Webinar agenda Family Matters: Strategies for Integrating Immigrant and Refugee Families 1. Presentation by Ramon Sanahuja, Director of Migrants Attention and Welcoming Policies, City of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) 2. Presentation by Tamara Sabarini, Project Coordinator, Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge (Toronto, Canada) 3. Q&A moderated by Kim Turner , Cities of Migration, Global Diversity Exchange (Toronto, Canada) Webinar recording will be available on the website: www.citiesofmigration.ca
Family Matters: Strategies for integrating immigrants and refugee families in B arcelona Regrouping families and Reinforcing integration Ramon Sanahuja i Vélez Director of Attention and welcoming of Migrants Municipality of Barcelona 2
Demographic evolution of immigration in Barcelona 350,000 294,918 280,817 284,632 282,178 267,790 300,000 280,047 278,320 267,578 260,058 262,233 2016: Barcelona has 250,789 230,942 a foreign population 250,000 of (267.790) which 202,489 represents 16,7% of 200,000 the resident 163,046 population 150,000 113,809 74,019 100,000 53,428 50,000 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 3
Immigrant places of origin Continent (2016) Oceania; 412 Sateless ; 219; ; 0,2% 0,1% EU Europe; South 82.924; America, 31% 83,516, 31% Africa; 19.508; Resta of 8% Europe; 13.717; Asia; 67.494; 5% 25% Number of foreign residents in Barcelona by country of origin, 2016 26,993 30,000 25,000 19,192 18,448 20,000 13,671 12,552 15,000 9,280 8,682 8,108 7,955 7,930 7,029 10,000 5,000 0 4 Italy Pakistan China France Morocco Bolivia Philippines Ecuador Peru Colombia Romania
New Families in Barcelona Program TARGET POPULATION Families in the family reunification process: those who are already are in Barcelona and newly arrived members. Families are very important: the municipality wants to support and strengthen families. VISION The Municipality would like to facilitate full citizenship to families that bring their relatives to the city of Barcelona. Barcelona is becoming their new home for their children, couples and parents. It is also an opportunity for the city to become a friendly place for newcomers, making a special effort in order to support the process of regrouping families. Article 16. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, … (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Specific Objectives • Reinforcing family reunification guidance and support (with special assistance being provided to all families who start a process.). • Providing immigrants with better initial information on their host society and their rights and duties and foster their autonomy and self confidence. • Offering specific services for children and teenagers arriving in Barcelona with their families, to help them fully settle into their new city. • Providing psychological support and group support during a difficult process of reunification to the different members of the family. • Reinforcing the role of the women being in a process of family reunification, taking into account the risks of gender inequality. • Helping mainstream service to cope with the impact of new arrivals to their services (focus on education system) 6
Why should the City invest in family regrouping? • Family regrouping is a turning point of migrants journey. Migrants who regroup have reached some economic stability in our society (legal status, income , household … ) They have decided to settle in our city, and want to bring their family. • Shift in attitude towards host society. Migrants who want to regroup begin to show more interest in the education system, facilities for youth and children, etc. This is an important moment for the local welcoming policies and programs; they are very receptive. • Migrants become receptive to language learning: they would like to help their children with homework! • Once they bring their family, migrants plan their future in their host city rather than in the past or origin country: Once they regroup with their family members, the remittance to their country of origin decreases. • Family reunification can be a stressful moment for families after years of separation: offering peer support groups and psychological support can alleviate anxiety and help adjustment period. 7
How do we do it? • The program is offered to all the families that have started the process of reunification • Families from outside the EU need a housing report from the municipality in order to start a reunification process. • Each programme family regrouping candidate will be called by the municipality in order to initiate the reunification and eventual arrival of the family members. Once the family has settled in, the programme will follow up on their integration process. Before the arrival of family members (initial welcome ) 2 Stages After the arrival of family members (Guidance & Mentoring) 8
BEFORE Initial welcome regrouping • Initial meeting (general information and legal assessment) • First contact with family Initial monitoring • Workshop for parents about what they will need in Barcelona • Informative sessions for parents about how to study in Barcelona We provide: • Legal assessment before and during the regrouping for individual and groups. • Information on the difficulties of the legal process. • Information on the education system. We start introducing group sessions: • Initial meetings • Workshop for “Mothers and father” , in some cases individual support. 9
AFTER BEFORE family members regrouping have arrived Specific support to women • Workshop for Spanish speaking women • Workshop for Pakistani and Indian women Workshops for • Workshop for women from Maghreb. women/men •Workshop “We cook with letters" •Workshop “We sew with letters" • Activities in the outside • Language conversation with volunteers Gender and cultural attention: The aim of the gender oriented workshops is to widening the opportunities and avoid the isolation of regrouping women by establishing a confident network with other women in similar situation and empowering themselves by being in contact with the city . • The programme underlines women rights in the host society. • The workshops and activities provide a friendly environment to know about the new social milieu, language and culture of host society . • There are different approaches depending on different cultural and linguistic backgrounds . 10
AFTER family members have arrived Specific support to youth • Education orientation service Youth • Get Ready! regrouping • Barcelona Welcomes You in the Summer projects • Meeting point Prepare for Education: There is personal orientation for each child and youth in the process of regrouping with their family, considering the parental conflicts and psychological difficulties in their particular process of emigration. Also, monitoring them for a successful integration in to the education system in Barcelona. • Educational orientation service . A team of educational psychologists work in the programme to monitor young new arrivals individually to ensure they are integrated into their new educational environment as soon as possible and are aware of council initiatives in their neighbourhood. • Get Ready! A specific guidance service for 16-to 19 year old youngsters with good academic record who want to apply for higher education. • Barcelona Welcomes You in the Summer . The main goal of this project is to create a series of educational and leisure activities aimed at familiarizing in a positive way with the city of Barcelona and adapting to it during the summer period • Meeting point . A group of social activities designed in order to learn about the new environment and engage teenagers and youth outside of school 11
AFTER BEFORE family members regrouping have arrived Guidance & Mentoring for regrouped families Type of information delivered to families Free time 8.8% Support in the relationship with 17.5% Personal attention descendants Approach to the neighborhood for the youngters 15.0% Psychological support Each family receive 1.2% Healthcare 2.2% specific attention about 0.9% 22.8% their needs and Basic needs 1.3% demands. 2.3% Each family receive Labour market 1.1% guidance sessions 12.9% about how the need to Housing 6.4% deal with new family 4.3% relationships. Formal education 1.1% 2.1% 0.1% 12
An interdisciplinary team A group of high qualified professionals The program team consists of 17 professionals in education, psychologists, cultural mediators, translators and lawyers, gender specialist with specific qualification in social work and intercultural skills. During 2 months in summer: additional 16 youngster instructors. Budget for 2017: 712.555 Euros . Key aspects: - Work with mainstream services of the city: education, libraries, leisure for youngster, women’s department - “Tailor made” solution s for specific communities (Ex: PIBN,: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal) - Special attention to gender issues and strategy to reach isolated women once they are regrouped. 13
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