The Diocesan Charity Nitra: Report from study trip to Norway

Transcription

1 The Diocesan Charity Nitra: Report from study trip to Norway About project From February to March 2016 Nitra Diocesan Charity realised the project supported by Bilateral Fund of EEA and Norway grants called Transfer of Experiences in Refugees Integration Process. Our Norwegian partner was Caritas Norway. The main activity was the study trip of 6 people to Norway for 4 days. The trip was realised from 14th to 17th Starting points From the end of the year 2015 Slovakia has realised the greatest saving project of refugees or IDP (internally displaced person) in its history. The main coordinator and initiator of this project is non-profit organization Pokoj a dobro (Peace and Good) with strong support of Bishopric Nitra and Ministry of Interior of the Slovak republic. In the first period project consider a saving of group of 149 Iraqians. These 25 families were already displaced from refugee camp in Kurdish Erbil to Slovakia on December 10th After obligatory asylum procedures it will start the integration process of these people. This process will be managed and coordinated by Nitra Diocesan Charity as a partner in the project. The project "Nové Ninive" (Slovakian translation for New Niniveh - as a metaphor for building a new place for the people, who had to escape the plains near the cities Mosul and Karakosh) is a unique for Slovakia. Not only because our country accepted in the last years very few of the refugees coming from the Middle East, but also because it is a cooperation between an NGO, the Church, the state structures and international donors.

2 Our partner Caritas Norway Caritas Norway is the development and relief organisation of the Catholic Church. Caritas Norway was established in 1952 as Norwegian Catholic Help for Refugees. The primary objectives of Caritas Norway are to support programmes in poor countries within the areas of development co-operation, human rights, peace- and reconciliation work and emergency relief. Domestically, the most important role is to aid the parishes in the development of welfare work for refugees, immigrants, children and the elderly. Caritas Norway like other NGOs is supplementary organisation to the main governmental services in this area. We have learned personal experiences valuable to our services, protection of staff toward burning. People we met in Caritas Norway (secretary general, deputy and project managers) has real interest to cooperate with our organisation. Both parties will look for real possibilities for further exchange of information and experiences as well other funding of common projects. In Oslo they are running Information centre for labour immigrants where is possible to receive information and advice in areas: Housing how the rental market functions how to get a place to stay while you are looking for work. Rules regarding rental apartments and where to get advice. Work how the labour market functions how to use NAV and recruitment agencies, CV help, photo copy facilities etc. Legal aspects of labour contract and of the workplace and who can help. Residency/work/family reunification permits about UDI and online registration. Health services how to access them. Social/emergency help who can help. Legal aid who can help. Where to learn Norwegian training courses by public and voluntary organisations. Cultural events. Help to understand official documents/papers.

3 Experiences in integration process During our visit of Caritas Norway in Oslo we have learned that there is a Centre run by Caritas in the centre of Oslo as a place for first contact and also a place, where advices about the Labour market in Norway can be discussed with the employees of Caritas. The main goal of the work done in the centre for the migrants (including refugees, but also labour immigrants) is to provide the present status of the labour possibilities, how to search and apply for a job using the website of Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, also lawyers working for Caritas on the voluntary basis are present during some period of the opening hours, so different aspect of the labour law can be explained. There is also a place to prepare your CV guided by the help of Caritas workers, photo copy services and of course more PCs are available. I understood that very important is to show the directions to the clients to specific type of organisation, that suits the actual needs of the client. As the best example of a good practice, which will be a huge help for asylum seekers and migrants in Slovakia I recognize the web navigation of NAV with all the documents about work, job seeking, forms, applications, explanations of the benefits in one place and shows how the quality of being clear is important in the field for future employment of the migrants. The thing, that makes the difference between Slovakia and Norway which regards the integration process is the level of organisation, it is given by the integration plan, that only after the mandatory 300 hours of Norwegian language a person with asylum is entering the program of kind of practice / apprentice in a company guided by job trainer, who is helping in the process of adaptation to the requests and the rhythm of work expected by Norwegian employers. How we say here, this is the "Music of the Future" for Slovakia and our clients. We have got information how systematically is work with coming refuges step by step - from Reception Centre to own accommodation... Benefit and helpful was visit one of the Reception Centre near Oslo. We visited accommodations facilities, rooms, nurse room, offices, school, canteen, we met director, stuff and children as well. We should visit another Centre - Integration Centre, but because of unexpected circumstances we had to change our plans and we visited Information Centre in Charity. Because the system in our project is a little bit different than in Norway, we had to focus on system, structure, no exactly work. For example in Norway is high percentage of children, which came there by themselves. In our project we have

