THE NEEDS ANALYSIS: HOST COUNTRIES' CORE INSTITUTIONS. Workpackage 1 of the Step In! project. Dr. Natalija Vrečer

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1 THE NEEDS ANALYSIS: HOST COUNTRIES' CORE INSTITUTIONS Workpackage 1 of the Step In! project Dr. Natalija Vrečer Slovenian Migration Institute, SRC SASA Ljubljana,

2 Introduction This is a report on the needs analysis of host countries' core institutions. The report is done in the scope of the Workpackage 1 of the Step In! project which is a Grundtvig project led by Leibniz University of Hannover. The goal of the project is to develop a comprehensive education strategy in order to promote the social and political participation of migrants. One of the aims of the project is to provide training module for the representatives of host countries core institutions and this report will form an important basis for this training module. In this report we will focus on the needs analysis of host countries' core institutions in Slovenia. Methodology This report is based on the results of 10 interviews with the representatives of core institutions in Slovenia which have a major role in forming policies on integration of migrants. It was envisaged before the beginning of interviews to do interviews with the representatives of 10 institutions, however, in March the right wing Slovenian government started to merge various offices and ministries, as a result some minstries and offices joined so we finally made the interviews with 10 members of 8 institutions. These are the following institutions: the Ministry of the Interior (2 interviews: Sector for Integration, Service for Ethnicities), Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport (2 interviews: Department of Education, Department of Culture), Slovenian Institute for Adult Education, Human Rights Ombudsman, Social Work Centre, Employment Service of Slovenia (Info Point for Migrants), Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs and Municipality of Ljubljana. The interviews were semi-structured and the interpretation is qualitative. They were conducted between and As the representative of the Department of Culture, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport was not available for the

3 interview, she answered our questions in writing. 9 of the interviewees were females and 1 was male. The interviewees were selected according to the following criteria: they were heads of the institutions or they were very well acquainted with the topic of migrants, the needs of their institutions regarding migrants and migrants' needs. Results of interviews Most of interviewees do not come into direct contact with migrants at work, some of them have regular contacts with migrants when they perform their work. Most of the representatives of the larger institutions interviewed do not know how many migrants or people with migrant background are employed at their institutions, because there is no evidence of that, even the human resource offices do not collect that data. Migrants are usually not employed as heads of public institutions, the exception is the Municipality of Ljubljana, where its head: the mayor is a person with migrant background. Another important exception is the Employment Service of Slovenia (Info Point for Migrants), where half of employees are migrants (3 out of 6 employees). The Info Point for Migrants comes into contact with migrants every day, because they get information on employment, education and wider possibilities for integration in this office, so the head of the Info Point for Migrants is aware that it is important that they employ migrants who know other migrants' languages and cultures and they have the experience of migration. This could be considered a best practice in Slovenia, other interviewed institutions do not have any schemes to win migrants as active members. The female representative of the Info Point for Migrants emphasized:»the migrants employed in our organisation are counsellors, because our organisation provides counselling for migrants...we adapt to migrants linguistically and by providing the sharing of the migrant experience, this is a challenge for us as a work method... The Employment Service of Slovenia also employs other members of vulnerable groups such as Roma, blind people etc. In this way our work is more effective, because we more easily approach our clients and offer them our services«.

4 It is difficult for the newcommers to get employed in public institutions in Slovenia, because in order to get employed there, they have to speak the Slovene language and they have to have Slovenian citizenship. In order to get Slovenian citizenship migrants have to live in Slovenia for ten years on the basis of permanent residence. Once they fulfill these two conditions, they can be employed in public institutions on equal footing. However, the research shows that approximately 50% of migrants in Slovenia experienced discrimination at the workplace (Vrečer et al. 2008). The knowledge of the Slovene language, the Slovene citizenship and existing discrimination represent the most frequent barriers that migrants encounter when they wish to be employed at public institutions. While the head of the Info Point for Migrants is aware that it is important to employ migrants in public organisations, some representatives of these institutions do not see any need to employ migrants in their institutions. One of the male interviewees emphasized that in order to encourage the number of migrants employed in public institutions, we would need a European initiative which all member states would need to adopt and implement. He stated:»each country in Europe has its legislation. I have not noticed that the states function inclusively. The fear of people is present against something new, we do not accept what is foreign. If the EU legislation will prepare something, this will be a step further...nowadays everything is left to the national legislations which are exclusionary.«thus according to the interviewee the adoption of the legislation concerning the employment of migrants in public institutions on EU level would most strongly encourage the employment of migrants in public institutions in European Union. At the same time the intervieweed public institutions do not have any equal opportunity policies. One of the female interviewees answered:»in our organisation we do not have a written strategy on employment, however, as a rule all people have equal opportunities in relation with the previously defined demands of the workplace. The language knowledge is important in general, as well as the languages of our target groups which are our clients...«most of the representatives of the interviewed public institutions are of the opinion that civil servants need training in intercultural communication. Some of the interviewees think that only those employees of public institutions who have direct contact with migrants need

5 training in intercultural communication and are not aware that it is important also for all those who design policies on migration, nevertheless, all of us who live in multicultural societies need training in intercultural competencies and intercultural dialogue. The members of only three institutions have in recent years participated in training in this field, the specific themes were intercultural dialogue and discrimination. The interviewees mentioned that the following content would be important to be included in the training in intercultural communication for public employees: intercultural competencies, legal aspects of migrations, the rights of migrants, intercultural dialogue, the exchange of experience of civil servants regarding migrants etc. Conclusion Regarding the employment of migrants in public institutions there seems to be some development in recent years, however, only one out of eight intervieweed institutions intentionally employs migrants, namely half of its employees are migrants. It is especially difficult for the newcommers to be employed in public institutions, because the main barriers to their employment are the knowledge of the Slovene language, the Slovene citizenship and discrimination they sometimes face. The period for acquiring the Slovene citizenship is very long: ten years and thus migrants have to wait long before they can get employed in public institutions. It is characteristic that Slovenian public institutions do not have equal opportunity policies and this needs to be improved. Although many civil servants are aware that they need training in intercultural communication, there are still some who think that only those public employees who have direct contact with migrants need such training and not all policy makers who design integration policies of migrants. References Vrečer, Natalija; Možina, Ester, Žalec, Natalija; Svetina, Metka, Ziherl, Teja (2008). Education and Training of Migrants in Slovenia. A research report. Ljubljana: Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (in Slovene).

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