15 NOVEMBER 2016
The EMN annual conference took place on the 15th November 2016 at The Palace Hotel Sliema. It was a well attended conference with over 100 participants from the various NGOs and Government entities.
The Head of Third Country Nationals Unit Malta, Mrs. Diandra Buttigieg, gave an opening speech welcoming those present, and following this speech she also delivered a presentation giving an overview of the European Migration Network highlighting its various aspects such as the drawing up of policy briefs, the carrying out EMN studies through the collating of information collected through questionnaires sent to the various Government entities, the answering of Ad-Hoc queries, the publishing of an EMN Quarterly Journal, the publishing of an Asylum and Migration Glossary and the issuing of the annual report on migration within an EMN context.
The first session of the conference was chaired by Dr. Josann Cutajar who is the Director of the University of Malta’s Cottonera Resource Centre as well as a lecturer within the Gender Studies and Sociology department on gender, race, sexual identity, social class and ethnicity.
This first session comprised the reading of an academic paper by Professor Avtar Brah (Prof. Emerita – Birbeck University of London), focusing on Gendered Migrations and the questions of integration, a presentation delivered by Katarina Lenmarker from the University of Malta highlighting the issue of Sparking individual engagement – a grassroots media approach while a third presentation was delivered by Mr. Andre’ Baas from the Ministry of Security and Justice in The Netherlands, who discussed the topic Preparing for integration – the experience with resettling persons to the country of origin.
In her paper, Prof. Avtar Brah discussed the perils faced by migrants during their journey to arrive in Europe. She stated that by 2015, 244 million migrants were living away from their countries of origin with the main nationalities being Syrian, Afghani, Somalis and Iranian. Migrants from Asia are lower in numbers. Prof. Brah confirmed that Europe took the bulk of the arriving asylum seekers while stating that the percentage of female arrivals totalling to less than half of all the arrivals 48% – 49%. This means that the asylum seekers arriving to Europe are mainly males. Due to different cultural this creates problems where female migrants are concerned due to work possibilities, being taken up or not, due to such culture differences. In her overview of the present situation in the UK, she highlighted that the highest unemployment rates are found within the female Muslim communities due to culture differences. She also mentioned the aspect of sexual harassment which is rampant.
Prof. Brah read a definition of Institutional Racism as defined by the Sir William Macpherson Report of 1999, stating that:
‘The collective failure of an organisation, to provide an appropriate and professional service, to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.’
She also stated that women immigrants are not homogeneous groups, since they vary through different groups and tribes. Another 2 definitions highlighting the concept of intersectional frameworks stated that:
‘Intersectionality is a way of understanding and analysing the complexity in the world, in people and in human experiences. The events and conditions of social and political life and the self can seldom be understood as shaped by one factor… Intersectionality as an analytic tool gives people better access to the complexity of the world and of themselves.’ [Patricia Hill Collins & Sirma Bilge (2016) Intersectionality, Polity Press]
She also highlighted the core ideas of intersectionality which encompass social inequality, power, relationality, social context, complexity and social justice.
Prof. Brah stressed on the issue of dealing with cultural differences, highlighting cultural differences in Great Britain, with super diversity as a new concept. She stated that migration is a global phenomenon, which makes a deep impact both negative and positive both on the host country and its citizens, since it can create a lack of social cohesion. However she argued against advocating assimilation, while agreeing with the equality aspect of integration and diversity.
She also defined the concept of integration through a quote by Roy Jenkins in 1966 as:
‘Not a flattening process of assimilation, but as equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance.’
She emphasised the fact that migration issue is so controversial that that it featured as top issue in the Brexit vote even before the country’s economy, highlighting the fact that immigration and integration are an interlinked phenomenon.
Prof. Brah’s presentation came to an end with the highlighting of the relevant areas in migration within the context of integration focusing on: employment, housing, education, health, measuring social connections, language acquisition, cultural knowledge of host society, safety and stability of immigrants, rights and responsibilities of immigrants and attitudes of the recipient communities
The presentation titled, Sparking Engagement delivered by Katarina Lennmarker who is a PH.D. candidate gave an overview of the Swedish system of interaction both between Swedes and migrants and also Swedes and tourists. She spoke about the Grassroots approach in Sweden which she claims encompasses the following 3 concepts:
The Invitation Department, where as a Swedish family can invite an immigrant for dinner, thus enhancing interaction, and intercultural knowledge, while practicing of the Swedish language by the immigrant.