4 whole families in relations with another coming families. But very helpful was to hear about locations, standards and system of allocating accommodation. Even we visited just one Centre for children because of less time, based on the obtained information we can claim, that this business trip was successful. In the future we would like to visit another Centres, what should be benefit for our project. Each country has some special cases, special systems, should be benefit to continue with changing of information between co-workers in Slovakia and co-workers in Norway. The situation in refugee integration in Norway is absolutely different from Slovakia history, numbers, integration system etc. But areas of refugee integration are similar. The pillars of integration process are inter-cultural education, language education, health and social caring, housing, education, employment, recreation. Norway has a great model of cooperation of all sectors in integration process. There is great cooperation between government, municipalities and third sector: governmental organisations UDI and IMDi, and non-governmental UNE, NOAS, NRC, Caritas etc. In Slovakia there is Migration office of Ministry of Interiors as directorate of administration of asylum process. But the most part of integration is on non-governmental organizations (Caritas Slovakia, IOM, HRL, CVEK etc.). The most regarding difference is in sphere of housing. In Norway there is a great system of it with main role of local authorities. On the other hand in Slovakia it is the most problematic part of integration. Everything is on asylum seeker to find the some accommodation. In Norway 90% of all expenses for refugees are paid by Norway s government. The Norway and Slovakia social benefits for refugees cannot be compared since the economies of these two countries differ too much. For example, the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion has a budget of 500 mill. euro and is directly tied to migration and integration of refugees in Norway. There are multiple offices required in the process of integration these include Office of diversity and inclusion, Ministry of health and Care Services as well as local governments that provide support in social services and accommodation. A big role in the integration of refugees is played by volunteers and non-government organizations. Thanks to them public image of refugees with different culture is more positive than the one in Slovakia. Slovakia is amongst the countries with the lowest number of refugees per capita in the European Union.

5 School system in Norway is similar in some areas as school system in Slovakia. Children up to five years of age may attend pre-school day care - it is a voluntary service - there stay children while their parents are at work. Education for children between the ages of 6 and 15 is compulsory. It is divided into primary school ages 6-12 and lower secondary school age Pupils in 110 grade can to have homework assistance. Pupils in primary and secondary school and upper secondary school are entitled to special tuition in the Norwegian language. Some supporting assistance systems are very stimulating: Family counselling services - the purpose is to help with difficult issues and family conflicts. They also offer various courses and group relating to family. Child welfare services - to help children in difficult situation. Mediation for couples with children under 16 when they separate..and others. Inspiring example for a good practice which can be help with integration into society: - good adjusted system of work with refugees and asylum seekers - well structured system of informations (web, manuals, guide books) -it is keeping to self-activity and independence - supporting system - to learn language of country, where they live, lot of type of assistance In Norway there is the prior accent on language training and introduction programme. Although final purpose is to lead asylum seekers to independence conditioned by finding a good job, the strong relevance for increasing integration ability of asylum seekers is rightly in language and social skills. This study trip showed us that we should follow Norway s example and keep our clients occupied. They should have a program planned for their free time and should meet new volunteers so they won t be passive. This will help them to create new social ties and communicate more in the Slovak language. Future expectations All experiences we could use in integration programmes in Slovakia. In our project New Niniveh we are on beginning of integration of 150 Iraqis. It is the biggest project in Slovakia and it is great challenge. We created and started course of Slovak language, that requires continuous customization and improving. We like to inspire by Norwegian Introduction programme, language

6 learning, system of job counselling a many others. But we will need more information and more time to see and know. Our integration process has started in March In next months we will probably have also some interesting experiences for Norwegian partners. But certainly we will have more and deeper questions. So we like to continue in partnership with Caritas Norway and maybe also with other Norwegian organizations from integration area. The list of concrete expecting steps for future: 1. Increasing of extend of cooperation We would like to discuss with Caritas Norway about another common project. Supposed date: VI. - VII./ Creating of formal partnership As a part of another common project could be a memorandum about cooperation or partnership agreement. Supposed date: IX.- XI./ Shared results It will consider of sharing of knowledge, experiences, solutions, contacts, information, working together for joint results (development of new knowledge or practice). On the end of the year 2016 we will have the first relevant results from integration process and we will like to share them with partner. Supposed date: III.-IV. Q/ Joint Initiatives joint solutions of problems, cooperation in strategic planning. It will depend on our expert development and on relevant opportunities. Supposed date: