NSPM 2010

QUESTIONNAIRE VOLUNTEERING WITH

MIGRANTS

•SCI BELGIUM•OWA POLAND•VSI IRELAND•ZAVOD VOLUNTARIAT SLOVENIA•SCI MADRID•SCI SWITZERLAND•SCI FRANCE•IVS GREAT BRITAIN•VIA NETHERLANDS•SCI GERMANY

NSPM 2010

SCI BELGIUM

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Collaborates with a centre for migrants <18•Solidarity fund finances helps migrants to finance a work camp.•Refugees <18 sent to work camp abroad on EVS programme.•Asylum seekers active in North South Working Groups•Young male African migrant volunteers already activists in their native country.•Volunteers whose parents/grand-parents cam to Belgium•Future plans: concentrate on disadvantaged youth, rather than migrants.•Does not actively seek to include volunteers from a migrant community.•Involves migrants in preparation seminar for outgoing volunteers.•Topic on migration issues used during preparation seminar.•Africa Working Group trying to work with African organisations in Brussels.•Have organised debates/info evenings with refugee groups, cinema clubs, awareness raising evenings.•Obstacles: Migrants who volunteer are from higher socio-economic background. But many cannot work/study for legal/financial reasons so cannot think about volunteering for others.•Do not receive specific funding.

OWA POLANDSCI POLAND

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Actively working with refugees and other organisations working with refugees.•2-4 summer work camps in refugee centres, mostly with children. Study part included for international volunteers.•Educational Events eg. International Refugee Day.•Published book on refugees “Refugees: Theory and Practice”, followed by educational seminars.•Open City Project – getting to know migrants living in the city.•Include volunteers from the Balkans region.•Do not include migrants in preparation session but EVS volunteers are involved.•No volunteers from migrant community active in organisation.•Obstacles: Bureaucracy and lack of interest from migrants side.•Funding from EEA grants, Norway grants, and the support of their City Hall.

VSI IRELAND

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•The Teenage Programme specifically targets young asylum seekers.•Develops projects to suit the needs of this group.•Work with separated children seeking asylum.•Group volunteering projects with adapted to needs of young people and this target group.•Volunteers usually join at 16 and stay 2/3 years.•Actively seek to include this group – visits asylum centres, develops relationship with the young people. Others hear about projects through friends.•Hopes to organise project on topic of immigration this year.•Do not receive any specific funding for inclusion of migrants, however EU Youth in Action and National Agency supportive of work.•Camp leaders, facilitators from migrant background.•Obstacles: Financial obstacles, no means to pay even for public transport to project; cultural differences; more time, money needed at initial stages.•Key Service Provider•Included as an example in guidebook for youth organisations who want to do intercultural youth work.

ZAVOD VOLUNTARIAT SCI SLOVENIA

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•“Dress Smart” - educational activities, and creative workshops on topic of social exclusion and marginalization of migrants - included asylum seekers as participants.•“On the Road” - Migrant Film Festival and work camp.•Mediterranean United - http://www.medunited.net/ - focuses on bringing together volunteerism and migration - Oct ’09-May ’11.•Future plans: participatory video trainings with young migrants and their local peers to be screened at migrant film festival.•Seek to include volunteers from migrant background for some projects.•Recruit migrants mostly through co-operation with local partner organisations specialized in working with migrants.•Principle motivating factors in recruiting volunteers from this group are: learning possibilities, creative methodologies, social networking and production/ownership of tangible results.•No volunteers from migrant community included in preparation workshops.•No topic on migration included in preparation workshop.•No migrants active as volunteers.•Obstacles: Not “easy” to access; don’t follow open calls for participation; not included in social networks outside of their group; unfamiliarity, lack of trust in organisation

SCI MADRID

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Spanish classes for immigrants. A working group of volunteers is in charge. Migrants are the beneficiaries.

•Migrants who volunteer are usually young, female, with higher education and around 30 years old.

•Includes volunteers from a migrant community in the preparation sessions for outgoing volunteers.