Another project organised together with the Norwegian Red Cross called ‘Now is your time to speak’ and a third project organized with the Swedish Tourism Board ‘Call a Swede’ where a Swedish telephone number was made available to get connected at random to a Swede to speak about anything. She stated that this phone number was open for 79 days and during these79 days the world spoke to random Swedes. She emphasized the importance of accepting the responsibility of creating better conditions for others, which is the Harvard definition of leadership fused with creativity. She ended her presentation by stating that she is an agnostic but believes in sacred values.
The presentation focusing on Resettlement and relocation in the light of integration and gender issues – the Dutch Programme in practice was delivered by Mr. Andre’ Baas. He started his presentation by deciphering between legal and illegal migration within context of 3 important issues being: resettlement, relocation and family reunification. He stated that the relocation quota is 2000 in 4 years, whereas the relocation programme from Italy and Greece and resettlement from Turkey sees a maximum of 9000 persons in 2 years, and finally family reunification. The main groups in discussion are Congolese, Syrians and Eritreans. Mr. Baas also gave a breakdown of the preparation programmes citing the following factors as decisive: selection mission (asylum & integration), cultural orientation, and allocation to municipalities or general reception capacities, travel arrangements/medical checks, reception during first 48 hours or longer and expertise centre for chain partners. Another issue discussed in this presentation was the Dutch resettlement framework prior to the immigrants’ arrival in the Netherlands, where cultural orientation sessions were the fulcrum, while each session is followed by other issues such as the determination of municipality, the determination of the address house and the arrival in the Netherlands. The second part of the Dutch resettlement framework comprises: pledging which is carried out during the first week, followed by receiving and accepting of cases between the first and the fourth week, the notification and medical check-ups carried out during the next two weeks. Next is interviewing and cultural orientation and finally the arrival in the Netherlands. This presentation also highlighted the difference between cultural orientation and cultural resettlement which is divided in 3 parts mainly orientation on the Netherlands + Dutch lessons which encompasses History, topography, health care, education, work and income, orientation on the Municipality, plus Dutch lessons which comprises future municipality, information provided by municipality, equal rights, budgeting and raising children, orientation on the house together with Dutch lessons, which is formed up of the following aspects – Information about the house, how to make contact with your neighbours, budgeting, safety and hygiene. Mr. Baas also discussed the goals of cultural orientation, the most important aspect of which is the providing of realistic information, together with the management of expectations and last but not least the 100% participation grade. The aspect of practicality in culturally orientation and gender related issues were discussed in the context of, norms and values, interaction between men and woman, labour market opportunities, competences, women’s rights and domestic violence. It is obvious that to give training one has to have tools and this was also discussed highlighting various aspects from the forming of these tools, such as the experience and knowledge of the participant, the Dutch trainers themselves, the materials used like films, guides and social media mainly Facebook, the importance of interactivity during the programme and good contact with the receiving community. Such programmes also comprise challenges varying from cultural distance between place of origin and resettlement country, to national security issues, to signs of extremism, to a more demanding political environment through a more demanding society and practical arrangements. Mr. Baas ended his presentation by focusing on a final 3 issues namely results of co-training, stating that there is a 98% participation, positive evaluation of participants, positive feedback from local chain partners and look-and-learn visits to other countries. Policy changes are also important as they highlight higher expectations, prevent segregation, stimulate gender-balanced participation, exams and a possible bonus. A final view on challenges bringing this presentation to an end focused on 3 aspects being, integration of refugees becomes more and more political, integration also becomes a business model (value for money, so quality) and last but not least an impact on practitioners which is an unseen yet existing phenomenon.
The first session came to an end with a question and answer time where the issue of Muslim women not accepting to shake hands with males was brought up and how this put responsibility on the host country. This highlighted the importance on pre-arrival cultural courses which show a lack of appeasing attitude from the Dutch organisers, who emphasize the importance of mutual respect, and if immigrants are not ready to adhere to Dutch norms they are informed that perhaps the Netherlands is not a good place for them. Re domestic violence, there was a form of justification of sorts when some Maltese participants present stated that, domestic violence exists also on a national basis. The answers to the first issue i.e. the refusal to shake hands, was that, the choice of not shaking hands brings about repercussions. The academic viewpoint was that migrants should be approached with a sense of equality not with a sense of superiority or with the sense of dealing with the ‘other’. A final practical and down-to-earth answer on the above question of integration and inclusion by not segregating nor sectoring people, was answered by another practical question being: if a war broke out in Europe and we decide to flee to the Middle East, what would the Middle-East think of us…or expect from us?
