Mayor in the spotlight N. 4 - Alex Brichet-Billet, Municipality of Notre-Dame-de-l’Osier, (Isère) France
Revitalising rural areas through the socio-professional insertion of both refugees and local inhabitants in South-East France
Mayors in the Spotlight: a Share Network series featuring short interviews with Mayors making tangible contributions to receiving refugees or supporting newcomers in European smaller and rural communities.
Alex Brichet Billet is the Mayor of Notre-Dame-de-l'Osier, a rural village of 500 inhabitants in the department of Isère in South-East France, which faces a strong challenge in terms of depopulation. Brichet-Billet welcomed in his village an innovative socio-professional insertion for both refugees and local inhabitants. The project, which has been running since 2019, has helped to resume commercial activities that had disappeared from the commune and to renew social links between the inhabitants, thus reviving a dynamic social life in the village and its surroundings. In an interview with the Share Network, the Mayor of Notre-Dame-de-l'Osier Mr. Brichet-Billet shared his experiences in facilitating the project, opening up about unexpected outcomes.
A historical "land of welcome", Notre-Dame-de-l’Osier has welcomed pilgrims since the 17th century and different waves of refugees fleeing war throughout the 20th century. Yet, located 50 km from the closest city of Grenoble, this rich history has not prevented the village from facing rural depopulation and marginalization. In 2019, the association Tero Loko found Notre-Dame-de-l’Osier to be the perfect spot for launching their project of socio-professional integration. The mayor immediately adopted the project idea of “tackling two different but overlapping issues”: rural marginalization and the lack of solutions to facilitate the integration of refugees.
Concretely, the project offers vocational training, job opportunities, housing solutions, and access to services to both the local population and refugees. It is led by Tero Loko together with volunteers from the local community. The mayor and his team played a key role in the initial decision to host and facilitate the subsequent implementation process. They helped with logistics and provided space to the association but did not need to provide any funds since Tero Loko had been able to gather from regional and department authorities. This engagement of actors from different structures and across governance levels has facilitated the launch and sustaining of the project by the municipality without having to commit significant financial resources. As the mayor describes “everyone's contribution is valuable and everyone must now do their part in the field of migration”.
An inclusive approach: a project targeting both refugees and the local population
According to the mayor, one of the project’s main strengths is the mixed nature of its beneficiaries. With two-thirds of the staff having refugee status and one-third being eligible for state assistance for integration (IAE), the project addressed the needs of two groups of people sharing a situation of particular vulnerability. “This really helped to increase acceptance of the project by the commune” says Brichet-Billet. An approach that also helps prevent to a certain extent refugee stigmatization.
It was essential for the mayor to take the decision to host Tero Loko's project collectively and that there should be "no taboos, that everyone should express themselves in order to reach unanimity". Open talks were held with the residents prior to any decision and although there were some opponents of the project, the vast majority were open to it. Today, people who were initially hesitant are coming to the mayor to say that they have changed their minds after seeing the many positive outcomes of the project. “Some voices later criticised a certain lack of communication and insufficient consultation”, Mr. Brichet-Billet reports, “but although I had taken the consultations very seriously, it was necessary to move on given the lengthiness of the procedures”. Since its launch in 2019, the project has successfully integrated 37 employees.
Small-scale economy and renewed social village life
As mayor of the town, Brichet-Billet saw in the project an opportunity to revitalise his municipality.
Committed to environmental sustainability, employees from Tero Loko make bread and grow vegetables which they sell in a newly established village market. Not only had all grocery shops disappeared from town, villagers now have access to good local products. Having a flourishing market again “was particularly important during the COVID period as it helped to maintain a social bond between the inhabitants” explains the Mayor. Today, other local producers have joined the weekly market which attracts people from the whole region.
Many other activities are organised by the municipal team, residents, and volunteers from Tero Loko in additionally to the shop, such as cooking workshops, honey harvesting, or creative workshops of all kinds. This very active group of locals is now thinking about turning Notre-Dame-de-l’Osier’s former convent into a third-place and reviving the closed village restaurant as a café. “As people have forged personal links again, we need a convivial place again where people can gather”, the mayor explains.
An unexpected reach despite some limitations
According to Mr. Brichet-Billet, the project’s impact reaches well beyond the village and is inspiring action. Some municipalities have inquired about the project and showed a real interest in setting up similar actions. Notre-Dame-de-l’Osier’s dynamic development has even attracted some new residents. The notoriety brought by the project makes the village community and the municipal team project themselves into areas such as tourism and hospitality or health and access to health services. “I'm not sure we would have had these perspectives without the arrival of Tero Loko” the mayor says.
Notre-Dame-de-l’Osier also joined the National Association of Welcoming Cities and Territories (ANVITA), a grouping of local authorities working for ‘‘unconditional reception policies including exiled people, and for hospitality on their territories’’. This has allowed the town to be part of fruitful exchanges of best integration practices with other small, medium, and large cities in France as well as receive capacity-building.
Nevertheless, Alex Brichet-Billet is also conscious of the challenges in rural areas which may not be suited for everyone. Limited mobility and access to services in these territories is still an obstacle for its inhabitants and amplify some of the integration barriers for newcomers. Most of the often quite young refugees working with Tero Loko now live in Grenoble and commute to work every day. Although they have been successfully welcomed and integrated through their work, they often prefer to live in a city and participate less in the village life than the mayor would have hoped. “But it is a good sign to see this youth build their own life in the city, just as our children would”, he concludes.
A strong base for the welcoming of more families
Currently, the village welcomes an additional Ukrainian family. A dozen others have arrived in the surrounding villages. “Even if the association leading the Tero Loko project is not directly involved in the reception, their know-how, contacts, and expertise is an invaluable support to us now”, Mr. Brichet-Billet reports. An inter-municipal exchange platform had been set up following Tero Loko’s project which now permits a first-hand exchange of information for the reception of these families.
While the state services oversee regularising the administrative status of Ukrainians, local communities and volunteers provide for day-to-day needs, building on the lessons learned and experience in welcoming accumulated in these recent years. As the European Union has triggered the Temporary Protection Directive in March 2022 that provides refugees from the war in Ukraine with social rights and direct access to the labour market, municipalities must prepare and address the particular needs of this group of refugees. Again, a multi-stakeholder approach, with the involvement of a wide range of actors, is the preferred solution.
By allowing an innovative socio-professional integration project to be set up in his municipality, Alex Brichet-Billet has not only opened the way for a comprehensive response to the refugees' search for stability in terms of housing, employment, and social integration. He has also given the opportunity to find employment for local people and refugees, paving the way for a vibrant village life “Notre-Dame-de-l'Osier shows how everyone can make a significant contribution without investing large funds”, the mayor says – and keeping his role to facilitation while paying attention to full acceptance by the local community certainly are guarantees for the project’s great sustainability.
“above all, it is the satisfaction of being part of this collective of people who quite naturally, without waiting for instructions or directives, dares to welcome”