•Obstacles: The language can be considered an obstacle for those who do not speak Spanish.

SCI SWITZERLAND

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Sri Lankan Diaspora Internship Programme•Theatre workshop with children from Swiss and migrant background.•Not many migrants active in organisation•Work camps in asylum seekers centres.•Future Plans: Plan to organise a project that will include volunteers from a migrant background.•Interested in including more volunteers with migrant backgrounds - think it is important that SCI is more open towards this group of youth - realize that it can be difficult - need to design a programme or project especially to meet the aim of including migrant community volunteers - does not happen by chance. •Includes migrants as a special target group in their promo activities - must promote activities in different places, different languages.•Must focus on needs of this group at planning stages - helps to have migrant on prep team.•Obstacles: it is a social context other than the one they are used to; alot of youngsters with migrant backgrounds have difficulty in accessing education and jobs, therefore less possibilities and money to travel or to participate in work camps; important to lower participation fees for certain projects; to speak directly with young migrants to know what would be interesting for them; to involve migrants in the planning of the project etc…

SCI FRANCE

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Worked a lot with migrants in the 1980’s - solidarity holidays.•Holiday centre for migrant families at village called Moulès built and run by SCI France.•Cultural trainer from Africa or the Maghreb region organised workshops for young migrants who were rejecting their culture of origin.•Unclear if someone is a migrant or a French national as they do not distinguish between the two.•Migrants who volunteer are mostly young, unemployed, sent by social assistant; or there is also an active male volunteer who is a refugee from Algeria.•Tried to organise camp with refugees waiting for asylum seeker status - this was cancelled as it was too complex to organise.•More likely to work with volunteers from a difficult social background and this can often include those with an immigrant background.•Include topic on migration issues in preparation session for outgoing volunteers.

IVS GBSCI GREAT BRITAIN

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Took part in YUWG (Youth Unemployment Working Group) project with Ireland and Italy.•Does not actively seek to include volunteers from a migrant community. •Future plans: IVS Great Britain does not plan on organising a project that includes volunteers from a migrant community.•Includes migrants in the preparation sessions for outgoing volunteers. •Carries out a session on discrimination, equal rights and prejudice as part of the preparation process. Migrants are discussed in this context.•A part time volunteer who is a migrant from Ireland works 2 days a week in the office. 2 migrants from France and from Rwanda are on the IVS Board of Directors. A volunteer from Zimbabwe helps facilitate preparation days and has taken part in additional SCI training on Media skills.

VIA NETHERLANDS

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Does not really organise projects with participants from a migrant background.

•The issue is discussed every year, however, they have yet to reach those from a migrant community.

•No plan to activate migrants as volunteers

•Do not include migrants in preparation sessions for outgoing volunteers.

•Do not include topic on migration issues in preparation sessions.

•Organise projects in asylum seekers centres every year. The study theme is related to refugees, procedures for asylum seekers, fortress Europe.

•Ramadan Project - it was hoped that non-migrants could learn about the Ramadan and the migrants about the originally Dutch people in the neighbourhood, however, only migrants took part.

SCI GERMANY

NSPM 2010

NSPM 2010

•Would like to co-operate on a project that works with migrants or which is organized by migrants but there are no concrete plans to search for this type of project. •Sometimes include migrants in their preparation session for outgoing volunteers - these are mostly volunteers from the partners in the South who are now living in Germany.•Include a topic on migration issues in their preparation session for outgoing volunteers on the North South programme.•Have organised a project on the topic of immigration. The North South Incoming programme was organised on the topic of migration in 2009. During this programme, volunteers were trained on the topic and then took part in workshops in schools with 15 to 18 year old students.•They have one or two migrants active in their organisation.•Organised activities together with a migrant organisation. Some work camps were projects dealing with disadvantaged young people (including migrants), dealing with refugees. •“the forgotten” project - http://www.theforgotten.eu/ •Many years ago they tried to motivate young refugees to participate in our work camps but we were not very successful.

QUESTIONS

NSPM 2010