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Madam Shaheen Attiq-ur-Rahman:
Comments to the text ICAE Confintea VI Seminar [17]
The same situation in the Middle East, where many young
women from the far East & South East of Asia go for work...not knowing
the language or culture. Some are Educated in their native countries but
have no clue about the language of the Country they work in, or the law
of the land....therby getting terribly exploited.It must be mandatory that manpower Ministreis make such women aware of some basic lagnuage of the countries they are to work in the law of their land. Often Manpower Agents take large sums of money from poor illiterate youth with promisesof work, dump them near the shore & dissapear. Thousand s languish in jails , for years , being caught with no valid visa. Unable to communicate in the local language they linger on for mora than a few years in the jails. Trafficked Children...the Camel Jockey ones, hundreds were in bondage in Middle East, torn from their parents by glib talking agents & sent to the Middle East as Jockeys, often as young as 5 or 6! Recently this 'sport' has been baned & the children are safe........but illiteracy abounds in the area's where they come from, these children have no clue to the 'word' lest of all their parents. Trafficed women from our parts , who are more often than not completely illiterate, they are moved around from rural to urban areas, from one to the other District, the only relief of her life the is death...illiteracy her crime... Literacy for All , with 770 million illiterates in the World must be in the Global agenda, With rising prices of oil....who will get exploited....women & children, specially of the rural area, specially the poor. We just have to get the MDG's to recognise the relevance of Literacy for Poverty Alleviation......Countries of the Developing World their Governmentsrecognise the MDG's ...but not EFA or LFA...........we must collectively speak for the vouceless...
Thoughts on migration from Ireland
The White Paper on Adult Education, Learning for Life
published in 2000
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/2000/whitepaper/adult_educ.pdf
was a key development for the adult and
community education sector in Ireland as it was the first policy
framework for adult education in the history of the State. The Paper is
underpinned by three core principles one of which is interculturalism,
the other two being equality and a systemic approach. When the Paper was
being written Ireland had just begun to benefit from the most rapid
economic growth in Europe and was experiencing its first wave of
immigration. Over the past ten years Ireland has moved rapidly from an
essentially monocultural society to a multicultural one, bringing with
it many challenges as well as rich opportunities. Currently nine per
cent of our workforce is comprised of people who were not born in
Ireland and non-Irish born people make up eleven percent of our
population. Many schools now cater for children with a range of cultural
backgrounds and languages. It is estimated that 167 languages are now
spoken in Ireland. All of these changes have happened very rapidly and
in many ways Ireland was not prepared for them. The 2006 Census suggests
that there are now around 400,000 non Irish nationals in the Republic
representing 9.4% of the total population. It is estimated that 5% of
the non Irish population are refugees or asylum seekers who are
currently not allowed to work but are allowed to pursue educational
activities. Ireland has a high proportion of migrant workers. The
following information is taken from a research report entitled ‘Here to
Stay’by AIB Global Treasury Economic Research
http://www.aibeconomicresearch.com/ (John
Beggs/Jenny Pollock) February 2006.
