Cultural Mediation in Ireland. Mayte C. Martín, PhD candidate, School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Ireland.

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1 Mayte C. Martín, PhD candidate, School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Ireland Phone Number: Mayte C. Martín, BA, MA, MSc - is a PhD candidate at the School of Sociology in University College Dublin (Ireland). She works as an independent consultant in diversity and project management. She has extensive experience managing European funded projects aimed at combating discrimination including the Roma Cultural Mediation Project funded under the EQUAL Community Initiative. She has been instrumental in the development of a cultural mediation model for the Irish health sector since She has spoken at conferences and seminars at local, national and European level over the past twelve years. In addition to this, she has participated in publications and academic papers relating to a variety of topics including intercultural communications, cultural mediation, language, interpreting, and minority ethnic communities among others. Previously, Mayte lectured for several years in the School of Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University. Cultural Mediation in Ireland Cultural Mediation was a concept introduced in Ireland in 2002 by the JOIN -Project funded by the European Commission under its Community Action Plan to Combat Discrimination. Lead by Finland, the JOIN project lasted two years, from 2002 to Other partners included Germany and Ireland. With a cross-administrative and horizontal approach, the aim of this initiative was to bring together local authorities and NGOs in order to identify good anti-discriminatory practices. The project sought to develop these practices further and to promote dialogue between discriminated groups and authorities. The JOIN Project targeted different grounds of discrimination including ethnic origin, religion, disability, age and sexual orientation. JOIN

2 specifically drew attention over those cases where people were exposed to multiple discrimination by highlighting the existing similarities in the experiences of different groups. In other words, JOIN, aimed at promoting equality and anti-discrimination through a joint effort regardless of the discrimination ground. In other to do this, the initiative sought to develop new practices and test them. Cultural Mediation was one of these anti-discriminatory practices. The two-year Cultural Mediation project started with a training programme offered to all minorities living in Ireland. The programme consisted of a six-month training period complemented by work placements and working sessions. During those two years, one of the difficulties we experienced was to explain to service providers the contribution that cultural mediation (CM) could make in facilitating the access and usage of services among ethnic minorities. Services providers mistook cultural mediation with some sort of interpreting service. Furthermore, many service providers put the difficulties they were experiencing in communicating with minority groups down to language differences rather than to cultural differences. On the other hand, those service providers who understood the challenges culture brought about were at a loss as to how to get help. While still coordinating the JOIN Project, it was clear that we needed to professionalise and define CM. Unfortunately, projects outside Ireland did not offer much help, in many of them, the roles of the interpreter and the cultural mediators were the same (Martin and Phelan, 2009). This situation was confusing for all parties involved, especially for cultural mediators, whose responsibilities were not clear. Because our participants were working in real cases in the health services, it became imperative for us to define what CM was. We sought to spell out the roles of the cultural mediator and write a code of conduct, which included principles of confidentiality, impartiality and neutrality. A code of practice was and still is important not only to help CM be recognised as a profession but also to protect and guide cultural mediators. In our view, cultural mediators are responsible for the creation of a space of dialogue between service providers and service users so they can establish an effective and respectful relationship (Martin and Phelan, 2009). While they are a valuable resort for service providers, cultural mediators are not supposed to substitute any party or represent any particular interest. Not all service users from a different linguistic background need or wish to have a cultural mediator although they might require interpreters. CM is needed in order to establish a relationship between services providers and users. Once this is done, cultural mediators are redundant whereas interpreters are always required when service users do not speak the same language as service providers. The roles of cultural mediators and interpreters are different but can complement each other. The job of being in the middle is challenging and cultural mediators sometimes need to work under high emotional pressure. As the JOIN project progressed, we realised that it was also important to develop a structure of support for cultural mediators. By

3 the end of the project we had created several guides and protocols for cultural mediation, including guidelines for those service providers seeking to engage cultural mediators. In addition to the need to professionalise CM, the JOIN project also highlighted the difficulties for service providers and NGOs to access particular vulnerable groups. In Ireland one of those groups were the Roma population. Ireland, like other European countries has experienced the arrival of Roma people since the nineties. As in many other countries, in Ireland the lack of data collected on the basis of ethnic origin prevents the estimation of the number of Roma residing in the country. According to a 2005 report (Lesovitch, 2005) it was estimated that there were between 2,500 and 3,000 Roma living in Ireland. The enlargement of the EU to Romania and Bulgaria in January 2007 lead to an increase of migration (Martín and Hibernian Consulting, 2007). Approximately 85% to 90% of the Roma in Ireland come from Romania. Before 2007 many Roma arrived to Ireland as asylum seekers hoping to get refugee status. Some succeeded in obtaining it; others were able to stay in the country as parents of Irish born children. Since January 2007, Roma from Bulgaria and Romania acquired the right to free movement across Europe. While Member States at the time of accession could not impede the freedom of movement among the citizens of those countries; they could impose temporary restrictions to enter the labour market, which Ireland chose to do. Roma as well as any other citizen from Romania and Bulgaria after the year 2007 needed a work permit or be selfemployed (none of the rest of EU members request work permits). They were not entitled to social welfare assistance or to any other social assistance. Although the Irish Government lifted those restrictions in 2012, these measures impacted the Roma particularly because with no accreditation for their skills and high levels of illiteracy, they found it extremely difficult to get work permits. Prejudices and negative stereotypes contribute to further obstruct their integration into the labour market. The first time that the situation of the Roma people in Europe came to the attention of the Irish media was when several families (86 people) camped at a roundabout on the M50 motorway in North Dublin at the beginning of July 2007 (Martín and Hibernian Consulting, 2007). As a result many papers ran articles providing information about the Roma community and their situation in the countries of origin. Unable or unwilling to take any action to assist them, the Irish government opted to repatriate them back to Romania. Even though there is a general lack of information about the socio-economic status of the Roma community living in Ireland, there is some information gathered by different projects. Roma in Ireland, especially those who arrived after 2007, experience great difficulty accessing services (EQUAL Report, 2006). Facing language and cultural barriers, the Roma community often end up in situations of conflict with service providers thus exacerbating prejudices against them (Martín and Hibernian Consulting, 2007; Martín, 2008). The lack of knowledge of the cultural background of the Roma community prevalent among host societies contributes to the misunderstanding and the simplification of their culture and

