Project Activities / Photo

II International Conference - Conclusions


PARTICIPATION OF MIGRANTS
COUNSELLING - EDUCATION - FURTHER EDUCATION

Friday 29th February  2008
Lothian Chambers, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

 

Notes:

 

Attendees arrived and registered in time for a 10am start. We also welcomed Pilton Video who were filming the day for us.

 

Eilidh Bateman started the day by welcoming all the attendees and outlining the programme for the day, as well as drawing attention to the information available in the welcome packs.

 

Stan Reeves and Jon Busby presented the Adult Learning Project and the situation of migrants in the UK.  The key points were:

 

· ALP and FACEPA came into existence in the same year-1979.

· During the 1990s ALP participated in an informal programme of cultural renewal including traditional music song and dance which provided a vehicle for the people’s striving for identity and recognition. This culminated in and coincided with the inception of Scotland’s devolved Parliament.

· To represent The fact that ALP sent their convener to South Africa to participate in democratic dialogical learning programmes and conferences there, · Stan showed clips of ALP participants learning and joining in South African songs.

· In the 1990s it was easier to get refugees access to further education because there was not the same relationship between legislation and the colleges and universities.

· With each change that comes to immigration legislation, the more barriers that are placed in the way of migrants in terms of accessing education and employment.

 

Ingiborg Petursdottir and Zenap Kartal presented the Multiculural Forum Lünen and the situation of migrants in Germany. Natalia Fernandez and Adelaide Morte presented FACEPA and the situation of migrants in Spain.  Powerpoint presentations are attached/available.

Harrie Prince an independent consultant on adult community education from the Netherlands also briefly presented the situation of migrants in the Netherlands.  Word document attached/available.

 

Nahid Aslam from ALP presented an introduction to the theory and methodology of the dialogical discussion groups:

· Paolo Freire, the Brazilian educationalist developed the idea of dialogical discussion and his ideas have inspired community educators all over the world.

· Dialogical discussion is a two way process between student and tutor.

· The dialogical discussion group has the intention to change the world.

· They key principles are respect, love and tolerance.

· The methodology encourages the participants to share their existing and their previous experiences.

· It is a non traditional way of learning.

· It needs a good facilitator – whose role is very humble – he does not interfere but guides and co-ordinates the discussion.

· It is a good opportunity for different cultures to share customs, traditions, experiences, beliefs – and this can help break down barriers and change opinions.

· The dialogical discussion group is human – it can involve humour, dance, music, for example – it’s a flexible environment.

 

The European partners now presented their results from the various dialogical discussion meetings that had taken place in each country. Justina Raudonyte from the Social Innovation Fund in Kaunas began by involving the Conference attendees in two participative activities that highlighted the situation of migrants in Lithuania and drew attention to the issues that came up among the participants that took part in their dialogical discussions. (See attached powerpoint presentation)

 

· Next, Zeynep Kartal from the Multicultural Forum in Lunen, Germany presented the results from their discussion circles. The main issues discussed by their groups were:

· How could the participation of migrants in society be improved?

· How important are welcoming, counselling, education, adult education and political participation?

Which concrete claims and proposals could we work out?

 

See attached powerpoint presentation for more information.

 

Then, Natalia Fernandez and Adelaida Morte from FACEPA in Barcelona, Spain introduced the results from the dialogical discussion groups held in their organisation. (see attached presentation)

 

After lunch, Khursheda Ismoilzoda and Eilidh Bateman from the Adult Learning Project in Edinburgh, Scotland presented the results from the discussion groups held by them. They read out some of the powerful statements made by group participants and showed video clips from the first dialogical discussion to give attendees a ‘flavour’ of how the discussion group met and interacted:

  • “the sooner you are welcomed, the better – if it’s not the RIGHT welcome, everything after is meaningless. You can regret your decision to come and begin losing you self esteem”

 

· “We are interested in the idea of looking at the whole person in a counselling setting – not just sending them off here and there to different agencies for help with different things – treating people as whole and individual – hearing their individual needs. The counselling element is what is missing here in Scotland. There’s nowhere we’re aware of that you can sit down and be treated as a whole person”

“You can come with good language skills and get told to go to basic language classes!” Don’t treat everyone the same”

 

· “One idea is to encourage banks and businesses to fund a production of a Welcoming Pack that all migrants receive upon arrival to the UK.  The pack might include information on health, job, housing, education, culture etc. The pack would be translated multi-lingually”

“Cultural sensitivity should be a two way process and should be introduced into mainstream education.”

 

· “The way refugees are treated has changed a lot for the better because migrant organisations and community organisations collaborate together to improve the situation of refugees in all spheres of life.”

