The migrations challenge: how to make it an opportunity
Food for thought: Is there a common narrative in denouncing the mismanagement of the migration phenomenon between the North and the South? Good practices in managing the migration policies to promote development opportunities between the two shores / Civil society’s solutions to the refugees’ crisis / Beyond the “welcome culture”: migrants as political resource and lever for socio-economic integration within the region.
Objective of the dialogue: Going beyond the mere denounce of the mismanagement of immigration policies in order to point good practices out, which are able to turn obstacles and costs into opportunities for development and investment; promoting a different narrative about refugees’ crisis and about people’s freedom of movement.
summary of Francesca Materozzi, Corriere delle Migrazioni (moderator)
Many countries are interested by and involved in welcoming massive groups of people fleeing from wars and regional instabilities, which are present in the Mediterranean basin, in the Middle East and in Sub-Saharan Africa. In view of this epochal challenge, we cannot avoid questioning the status quo to find ways of transforming this moment of general crisis into an opportunity. The objective of this dialogue was detecting good practices able to transform obstacles and costs in opportunities for development and investment.
It is necessary to understand how to go beyond denouncing all those negative situations connected to immigration (even though this is a must), such as work exploitation. It is also essential opposing a kind of information characterised by alarmist and apocalyptic undertones in order to understand how this phenomenon could be transformed into an opportunity, as well as underlining those aspects not considered by the mainstream press, such as encouraging situations of coexistence, good practices and positive experiences at local level. We must reflect on people’s freedom of movement and on how to promote a different narrative on refugees; how migrations and their flows are able to contribute in creating a Mediterranean citizenship, being a lever for social and economic integration within the area.
Three women coming from Turkey, Egypt and Italy, dealing with migrations in their daily work within their associations, intervened to debate about these topics. Turkey, Egypt and Italy belong to three different continents, but they all overlook the Mediterranean sea. Their geographical position makes them both a crossway for transit and a land of reception for asylum seekers. We tried to develop together a shared reflection about these experiences which are characterised by particular elements despite their commonalities. The three women are:
- Emel Kurma: general coordinator for Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly. She was one of the activists of the protest in Gezi Park. She has been dealing with social movements, citizenship rights, refugees and fundamental liberties in Turkey and Eastern Europe. She is a consultant and has contributed to several study seminaries, training courses and publications.
- Fatima Idris: she is one of the founders and general director of the Tadamon Council (Egyptian Multicultural Refugee Council). She has been collaborating in managing several projects supporting refugees in Egypt since 2010, with UNHCR and the Embassies of Switzerland, France and Australia as partners. She collaborates with several NGOs (among them Save the Children) in developing activities targeted to children.
- Giovanna Vaccaro: she’s been engaged in the field of migration for several years and since 2013 she’s been carrying out the monitoring activities of Borderline Sicilia, as far as administrative practices regarding reception and detention of migrants in Western Sicily are concerned. She writes on the blog Siciliamigranti and she publishes her articles on newspapers and social science journals (Il Manifesto, Corriere delle Migrazioni, Città Meticcia, Una Città, Dialoghi Mediterranei). She has developed an interest for the topic of Sicilian migrants in Tunisia in the last century.
The debate opened with an historical excursus, useful to understand and describe the current situation in the three countries. Immediately afterwards, critical issues started to emerge: the absence of a common policy and of coordination among the States of the Mediterranean and the European area; the difficulties and also the responsibilities of all governments in managing the phenomenon. This situation has been partly determined by the reactions of refusal shown both by governments and people towards the high numbers of people fleeing. Migrants are perceived as a threat by a large part of the population; moreover, too frequently, those able to act and to intervene on public opinion, prefer exploiting popular discontent in order to avoid complying with their institutional obligations, even when these are sanctioned by international treaties. During the dialogue several other elements emerged, such as poor organisation, together with a chaotic, unfocused if not absent management of the problems linked to refugees and to their status. Women and unaccompanied minors are among the targets who suffer the most from this situation.
Varied and creative positive actions have been implemented in all the countries. Good practices have been developed in every context thanks to the intervention of associations and NGOs, and migrants benefitted from them. Nevertheless, everyone underlines that only few people are taking advantage from this positive development which often represents a marginal reality, instead of being reproduced and becoming a common reference for different institutions engaged in defending migrants’ rights.
Finally, It is necessary to return to the main concept of political asylum and international protection as a fundamental right for every human being, even before talking about opportunities. Only by starting from the right to a full and dignified life, safe from persecution and wars, it will be possible to begin a long and hard redefinition of the migration narrative to detect the positive sides of migrations. It is necessary, without any doubts, to search for a different discourse about migratory flows, giving value to the efforts of people who are able daily to create opportunities together with refugees; this will be possible only by re-starting from the concept of right, with an approach where war is considered as evil, and not migrations deriving from it .