4 traditions. Their strong patriarchal social structures combined with the pervasiveness of early marriages and the poor attendance of Roma children at school further contributes to the creation of negative stereotypes against them. Even though many might need services, Roma families are reluctant to use them lest they be expelled by the Irish authorities. Some of the problems that the Roma population faced when accessing services were compounded by low level of education, low socio-economic status, lack of trust in services (due to their persecution in the past), lack of understanding of the services in Ireland, and linguistic and cultural differences. While many difficulties were common to what other minorities arriving in Ireland experienced, in the case of the Roma population, they were more pronounced. The second cultural mediation project in Ireland was developed with the financial support of the European Social Fund under its EQUAL Community Initiative Programme. Managed by the Department of Enterprise, EQUAL was meant to operate as a laboratory to test new practices. The Roma Cultural Mediation Project set out to do just that, to pilot a cultural mediation programme for the Roma population. The Roma Cultural Mediation Project (RCMP) aimed at providing Roma people with greater equality of access to health, social, educational and probation services, and the associated benefits that resulted from their use, while in parallel developing appropriate professional skills and intercultural competences among service providers. From the beginning of the project, it was very clear that we needed to strive for the professionalization of cultural mediation not only to convince Irish service providers but also to introduce the service among the Roma community. Cultural mediators, in our programme all women, needed to be seen as professionals to be accepted by the Roma families with which they were working. To pursue formal certification in cultural mediation training was one of the objectives of the new project as a way to encourage its professionalization. However, the time requirements that formal certification demands is often difficult to implement. Roma women have a lot of responsibilities in the home and their free time to devote to courses is limited. In our case, our participants could not commit to the minimum length of time necessary to seek a formal certification. The training was tailored specifically to the Roma population. In a similar way to the JOIN project, the Roma cultural mediators were requested to take work cases as cultural mediators trainees. Within the EQUAL project we tailored many of the protocols and guidelines created under JOIN. We also developed a pilot project for Temple Street hospitals, one of the best known children s hospitals in Ireland. Some of the cases in which the cultural mediators were involved in the Health service included work in foster care, with teenage mothers, cases of domestic violence, providing support for vaccination awareness, and giving assistance in monitoring

5 medical procedures and treatments. Roma cultural mediators also helped to raise awareness about the needs of the Roma population among police and probation officers as well as teachers. Overall it was a very successful project and we gathered valuable feedback from service providers and Roma users1. In 2008 the Equality Authority selected the Roma Cultural Mediation Project to highlight good practice in Ireland. This project was deemed to meet the Living Together criteria2. A comprehensive training programme in CM is paramount to attain a professional status. Their job of being in the middle is challenging. It is for this that cultural mediators need to develop several skills; they need to know how to establish dialogue with people from different cultural backgrounds, to be aware of how culture and other factors can hinder access to services; they need to know services well and how to help others navigate them. They need to be aware of different communication patterns and have mediation and negotiating skills. Furthermore, they need to be trained in a code of practice and how to behave in a professional manner. It is, after all, this professional and unbiased conduct that helps them to be accepted by their communities and service providers. While the JOIN and the EQUAL training programmes contributed significantly to the recognition of CM among Irish service providers, we realised the need to develop other resources, including a code of practice, a protocol for the service, a description of the role of cultural mediators, as well as guidelines for service providers. References: 1. EQUAL Report (2006) Training Roma as Cultural Mediators, %20-%20training%20roma%20as%20cultural%20mediators.pdf 2. Lesovitch, L. (2005) Roma Educational Needs in Ireland: Context and Challenges, City of Dublin VEC in association with Pavee Point Travellers Centre and the Roma Support Group. Dublin: City of Dublin VEC. 3. Martín, M. and Hibernian Consulting (2007) Fitting In: How Cultural Mediation Supports the Integration of the Roma Community in Ireland, Funded under EQUAL Community Initiative. ( 1 For further details of the EQUAL Roma Cultural Mediation Project, please see the publication. 2 Criteria that came from the transnational project "Living Together: European Citizenship against Racism and Xenophobia". This initiative was co-financed by the European Commission, Directorate- General Justice, Freedom, Security-Fundamental Rights and Citizenship EU Programme ( ). This project aimed at the promotion of a European discourse of tolerance, based on the generation of a rationale for harmony and respect, on recognition of differences, and on building European citizenship estranged from any kind of racism and xenophobia (

6 4. Martín, M. (2008) The Roma population in Europe: a brief look at the Situation in Ireland Translocations: Migration and Social Change 4(1): Martín, M. and Phelan, M. (2009) Interpreters and Cultural Mediators - different but complementary roles, Translocations: Migration and Social Change, Peer reviewed, Winter 2010, Volume 6, Issue 1.