are equally offered to refugees and long-time residents.

Sousse (Tunisia), an affluent coastal urban centre, has experienced a significant influx of internal rural-to-urban migrants, further compounded by a recent surge in new arrivals. This influx of newcomers has placed immense strain on the city’s capacity to provide even the most basic living essentials to all its residents, including adequate housing. As a result, the emergence of informal housing, high rates of school dropouts, and unemployment in these disadvantaged areas have become a pressing concern.

The city has implemented a number of initiatives to address these challenges, and to ensure both new arrivals and long-time residents are receiving the services they need. Firstly, Sousse partnered with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the National Office for Family and Population to deploy a mobile unit that is able to provide immediate, hands-on support in communities with high volumes of migrants, and to raise awareness of the services and support (both by the local government and IOM as an international partner) available to them.

Partnership with the National Office for Family and Population also resulted in the development of resources on migration for both new arrivals and service providers. This includes the creation of a referral mechanism, ‘cheat sheet’ that outlines the agencies/stakeholders responsible for different types of service provisions for migrants.

Separately, the city has launched awareness campaigns through which it is dispelling anti-migrant narratives and established a migrant orientation desk that serves as a dedicated resource for social integration. Sousse has also advocated strongly for the national government to recognise and support the role of local governments in managing migration challenges, earning it the title of A Solidary City, with Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers.

Managing protests and balancing free speech against public safety

The fundamental human right to protest and challenge authority can be undermined and abused by those who stoke hate, extremism and polarisation and aim to enact or incite violence. As the sites of protests and sometimes their direct targets, cities face these challenges particularly when applied to physical gatherings and demonstrations. Working closely with central governments and police, cities are often required to identify and then uphold the subtle balance between free speech and public safety.

A clear and simple point of reference is Article 5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): “Nothing in the present Covenant may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms recognised herein or at their limitation to a greater extent than is provided for in the present Covenant.” The Article provides that no individual’s rights extend to the right to infringe upon the rights of others, providing an indicator of where the line is crossed and public safety may be at risk in the example of a protest or demonstration.

Managing organised rallies and opening communication with organisers, as well as those of any counter-demonstrations, should be pursued from the outset with lines of dialogue and negotiation made clear. Such engagement should set behavioural expectations and explain why the activity is taking place. Similarly, community engagement and outreach should be conducted with all groups affected by the demonstration, including any specific groups that are targeted by those protesting.

Cities need to be aware of groups that may take advantage of the planned march or demonstration to further their own agenda, including via social media.

Local governments should be mindful of the risks that counter-protests can create, underscoring the need to avoid having the two events in proximity to one another. On policing, cities consulted felt that the goal is for law enforcement not to make the situation worse and therefore, while a visible police presence should be limited during a march, police need to be on site should something go wrong.

Crisis response

Cities invest in prevention in the hope that they will be less likely to suffer violence and terrorist-related attacks and incidents. Yet they must also recognise that the worst can happen and they must then be ready to respond. Responding after an attack and supporting victims of terrorism or hate crimes require anticipation and preparation.

In the case of a large-scale terrorist attack, training is considered by some to be of limited use: most practitioners will be trained at a certain point in time, for an event that may take place years later, or may never happen. When they must react, they may have forgotten their training entirely, or they may be (understandably) too stressed or otherwise immobilised to react adequately or quickly enough. Exercises and simulations are often considered more useful forms of training, either in table-top or in real life format. This includes building networks and connections between practitioners, agencies and institutions relevant to response, agreeing on respective roles and responsibilities, and stress-testing cooperation in different scenarios. For more on training and capacity building in general, see Chapter 7.

Preparation should take place in times of peace and not in times of crisis. When something occurs, cities need to have crisis management plans and procedures already in place. Preferably, these plans and procedures should be formalised and updated regularly. The line of command should be clear, even if national government agencies will likely take the lead in a particular case.

In the immediate aftermath, and depending on the incident, the role of a city might be restricted to providing logistical support and adequate facilities. Beyond this, issuing clear public communications, public safety notices and reaching out to communities will likely be an area of support. A distinct role for mayors and local leaders may also be appropriate (see Strong Cities’ Guide for Mayors for more on this). Support for victims should be made available as early as possible to mitigate the long-term impact, and it should cover all the necessary fields: e.g., medical, psychological, social, legal, administrative, financial, etc. This support should be provided as much as possible by trained professionals, given the importance and the scale of the potential damage.

After the crisis, cities face ongoing responsibilities for resilience, remembrance and renewed prevention. It is then essential to listen to all the victims and allow them to take key decisions on certain areas themselves (for example, on the construction of a memorial site). Reconstruction is a long-term process and local communities can remain affected for years after an attack.

Finally, cities are responsible for ‘helping the helpers’ by protecting and safeguarding local practitioners and responders, starting with their own staff. They should offer care and support, including mental health services, as needs determine. Some practitioners will probably have to be prompted to seek help as they may not realise the psycho-traumatic impact of the incident.

For more on this, see Strong Cities’ Guide for City-led Response.

Communication & Addressing
Mis/disinformation

Following the tragic shooting at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts in Prague (Czech Republic) in December 2023, the local government, in coordination with national authorities, has taken several steps to enhance safety and improve crisis response measures.

Crisis Communication: The immediate response from local and national authorities included the establishment of crisis hotlines for those affected and for the public seeking information. Following the shooting, the government committed to improving communication protocols for emergencies. This includes providing quicker updates during unfolding crises and integrating schools more closely into the city’s emergency response framework.
Psychological Support: The City and national government institutions activated a psychosocial intervention service to support victims’ families and survivors, offering 24/7 assistance.
Enhanced Protection of Soft Targets: Prague’s municipal and university crisis teams have been in discussions about new safety protocols, such as the installation of panic buttons, campus-wide communication systems for emergencies, and improved lockdown procedures. There has also been talk of incorporating advanced security technology, including gunshot detection systems at key institutions.
Integration of Emergency Services: Emergency response coordination has been a priority and to ensure even faster responses in the future, there is a review for better integration of communication systems among emergency services, including law enforcement, firefighters and ambulance services, and universities.
School Safety Enhancements: The local government, alongside the Ministry of the Interior, has started implementing enhanced security measures for soft targets, including universities and schools. These measures involve conducting security audits of all university buildings, improving surveillance systems, and tightening access control to educational facilities. Schools are now required to designate a security officer responsible for coordinating with law enforcement and other emergency responders during potential crises.