The second session was moderated by Dr. Marcelline Naudi who is a senior lecturer within the Department of Gender Studies and the University of Malta. This second session was opened with a presentation titled Gender, Violence and Migration delivered by Simona Lanzoni who is the Vice-President of Fondazione Pangea Onlus as well as a GREVIO member (Istanbul Convention) at the Council of Europe. This was followed by another presentation focusing on, The labour market and protected persons – a perspective across the European Union, delivered by Martina Belmonte who is a research assistant at ICF Consulting Services, and also the EMN Service Provider where she contributes to the preparation of EMN Studies. The session ended with a session titled Integrating successfully where 3 foreigners who have fully integrated in Malta formed part of this panel. This session was followed with a networking lunch.
Simona Lanzoni opened her presentation with the definition of gender and gender-identity, and gender-based violence which normally is the main problem affecting women. Then she highlighted the definition of migration which she described as a transformative way to look at people, not just from the single act of crossing a border, but as something which becomes a lifelong process as it can create an erosion of traditional boundaries between languages, cultures, ethnic group, and nation-states while affecting even those who do not migrate but are affected by movements of people in or out of their communities, and by the resulting changes. This presentation also described the formative approach to migration within the context of quantitative vs. qualitative dimension together with the aspect of the transformation to life through migration within the following aspects: individual biography of who is travelling, biography of people that enter in contact with the migrant, transforming society, transforming cultures, transforming geography and the transforming of politics and policies. It was highlighted in this presentation that during 2013 it was estimated that there were 685,000 female refugees in the 47 Council of Europe Member States. Further on she focused on the aspect of intersectionality and how being a woman modifies the experience of migration. She described how migrant women are more prone to being abused with explicit forms of violence that vary from forced marriage, to transactional sex, domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, physical assault both in country of origin and during the migratory journey. Due to cultural norms, victims and survivors of such sexual violence avoid disclosing their experiences to reception centre authorities while also avoiding going to the police to seek assistance, unless there are severe and visible health implications. Such violence can also prevail either from the husband in the country of origin or also a husband from the host country. Since they find it very difficult to go to the police, most migrant women play a waiting game believing it will pass and their situation will change, which results in lack of trust in authorities and an ensuing solitude, by being far from their country of origin and from their connections, most migrant women keep to themselves or at the most report domestic/sexual abuse at hospitals. In fact most women living through such an abuse are not even aware that they are being abused, since in their country of origin it might even be the norm. For this reason there are organisations who are trying to help these women, but this comes at a cost. Since women work more than men, accepting very low wages, it makes it impossible for them to pay for such services, together with psychological support even due to language barriers. Another focus in this presentation was put on the Istanbul convention and its various articles promoting gender and obligations for countries, as a practical tool to combat all forms of violence against women. It offers an extremely comprehensive set of legally-binding standards aimed at preventing violence, protecting the victims and prosecuting the offenders, through comprehensive and integrated national policies. Amongst others it recognizes and defines many forms of violence including female genital mutilation, forced marriage, stalking, forced abortion and forced sterilisation. Two very important articles of this Convention are Articles 60 and 61 which focus on gender-based claims and the obligation of non-refoulement respectively. Regarding the issue of the law of non-refoulment, Simona Lanzoni brought to light Italy’s deportation of a number of Nigerian women back to Nigeria, something which should never have been done. This convention also requires governments to introduce practical safety measures for unaccompanied women asylum seekers including safe and separate dormitories, to minimise risks such as sexual abuse. It also requires granting these women access to medical and psychological counselling and trauma care. This convention also focuses on the possibility of migrant women victims acquiring an autonomous residence status (art. 59). This presentation also highlighted the problem that migration can give way to domestic violence for the following reasons: If a male breadwinner fails, if a man is less successful than his wife at integrating into their new professional or social life, if the labour market is precarious, with financial difficulties unable to remit money to their family of origin, or if children become integrated in the new culture where they are living. Furthermore Migration can create situations where harmful practices associated with the social norms of a particular group are imported into the host society, (FGM, FM and similar), migrant families maintain often their tradition and affective and business ties with their country of origin through their children, harmful practices can also be used as a way of consolidating traditional gender roles and controlling women’s behaviour and sexuality, for example to prevent perceived promiscuity (UN Special Rapporteur, 2007). These issues can impair women (in all ages) in social development and integration into the host society, and limit their educational and network opportunities (isolation), while women of all ages may suffer from restrictions on their freedom of movement and limitations with respect to their choice of partner and career. This violence can also be a reaction to societies where women seem to have more freedom of choice and expression, as compared to the community of origin. It is a transformative process of identities that takes time, and passes through a process of awareness, particularly of men, as of women, regarding human and women’s rights. At this point it is crucial to avoid approaching violence in migrant families with cultural relativism or justifying such violence as “traditional practices”, or too hastily tolerating it as a family matter, without reacting to stop such violence on women since human rights and women rights are a serious matter!