Berni Brady, Director, AONTAS
Anecdotal evidence suggests that migrant workers tend to group together, share accommodation etc. Over the past few years there has also been evidence of exploitation of migrant workers particularly domestic workers who are generally women and workers in service industries such as restaurants etc. Other issues that are of grave concern are the disappearance of children who have arrived unaccompanied to Ireland and trafficking of women for the sex industry. The adult education service has certainly moved to deal with the needs of refugees and asylum seekers through language support but there is no statistical evidence as yet about how or if migrant workers use the service. However the Further Education Development Unit has identified a strong demand forEnglish language classes among migrant workers and local adult education providers make every effort to provide courses which are paid for by the learners themselves. However the adult education service is already stretched and needs more resources to deal with the new challengesit faces. Local communities have involved themselves in local activities designed to promote integrationand learn about each other’s cultures. Inward migration is a relatively new phenomenon for Ireland occurring primarily and rapidly over the last ten years. The new cultural mix presents huge opportunitiesas well as major challenges. Adult education has a key role to play in the development of a strong civil society which embraces diversity and promotes equality but this role is currently not regarded by government as important as that of sustaining competitiveness and supporting economic growth. It therefore does not command the resources required to enable the adult education service to developnew responses to the changing communities in Ireland. AONTAS hopes to explore in 2008 possible ways for the adult education service to address the issue of active citizenship and make recommendations for policies and strategies to promote the development of active citizenship and civil society as a whole. As we all know language is not the only thing that people entering a new country needs. The White Paper stated the need to frame educational policy and practice in the context of serving a diverse population thus having implications for the development of curricula, materials, training and in service, modes of assessment and delivery methods as the norm. This refers not only to combating racism and encouraging participation by immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in education but also to a recognition that many minority groups may have distinct needs and cultural contexts which must be respected and reflected in an educational context. The White paper further states: The challenge of an intercultural education is to simultaneously acknowledge and celebrate the cultural heritage unique to each different ethnic group while contributing to a shared collective awareness of nationhood. It must work towards a view of difference as something to be celebrated and which is enriching to the totality of the society rather than the basis for enmity. But this is easier said than done. Irish people would probably pride themselves on being non- racist and indeed it is probably easier to perceive oneself as such if the population is relatively homogeneous. But one only has to look at the treatment of Travellers, Ireland’s own ethnic minority, or indeed look at the experience in Northern Ireland to see how complex it is to develop a society where equality and justice prevail. While legal arrangements such as the Equality Act outlaw discrimination, the true development of interculturalism requires the nurturing of understanding of difference and support for the practice of living together . Iris Marion Young’s work in Justice and the Politics of Difference http://www.ou.edu/cas/psc/bookyoung.htm examines the nature of racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism. While she acknowledges that a discursive commitment to equality has emerged she suggests that racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism have not disappeared but have gone underground, dwelling in everyday habits and cultural meanings of which people for the most part are unaware. She argues for recognition and acknowledgement of group difference and representation of such difference at policy level. She puts forward the notion of democratic cultural pluralism in which vision a good society does not transcend group difference. Rather there is equality among socially and culturally differentiated groups, who mutually respect one another and affirm one another in their differences. Lifelong learning has a key role to play in nurturing the learning about each others life, beliefs and cultures and in exploring practical ways of living together as human beings.
Fernanda D´ Almeida: Comments to
the text ICAE Confintea VI Seminar [13]
I think that it is important to keep in mind the history
of migrations. I repeat, it is important to have the vision of the
migrants themselves, and, above all, to have a proactive vision in terms
of action at national level, regarding the UN programme and the gap
found between reality on the ground and what is said. In my humble opinion, it is necessary to have proper information about the UN documents on migrations through training and information workshops so as to update the contents according to the new realities that we face. This should be addressed to the NGOs, community grassroots organizations, and the migrants’ communities themselves that have to go through those situations. All this has to be enriched with study cases. For example, although people from Cape Verde have already been living in Senegal for two centuries, few Senegalese are able to recall which are the bank holidays of Cape Verde that are historically celebrated in Senegal and gather around 5000 people. They do not know either which is the typical meal of Cape Verde, the unemployment rate of the community, the extent and level of schooling of community members and the sector in which they are more active. Therefore, a socio-economic study on migrant communities would be very important. In a second stage, it would be interesting to see, to which extent integration, particularly, African integration, must take into account the dynamics of integration at grassroot level. African unity should be promoted from the “higher ranks” but also, and, above all, from grassroot communities. Finally, an Integration Secretariat should be formed, to be used as observatory of these policies for all Africa. I think that, at national level, a member of parliament to represent a thousand or million foreign people that live in national territory would make that situation unavoidable. And, on the other hand, it would allow to consider, in a more concrete way, the issue of communities through a harmonious development approach of nations and continent.
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