“To make programmes of further education more accessible for migrants there is a need for advertising programmes in the native languages of migrants as not many of migrants have good command of English language.”

 

· “We can feel like we are being used – we volunteer and do your job for you. How do we benefit? We’ve heard all this before. How do we know it won’t all disappear into thin air? More migrants should be involved in the decision and organisation roles”

“Migrants can remain hidden in society because they are isolated, so opportunities and information should be promoted in the places where people actually go – like shops, post offices, etc.”

 

· “Migrants in the UK can be talented, educated and highly skilled but have little or no access to employment – it feels like a waste”

 

At this stage, the conference attendees divided into three dialogical discussion groups to look at the three STEP project documents. The MOSAIC group was facilitated by the FACEPA partners, the Who Speaks group was facilitated by the Social Innovation Fund partners, and the Participation of Migrants in Programmes of Further Education group was facilitated by the Multicultural Forum partners.

 

Results of the MOSAIC dialogical discussion:

 

· Welcoming newcomers: how do we contact newcomers?

      - In Falkirk – an open door approach. Contacting people on the street; in restaurants (workers), etc

      - Consuls as contact points; although critique of their ability to do this.

      - Points of registration? Also said that a Fife survey found ½ Polish workers surveyed were unregistered.

      - Networking through centres, churches, community organisations with links.

      - Word of mouth.

      - Visible centre – e.g. shop front.

      - Toronto (Canada) example of “one-stop-shop”; treating migrant as a whole person.

      - Government/State or voluntary sector?

      - Migrant preference for first contact with a citizen ( in confidence) rather than State.

      - Creating opportunities for migrants to meet other migrants and existing community.

· How to tackle issue of migrants arriving as “individual” without a network to tap into – isolation.

          - Fife experience; difficulty accessing local authority funding and ESOL funding – shift patterns, etc

          - Barcelona; school close to police station (holding cell) sense of security for migrants in school.

          - Information leaflets ion shops, etc make contact with migrants.

          - Prejudices and fear fuelled by ignorance, media but good will of citizens can overcome this

          - Barcelona – word of mouth

          - Existing community structures (education centres) are important as they already nurture voluntarism, active citizens who can reach out.

          - Recognition of so much good work – events such as MELA, Fife Picnic, etc - that already occurs.

          - Important for minority communities to reach out; come and experience our culture.

· Proposals:

          - Read the MOSAIC document!

          - Set up One-Stop-Shop – like CAB but better furnished with leaflets, advice, signposting.

          - Better co-ordination between government/state and voluntary sector.

          - Focus on building the capacity of migrants to assist newer migrants - peer, people led.

          - Creating conditions for people to come together – celebratory.

 

Results of the Who Speaks dialogical discussion group:

 

· Education should be free for all at primary and secondary stages. At Further and Higher stages, migrants should make a contribution to the country they are studying in – but the issue is what to pay for and how. If the education is free, then it should be evaluated as to how migrants will then contribute to the local economy after graduation.

· There should be equal access for all and community education should be free for all regardless of legal administrative situation.

 

Results of the Participation of Migrants in Programmes of Further Education

 

· With increasing immigration restrictions, barriers to education for migrants increase.

· The relationship between education and legislation has developed – making it more difficult for refugees, etc to access further education.

· Could there be a universal language assessment system for migrants language skills to make sure they access support at the right level and that existing skills are recognisable and transferable – to ensure entry to the job market?

· The ideal would be a European system which allowed migrants to move about with recognisable qualifications, references, certificates, etc so that they would not have to start all over again in each country and wait to get studying and working.

· Utopia – work as one. One standard.

· A uniform approach but also take in to consideration different educational systems, approaches and standards in different countries – to address equality and equity.

· Have a further future European Conference on further education opportunities for migrants.

 

The Conference concluded with a brief discussion of ‘What next for STEP?’ led by Stan Reeves from ALP, Edinburgh:

 

· Life-long Learning Seminar in Germany – 26th August (4/5 people)

· Scottish Migrant Dialogue

· ALP (Welcoming) + La Verneda (Barcelona) exchange

· Migrant activist exchanges

· Link migrant education with trade unions

· European conference on Adult Education and Further Education for migrants

· Use the media and multimedia – e.g. podcast of radio interview taken by BBC Radio Scotland of migrant voices at the conference - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/noscript.shtml?/radio/aod/scotland_aod.shtml?scotland/newsweek

· Also post information and use forum on STEP website: www.steproject.net

Create a resource with information and pictures of good practice from different European countries with DVD.

 

The Conference closed with a vote of thanks.




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