Comments

Dear all,

I am sharing with you the last comments that have arrived in relation to theme 2, Migration, so that later today we can start with our third theme, very relevant and very much linked to the two previous ones, Poverty, Work, Education and Gender.
We take the opportunity to thank Carmen Colazo who from Argentina sent comments to the document by Fanny Gomez, and also Fernanda Ramos d´Almeida from Dakar, Inayatullah from Pakistan and Sofia Valdivielso from the Canary Islands.

Please remember that you can find all documents, comments and contributions in our webiste: www.icae.org.uy in French, English and Spanish. Contributions that were received once the theme is finalised, are only included in the seminar in their original language and the translations can be found in the website. Some texts take longer to be posted in the website due to the time needed for translations. This is the case of the documents sent in message number 11. We also received a contribution from Rashid Aderonoye from NNCAE, for Theme 1 called "Making the needs of the countries with huge population of illiterates the heart of Confintea VI: a call from Nigeria" that can also be found in the website in the three laguages
Thanks to all,

Cecilia Fernández

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear colleagues,

This excellent contribution from Fanny makes me remember, besides, the migration of Latin American highly qualified young and adults towards more developed countries (there are interesting studies on "brain drain" made, for instance, by Oscar Del Alamo, form the International Institute of Governance of Catalonia, Spain).

These losses are impossible to recover for our countries, and the implications in the future of many nations will be huge (the cases of Ecuador and Colombia are paradigmatic). Even more when our Ministries of Education repatriation programmes do not consider, in many cases, people who have emigrated and work on Social Sciences in other latitudes, but mainly those who work on the so called "hard sciences" and the new technologies (besides, they do not have many incentives for these returns). Recently, in Cordoba, Argentina, we tried to repatriate a researcher who works on social discourse and gender, who resides in Europe and would like to return, but he is not sure about it. The answer from the university policies area of the Ministry of Education of the Nation was that by the time, the Repatriation Programme seeks to recover those who work mainly on the technological area. On the other hand, we don't have enough follow-up on the social projection these people achieve, according to their educational level, in their countries of reception, or their possibilities there to continue their studies and expertise, or the changes they are subject to in their lives and families.
The range of sub themes in terms of migrations is open. even more if we approach them from gender equity.
 

Kind regards.

 

The integration of migrants is a moral imperative for the receiving countries. I think that nowadays this is very clear. It is also clear that integration takes place at different levels. A first level tries to guarantee the basic human right rights, such as the access to housing, work, health and education. These basic rights must be guaranteed by the governments of the receiving countries ad this should be done by putting in pace public policies. I think that at this level we all agree. But if we only do this, what we are doing is not integration but accommodation. Through accommodation we share the same physical space but there is no cultural exchange. Respect to the cultural rights implies a dialogue between the culture of the receiving country and the culture of the country of the migrants, and this dialogue implies to necessarily make explicit what unites us and what separates us. We cannot just go on talking about rights, it is necessary also to talk about the responsibilities of all parts.

Very interesting analysis have emerged in the last years by migrant women who have been educated in Europe. (In France: Fadela Amara: Neither bitch nor submissive. In Germany: Necla Kelec: The Unknown Bride: A report from inside Turkish Life in Germany).  In these publications they present the dilemmas they are faced with as a result of having been educated in a cultural system that on many occasions I in contradiction with their families cultural systems. They denounced that the wrong understanding of respect for difference leads to a situation of cultural relativism where everything is accepted and everything is allowed. They demand from the state powers that they ban certain cultural practices that impinge on their basic rights and that they establish some limits that guarantee their rights in equal conditions to those of the women from the receiving countries. They denounce that this cultural relativism is producing a double standard to measure conducts that are seen as criminal for the people of the receiving country but not for the migrants, as they are seen as affirming their cultural identity.

These cultural practices infringe on the rights of women and girls (they cannot go out alone into the streets, cannot practice sports, cannot take baths in public spaces, cannot talk to strangers if they are not accompanied by a man of the family, cannot decide who they are going to marry, etc.). These practices are always present in all those cultures that continue to have a patriarchal structure; they are not specific to one culture but to a social system based in the subordination of women and girls. Men dress up like the men in the receiving country; women must continue to be covered because the men believe this is cultural. Culture in these cases becomes a burden that is difficult to carry for women because they are assigned the responsibility to maintain the cultural routes of the whole family system.

To establish the debate around difference is to establish a false debate, because differences are a given fact. The debate must be established around inequality. To do it from this perspective will enable us to make visible what up to now is invisible and will help us to become conscious of the fact that differences are respectable and inequality is unacceptable.

 

 

 

 

Hello to everyone,

In the first place, I would like to thank ICAE for this great initiative that has enabled an exchange on the theme of migrations with its multidimensional and cross-cutting approaches; I would like to propose, if it has not been already done, that ICAE, through the different contributions and proposals done from now up to CONFINTEA can have a document with the concrete proposals on the theme to submit in CONFINTEA VI, on the basis of the proposals by continent, having as a guiding thread the fact of taking more into account the migrants’ needs, a strategic and operational document-programme and a waybill to implement the recommendations of the civil society’s meeting.

To propose to CONFINTEA VI (civil society, institutions, decision-makers) I suggest that an African group works on the theme on the basis of a common questionnaire or having specific axes (women, youth, urban/rural, poverty, human rights, etc.). I am ready to send proposals on the different themes or sectors or axes of very concrete contribution that would feed the plan/programme from a strategic and operational point of view.
 

 

Fernanda


 

 

 

Many of those who migrate from the Third World, mostly because of poverty and for better life, are illiterate or inadequately informed.As a matter of policy, govt ministries and depatments hendling the cases of such people going abroad, should provide opportunities/guidelines to inform prospectives migrants, regarding essentials about the travel requirements and to familiarise them with some of the laws, rules and conditiuons in the countries they are to go.
Some of the NGO's too could perhaps cooperate with govt in this behalf.
I would like to know if some such facilities are already available in any of the countries.