Another presentation was delivered by Martina Belmonte which focused on Integration of Beneficiaries of International/Humanitarian Protection into the Labour Market: Policies and Good Practices. Her first question was why is labour market integration of beneficiaries of international protection so important? This was answered in a UNHCR publication with the statement that employment is what makes refugees feel integrated most, which basically says it all. This question is seen from 3 aspects – the perspectives of beneficiaries, the perspectives of the Member States and the current context (migration/refugee crisis). Basically 2015/2016 brought about a huge increase of migratory flows which has made the integration aspect a much more pressing problem, together with the fact that the age distribution of persons with a positive decision shows that the majority are in the range 18-34 years, and three quarters in working age. However, another question which is not easily answered, focused on which skills-set do beneficiaries of International Protection have, but in reality little data is available and no overall conclusions can be drawn. In fact according to a European Survey, Immigrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Eritrea seem to be less educated than the native population or other migrants.
Employment-support measures are also highlighted such as language courses, orientation services and education, vocational education and training, counselling services, recognition of qualifications, access to housing, guaranteed minimum income and employment support measures organisations.
All MS offer employment-related support measures as part of integration measures for migrants, such as through the mainstreaming approach, Hybrid approach and tailored approach, with different EUMS practicing different approaches.
Further employment support measures with good practices/obstacles were highlighted in this presentation, such as the linking of language learning to the job market and paired with other skills vs. low level of language courses, flexible arrangements such as child care facilities or evening classes vs. inflexibility where childcare needs are concerned, providing orientation services with the aim to directly support workplace integration vs. lack of contact languages for illiterate migrants, and the integration of social components in language and orientation courses. Other employment support measures comprise education and training, even in view of a language barrier, recognition of qualifications or otherwise (due to lack of necessary documentation) and housing transition facilities vs. xenophobic traits, limited mobility and overpopulated areas. Other problems faced by both recognized refugees and beneficiaries of international protection are the length of residence permit procedures where refugees are concerned and while migrants having humanitarian protection face more administrative conditions (e.g. work permit and labour market test). Conclusions and lessons learnt from this issue are made up of the following aspects: Promising good practices, increasingly more tailored measures, to be further encouraged, many obstacles remain (administrative, practical to access the labour market as well as accessing employment-related support measures), monitoring & evaluation of employment-related support measures, missing and data collection on labour market participation of beneficiaries should be improved.
An interesting panel discussion formed of 3 foreigners only one of whom came to Malta back in 2003 as an asylum seeker was next. This panel which was also chaired by Dr. Marcelline Naudi, was formed of a Moroccan woman, a Tunisian woman and an Armenian male. They recounted their experiences, and how they integrated in Malta, and the reason why they deem integration as a vital aspect. When comparing their experiences it is interesting to see how the two women who both hail from the north African (Euromed) region had the language issue in common, and although both of them stated that Arabic language has its Semitic traits also in the Maltese language, they needed to learn both Maltese and English, to be able to help their own children with their homework and their life at school. Under the circumstances they not only learnt to speak both languages, but they also got involved in interpreting work within the migrant community, with one of them even succeeding to become vice-president of the migrant women association in Malta. Another common denominator between the 3 of them was that they all deemed integration as a choice for their future, and not something to be forced upon them. The differences between them basically were that, the 2 women did not come as asylum seekers, whereas the Armenian man is a recognized refugee. However the 3 of them all agreed upon the fact that they deem Malta as their home without losing their roots.
