|
|
|
Migration and integration as challenges for adult education: Timothy Ireland UNESCO Brasilia
The debate on migration and integration is proving very thought
provoking and, in many cases, disturbing. How do we face this
phenomenon from the educational perspective? Should the objective be
to integrate or accommodate? Education has always had difficulty in
coming to terms with diversity but is there a point when the
richness of social and cultural diversity can threaten fragmentation?
There are of course no easy answers and this is the enormous value
of the ICAE virtual seminar. In many cases we are challenged to face
themes which we considered not to affect us directly.
Migration, both voluntary and forced, is part and parcel of Brazil’s
rich history and of its social and cultural fabric. Initial
colonisation by the Portuguese, the introduction of slavery and then
distinct waves of Japanese and European immigration are all part of
its past and present with the complexities and consequences which
this heritage has imprinted. Education has to recognise, valorise
and incorporate this rich diversity into its curricula and teaching
contents and methods. The challenge of understanding and exploring
diversity as a highly positive dimension of national culture has not
always been recognised. Japanese and German immigrants suffered
fierce discrimination in the wake of the Second World War and the
indigenous population over 180 different ethnic groups- continue
to be discriminated.
Only recently has African history and culture become an obligatory
part of the school curricula amid resistance.
At the same time, Brazil has a rich and cruel history of internal
migrations mainly involving those in search of a better life, of
survival for those fleeing from drought and adverse environmental
conditions or for those expelled from their land by the construction
of hydroelectric dams.
I thought it might be useful to give just a few examples of how the
question of migration both temporary, internal and forced have
been faced by those involved in adult education in Brazil.
1. Temporary migration to Japan especially by descendents of
original Japanese immigrants has lead the Brazilian Ministry of
Education to promote the holding of adult education equivalency
school exams at primary and secondary levels for those working in
Japan many of whom have not concluded the obligatory 8 years of
Brazilian primary education. This is seen as a way of encouraging
workers to complete their formal schooling and as a way of preparing
for their re-entry into the Brazilian labour market. There has been
analogous pressure from Brazilians working in Switzerland and
particularly the USA for similar provision. The Brazilian foreign
office calculates that there are around 1.3 million Brazilians
living mostly illegally in the States at present. With the present
recession in the States there is now a steady flow of migrants
returning to Brazil.
2. Internal migration: this has been traditionally very strong
particularly with workers from the poorer north-eastern region
migrating on a permanent or temporary basis to the wealthier regions
of the south-east particularly to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and
Brasília. This migration has been largely composed of manual workers
with low levels of formal schooling. The building industry has
attracted a large number of low-skilled workers and agriculture a
large number of seasonal workers (sugar-cane cutters, orange pickers
and others). Migrant workers have been subject to strong
discrimination both linked to their origin and to their lack of
formal schooling. The temporary
nature of their links with their place of work has created enormous
challenges for those attempting to offer literacy and basic
education
programmes. Answers have included programmes which offer education
in classrooms set up on building sites, for example, or which follow
the migratory movements of workers or attempt to gear the length and
contents of programmes to the duration of the harvest. The Catholic
Church set up a Pastoral Movement for Migrants which also seeks to
provide support.
3. Forced immigration: although a small and perhaps insignificant
community in proportional terms the foreign prison population
presents another type of educational challenge. The numbers of
foreigners in Brazilian prisons has grown considerably in recent
years. A large number have been involved in drug trafficking and
many have relatively high levels of formal schooling. I recently
learnt of the existence of a prison in the State of São Paulo with
more than a thousand foreigners who had set up their own forms of
educational exchange including language classes and others. In the
year in which UNESCO is holding the first international conference
on education in prison - CIEP (Brussels, 20-24th October), this is
not a new but an important emerging field of practice for adult
education.
MIGRATION / EDUCATION NDèye Daro FALL
ANAFA - DAKAR
The migration of women is far from being a recent phenomenon. Since
1960, women have represented 47% of the migrants total. Nevertheless,
these migrant women have been invisible until now data by sex was
not available and also because most migrant women were not
considered workers but dependant persons and were not taken into
account for migratory policy purposes in the countries of origin and
destination.
But now, due to demanding daily life, migrant women participation has changed. There are increasing numbers of young women looking for jobs that live alone or are heads of families. Nowadays women tend to migrate for the same reasons that men do: better living conditions for them and their families.
In the education field most migrant women have some level of
education, and many of them have a superior education diploma, even
in the cases that women are relegated to less paid jobs, usually
from the services sector (servants, hotels, persons care) or the
informal sector. They often do dangerous, unpleasant and degrading
jobs.
In general, these jobs do not offer either social status or social
protection. Usually, this happens because they do not have residence
or work permits, but also reflects the discrimination migrant women
suffer in the job market.
|