A more human approach to immigration?
Newsletter 2008-4
Publication date : 2009-01-17
Immigrants and ethnic minorities are identified as
disadvantaged compared to the majority population in almost every European
country. They exhibit lower scores on key social inclusion indicators, such as
employment rates and income, while scoring higher in terms of school drop-out
rates, homelessness, and financial exclusion. Although the European Union has been striving to
increase the labour market participation of immigrants and ethnic minorities
and to promote their participation in social, cultural and political life,
national experiences have not always proved successful. Several Peer Reviews have been held around this issue
in the past years in a bid to improve policymaking at local, national and EU
levels through benchmarking and exchanges of good practice. This October, a
fresh review was hosted by the Spanish Government, whose approach to migrants –
generally viewed as more liberal than others – appeared to provide a source of
inspiration to other Member States. Following their visit to Madrid’s Hispano-African Centre,
the experts participating in the review were struck by the humanity of the
Spanish approach to immigration, saying this was a good lesson to take home to
their respective countries. The Centre, which is backed by Spain’s ‘Fund for the
Reception and Integration of Immigrants and their Educational Support’,
provides a wide range of education, training, leisure and job-search facilities
for immigrants, and promotes cultural and social exchanges with the local
population. “You can learn all kinds of skills, so as to get a first job or a
better job. You can learn how to fit in with the Spaniards. And it’s all free,”
explained Sanogo Youssof, a regular visitor to the Centre, who arrived from the
Ivory Coast three years ago. Participants felt these types of integration centres,
with their strong focus on mutual exchange with the receiving society, could
work well in countries experiencing marked increases in new immigration. They
also observed the model could serve as an interesting middle path between the
‘full assimilation’ or ‘compulsory integration’ policies advocated by some
governments and the ‘multiculturalism’ approach proffered by others – which
some participants noted can in fact result in complete cultural segregation. In particular, they remarked that, in Spain, the
integration process endeavours to provide migrants with equal opportunities to
participate fully in the host society, whereas some other countries tend to use
integration measures as conditions to be fulfilled in order to be granted rights,
such as residence or working permits or access to social housing. In this context, participants stressed the importance
of guaranteeing universal access to services, although some national
representatives highlighted potential difficulties in covering undocumented
immigrants in their integration, healthcare and education programmes. All participants stressed the importance of ensuring
the sustainability of such programmes over time and the allocation of funding
under the Spanish programme was praised both for its clear distribution
criteria and for its multi-annual nature, which provides greater security,
predictability and sustainability for recipients. Lastly, a key issue that emerged during the review was
the lack of systematic evaluations of the various programmes implemented across
the EU. Stakeholders felt this could act as a hurdle to countries’ mutual
learning process and should become the focus of further Peer Reviews at
European level. Lessons learned