During Q & A time an interesting issue came up when it was noted that, first of all it was interesting to see how in this conference there were participants from ‘both sides of the coin’ i.e. the theoretical vs. the practitioners. Also it was agreed that integration goes both ways and part of the main problem is solved when the language barrier is overcome. Another issue that was highlighted was that, although Malta had been a colony of Great Britain for 160 years, the British never took it upon themselves to learn Maltese, yet the Maltese did learn English. However we expect that who comes here to integrates and learn our language. This was rebutted by an observation made by one of the participants who stated that, when Maltese people emigrated years ago, they integrated and assimilated into the new society of which they formed part, and in fact it is quite at times difficult to decipher between Maltese and citizens of a given host country, which once again takes us back to the issue that, integration is an educational 2-way process, with the willingness to adapt.
This was followed by a networking lunch.
The third session was chaired by Dr. Brenda Murphy, who is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Gender Studies at the University of Malta and engaged in the design of postgraduate programmes, research and activism. This session started with an academic paper which was read on-line by Dr. Carmen Sammut who is Pro-Rector for Student and Staff Affairs and Outreach at the University of Malta, and a Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture and International Relations; Political Communication’ Media and Forced Migration and in Journalism. She started by giving an overview of her studies abroad and on her research. Then she went on to state that with the right information Maltese people were in favour of integration. Journalists have a common front agenda in favour of migration and migrants’ rights which does not always go down well with the man in the street. In fact she stated that at times journalists are wary of writing in favour of migration due to a ‘populist’ reaction of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. Journalists working with the independent media are deemed to be adverse to the military and their stance against migration. However certain journalists do have to tow the line with the organization / entity or political party with which they are employed. Where political parties are concerned, whatever actions they might take, but their primary interest remains the possibility of losing votes to the far right parties. The church took it upon itself to decriminalise the aspect of illegal migration. A next proposal should include more initiatives for more sanitized journalists as regards the issue of irregular migration. This paper ended by stating that it is important that migrants’ voices will be heard in the decision-making process, and that the media should not expose immigrants to mockery, racism or xenophobia.
This paper was followed by a final presentation titled Media Literacy and Social Activism, Does New Matter? This presentation was delivered by Dr. Mimi Doran (PH.D)., who is a communications practitioner and media lecturer with interests in social justice and participatory approaches to learning, research and communications, spending 10 years lecturing at the Equality Studies Centre, School of Social Justice, University College, Dublin. Her presentation focused on a group of minorities – basically ignored, disrespected group of Irish citizens, who wanted nothing else except decent housing. Dr. Doran actually suggested that through her PH.D., she will help them in their quest for better housing, suggesting that she will use media literacy as an empowering tool, for the construction of public knowledge, making use of TV, Press, Newspaper and the internet to make get her message through. She also gave a definition of media literacy. Finally through media training and the building of a website, highlighting the plight of this minority group, this became a top story. She also discussed how through social literacy and a commitment from the Irish Government an agreement was finally reached for the building of houses with back gardens, a crèche etc. The morale of this presentation was how through media literacy one reached the audience to work with the media to get the voices of minority groups to be heard.
A final journalist’s panel discussion brought to a close this annual conference. This panel was formed up of 5 journalists coming both from the independent media and the political parties’ media. A common denominator between them was that they were all pro-migration and migrants’ rights, however they became aware that unexpected changes took place and can continue to take place especially post the US election results and the Brexit vote. Two interesting comments came from 2 journalists one representing the independent media and the other a political party. The independent journalist stated that he is reconsidering his academic trend of thought, which in Malta is quite scornful of community voices, after a research he carried out in the south of Malta and where he spoke to the two sides, both migrants and citizens. The politically-affiliated journalist seemed quite wary that the unexpected can happen in Malta with the possibility of a far-right party making it to parliament post the latest ‘upheavals’ both in the US and Europe and with more referenda and elections to be taking place with migration as a fulcrum issue.
The conference came to an end with a final address delivered once again by the Head of Third Country Nationals Unit-Malta, Mrs. Diandra Buttigieg, where she augured such participation for next year’s annual event, especially as it will be a mile-stone national conference, due to Malta’s EU Presidency