Educational Scientific and Cultural - Setting up feasible plans for the integration of refugees
- liloudinca
- 1 set 2018
- Tempo di lettura: 6 min
Aggiornamento: 15 ago 2019
EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL – SETTING UP FEASIBLE PLANS FOR THE EFFECTIVE INTEGRATION OF REFUGEES IN ALIEN SOCIETIES
According to the UN Refugee Agency, “a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her own country because of persecution, war or violence”. Persecutions can be caused by race, religion, nationality, ideology or membership of a specific social group. Refugees fear for their lives and cannot or are afraid to return to their home because of such persecutions or because of war and / or violence. 2/3 of the world’s refugees come from five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia. Some refugees, called Internally Displaced People (IDP), do not flee their own country but only a place or city, and seek protection in a building or location in their nation where they feel secure. People who are forced to leave their homes because of natural disasters are also IDP. However, they are not protected internationally and do not receive help from other nations because they should be taken care of by their country’s government. Most of Internally Displaced People are found in Colombia, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia. Another type of refugee is a stateless person, an individual who is not the citizen of any country because of sovereign, legal, technical or administrative decisions. However, this is the denial of human rights, as the United Nations believe that “everyone has the right to a nationality” for political, economic and social reasons. An estimated 100 million people around the world are stateless. Other refugees instead are asylum-seekers, that is people who migrate to another country and ask for asylum (that is being recognized as a refugee and being protected and supported by the government), and the issue of this committee focuses on the integration of these people. To make an asylum request, individuals have to demonstrate they are persecuted in their home country and that they require assistance. There have been 1.7 million requests in 2017.
Refugee law is dictated by the 1951 Refugee Convention in Geneva, that determines who a refugee is and how he / she should be protected by the countries that signed the agreement. This document also involves war criminals, who are not considered refugees, and addresses cases of displacement throughout different regions of the world.
FACTS
- There are 68.5 million displaced people around the globe, 40 million of which are displaced people, 25.4 million refugees, and 3.1 million asylum-seekers. 85% of displaced people are in developing countries, and 6.3 million are just in Syria
- 31 people are displaced every minute
- The countries that host the most refugees are Turkey (3.5m), followed by Uganda (1.4m) and Pakistan (1.4m)
- Over half of refugees who fled to other countries are aged less than 18, and 45 500 asked for asylum alone, implying they did not travel with their parents but were left by themselves
- Since 2007, the number of refugees has been increasing continuously and is getting higher every year
- Sub-Saharan Africa reported the largest increase of refugees in 2017, with around 20% more refugees than the previous year. Most of them left South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Myanmar to got to Turkey (from Syrian Arab Republic), Bangladesh (from Myanmar), Sudan (from South Sudan), and Uganda (from South Sudan). While in 2016 the continent that hosted the most refugees was Europe, it has now become Sub-Saharan Africa, with 31% of global refugees staying in this area. Below is a graph that shows the largest influxes of immigrants:
- 25% of refugees who flee their homes are women, 20% are men, and 55% are children (18% of which are aged 0-4, 22% aged 5-11, and 14% from 12 to 17).
- UNCHR is the UN Refugee Agency that employs more than 11 thousand staff members around the world to deal with refugees in 128 countries. This branch of the United Nations is mainly funded by voluntary contributions from governments and the EU, and some financial help comes from intern-governmental organizations, private sector, and 1% of the UN Budget
PROBLEM - REFUGEE INTEGRATION
Immigration is often feared in the countries where refugees come to – especially in Europe. In fact, many people are afraid that governments are unable to manage immigration flows because they believe that there are three times more immigrants than there actually are. Therefore, thinking there are more refugees, some individuals also triplicate the costs and benefits that they receive, so the amount of money that the population has to give them through taxes. 50% of Europeans also believe that immigrants are going to steal their jobs and privileges, while this is not the case. We can infer from these facts that refugee integration is difficult already because immigrants are unwelcomed and unwanted in their host countries, so it is hard for them to establish a positive relationship with and be viewed well by Europeans. It is true that migration has a cost – on the short-term especially, refugees are assisted and money is given to them – but they are responsible for 70% of the European increase in workforce, and contribute to countries’ economies and development. An article published by “The Rand Corporation” focuses on the integration of Syrian refugees since the start of the Civil War, as many chose Europe as the destination to improve their lives. This organization made a study on seven countries: Turkey (host country for most Syrians), United Kingdom and Germany (high-income countries where ideas on refugees have changed over time), Greece and Italy (states that have a high influx of refugees), Canada and Australia (countries with many refugee populations despite the fact that they are very distant from Syria). It was found out that, in most E.U. countries, it is believed that refugees increase terrorism and affect negatively job opportunities. In fact, in Greece and Italy many people stated that their life would be worse with more people from different races and with diverse cultural and ethnical backgrounds. In Turkey, the population more likely isolates refugees, thinking that the government is increasing expenditure for them to allow them jobs, infrastructure, well-functioning services, education and security. People have a more positive attitude in Australia and Canada, where the government made significant efforts to integrate 25,000 Syrians in the Canadian society through effective resettlement. The contrary is happening in Italy, as there is small political commitment, hardly some public support, and a general negative sentiment among Italians. The reception system of migrants is very slow, and asylum-seekers have to wait a long time before getting papers that will facilitate their entry in Italian communities.
Refugees themselves also feel alienated in the societies of their host countries because of cultural conflicts, religious values, prejudices, and lack of proficiency in the new language they are exposed to. A study on Syrian refugees carried out by Sheren Iskandar Shihadeh at the California State University showed that immigrants face “significant personal, social, linguistic, and psychological barriers and challenges in order to integrate socially and culturally” in their host country. This could be solved in numerous ways, starting from people in communities, who should adopt an open-minded and multi-religious approach to the issue and should try to embrace the presence of immigrants as members of their societies. The entry in alien societies should be facilitated by governments, which should develop measures and policies that assist refugees and that give them useful opportunities to work and ameliorate their living conditions.
Another issue for refugees is that they miss their homes and do not feel part of their host country. The University and College Union interviewed a Syrian family that migrated to the UK, a couple with ten grown-up children. The mother of the family believes that life in England “is amazing”, but her “first problem” is not speaking English, and she says she “still miss(es) home”. Moreover, some of her children stayed in Syria, and she is “very sad to be separated from (them)” because they “cannot find a way to call (her)”. We infer that refugees might improve their lives in the countries they go to, although that does not necessarily mean they are happy and can stay with their families.
LINK TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Enabling refugees to have a better life and find a job that will help them integrate in new societies, we are reducing the chance for families of falling into the poverty cycle (Goal 1, No Poverty) and increasing their possibilities of receiving appropriate health services when needed (Goal 3, Health and well-being). Moreover, by eliminating discriminations and stereotypes against refugees and supporting them in the improvement of their living conditions, we are reducing inequalities in the communities they live in (Goal 10, Reduced Inequalities).
USEFUL WEBSITES ON REFUGEES’ INTEGRATION:
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