Seda Rass-Turgut

Head of Integration, Social Services and Civic Engagement Department, City of Osnabrück

Seda Rass-Turgut, Head of Integration, Social Services and Civic Engagement Department at Osnabrück municipal administration and Commissioner for Integration in Germany. Her parents migrated from Turkey to Germany in the 1970s. After graduating from RWTH Aachen University with a Master in Political Science in 2001, Seda Rass-Turgut began a career in diversity management serving at the School Board in Aachen, the National Institute for Vocational Qualification and Training in Düsseldorf (Zentralstelle für die Weiterbildung im Handwerk) and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut Berufliche Bildung) in Bonn. She joined the City of Osnabrück as Commissioner for Integration in 2012 and has since been head of several services and departments. During her career, her work has been focused on migrant children in schools, labor market integration, educational and training programs for migrants and, at Osnabrück, all aspects of migration induced diversity in urban societies. Since 2015 one of her main responsibilities was the reception, care, and integration of refugees in Osnabrück. Seda Rass-Turgut has served in several high-ranking commissions, including the Commission for Migration and Participation of the State parliament of Lower Saxony, and has set up a long line of successful local, national and international projects on migration and integration, several of which connect Osnabrück and its partner-city in Turkey, Çanakkale. Her work has received several awards.