News and Updates 8th of March

When the migrants choose to go back…

Eastern Europe, and mainly Bulgaria and Romania are countries which ‘export’ every year their nationals to the West. However, not everybody chooses to stay abroad.

The Bulgarian association ‘Here and There’ was set up by a group of Bulgarian students who, after having studied in Western countries, decided to return home. The starting point of the creation of the association was the moment when, back in Bulgaria, they realised that they had no friends to hang out with. “When you come home after a long stay abroad, it is not unusual to find that all your friends have disappeared, especially if you left the country just after completing secondary school. When I came back from London in 2008, I found myself in a social desert: Friday nights would come and go, and there would be no one to go for a drink with,” remarks Vania. They then decided to create a group of returning students who would meet and exchange ideas and experiences. Now they meet regularly and the most common topics they tackle are around the notion of cultural clash once back home. In Bulgaria “no one says hello or goodbye, and they hardly ever smile. I make a deliberate effort to greet everyone, including bus drivers who must think I’m completely crazy.”

My opinion

The association ‘Here and There’ is a good initiative of a motivated group who want to make a difference in the world of migration. Away from home, they did not forget the importance of the home country. Back in Bulgaria, they objectively realise that there are many things which one misses from what used to be the host country. I think the process of migration as such situates us, the migrants, somewhere in-between the sending and receiving country. This leads to a feeling of, what I call, identitary frustration.

For more on this topic go to: http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/524931-return-nations-gilded-youth

European immigrants and UK social benefits

In 2004 the A8 countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) joined the EU.  At this point in time the citizens of these country cannot claim any benefits if they do not have a job. They must have worked for 12 months in the UK in order to qualify for benefits. At the end of April all the transition arrangements applied to them will drop. As a result, A8 citizens will have access to British benefits. It is estimated that 100,000 migrants could claim tens of millions of pounds in benefits, as they will be allowed to apply for national government benefits such as jobseeker’s allowance, council tax benefit and housing benefit.

The Department for Work and Pensions said it had no choice but to remain in line with national and international obligations, but has insisted that protecting the benefit system from abuse was its "number one priority".

My opinion:

The EU calls for a common space where all its citizens are treated equally, no matter what European country they are from. The EU has a social based, whereas the UK is a liberal country where everything is related to money. The UK is part of the EU, but it does not share its social principles, where immigrants should have access to the same social and economic benefits as the Britons.

As a student in France (even before Romania joined the EU) I had the right to claim housing benefit. It was not seen as something we should be ashamed of, like in the UK. It was an entitlement. You are a student, you get it. Them, when Romania joined the EU, I even used to get a scholarship of around £300/month most of the students where entitled to if they did not live with their parents. Again, it did not create any stigmatisation.

The UK considers itself to be a very generous state. Well, it is not! Many people think that the immigrants are here to claim social benefits. Most of them do not claim anything as they are not entitled to. And if they are entitled to, that means that they work in and FOR this country, so they pay taxes. They give something to society, why would not the UK give something back to them as well? Why should everything turn around money?

For more on this topic go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12633382

Nick Clegg’s vision of multiculturalism

The issue at stake in the debate over multiculturalism is the segregation of communities. In that respect, Mr Cameron called for an end of multiculturalism.  However, Nick Clegg argued that “Where multiculturalism is held to mean more segregation, other communities leading parallel lives, it is clearly wrong. For me, multiculturalism has to be seen as a process by which people respect and communicate with each other, rather than build walls between each other. Welcoming diversity but resisting division: that's the kind of multiculturalism of an open, confident society. And the cultures in a multicultural society are not just ethnic or religious. Many of the cultural issues of the day cut right across these boundaries: gay rights; the role of women; identities across national borders; differing attitudes to marriage; the list goes on."

My opinion

Nick Clegg’s speech has been seen as a contrast of Cameron’s speech, where it was argued that multiculturalism had failed. His ideas of a multiculturalist society draws on an open Britain where liberal values defeat extremism. People should respect and communicate with eachother. In other words, they should tolerate each other and society should incorporate them. However, "How is a balance to be struck between the need to treat people equally, the need to treat people differently and the need to maintain shared values and social cohesion?" (Commission on Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000). Immigrants should learn the language of the host country, to start with. Then, they should be taught cultural classes. Life in the UK classes focus on history, politics and geography, they should also tackle the concepts of cultural clash and British culture. A way of doing this would be by gathering testimonials of various immigrants. Their experience in the UK could be the base of a textbook on British culture and cultural clash. This would ensure that immigrants would be absorbed by the host society, as they would know how to deal and cope with it. This would ensure that multiculturalism can be achieved, as the immigrants will understand and accept the host society. In an ideal world, the host society should ensure that its citizens are being taught since the youngest age that the immigrants are just foreigners, not strangers.

For more information on this topic go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12638017

Report: The integration of immigrants in Europe and North America

A new study published by the British Council and the Migration Policy Group shows that there are still disparities in how Europe is integrating the 20 million legal immigrants.

The major findings in this study include:

·         Political Participation Citizenship
Generally, migrants are still discouraged from becoming politically active or gaining full citizenship, although the trend in reforming countries is to open voting rights, dual nationality and birth right citizenship (e.g. Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg).

·         Education
Policies are generally failing to address the needs of a new generation of diverse students with few schools required to help teachers, migrant students, and parents address migrants’ specific needs. However there are several countries that are leading in this area (e.g. the Nordic countries, USA and Canada).

·         Labour Mobility
Most countries guarantee equal and secure rights to work for reunited families and long-term residents. However they are asked to fulfil more requirements that many nationals could not (income, age limits, tests without support to pass).
Nearly all countries guarantee legal migrants equal working conditions and access to unions once they begin working.  But nearly half exclude migrant workers, who pay full taxes, from parts of the social security system.

·         Anti-discrimination
Anti-discrimination laws are being strengthened in many countries (e.g. Sweden and the UK) although very few have strong policies and bodies to promote equality in society.

For more on this topic go to: http://ec.europa.eu/ewsi/en/news/newsdetail.cfm?ID_ITEMS=18815

Author: Claudia Paraschivescu claudia.paraschivescu@gmail.com