The 18th June, the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela hosted the development of two conferences in the framework of the Integration Week. The first conference was focused on Geopolitics and Environmental Refugees and delivered by the Professor of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, José Julio Fernández Rodríguez. This presentation was followed by the conference given by the Dr Miguel Ángel Iglesias Blanco, Captain of the Guardia Civil (Military Gard) and Chief of the Health Care Service of Lugo’s headquarters, with the title of Health Interventions in humanitarian rescue missions in Frontex.
The working meeting of UNINTEGRA project, dealing with the Work Package 1 (Development of a protocol of validation of academic competences and credentials of third country nationals) and Work Package 2 (Raising awareness of the academic and local community and facilitating integration of third country nationals through their interaction and feedback in the hosting society) was held in the premises of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela coinciding with the celebration of the Integration Week. The participants, coming to Santiago from Universidade do Minho and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, discussed the main results achieved so far within this project and agreed the schedule of the next steps of the project implementation putting special emphasis on dissemination and capitalization of results of this initiative. The attendees had also the opportunity to do a guided visit to the Exhibition “People”, included in the Integration Week and becoming a key activity addressed to raise awareness of the local community about the refugees’ situation.
The University of Santiago de Compostela hosted yesterday, June 13, the round table "Meeting" in which Suelma Beiruk, President of the Sahrawi Group in the African Parliament; Fadile Tibisay, responsible of SAWT - Syrian-Galician association in favour of the Syrian refugees in Galicia- and Katherin A. Belgrave, asylum-seeker from Venezuela shared with the public their direct experience as refugees, asylum seekers, with the aim of giving visibility to their specific problems and exploring cooperation prospects for their integration of the refugee population in their host communities. Their testimony was addressed to create a scenario for reflection raising awareness of the local population and searching for feedback and real actions that will contribute to alleviate the situation of the refugee population and provide the right conditions for integration and inclusion.
In the framework of UNINTEGRA project, the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, in collaboration with the Local Council of Santiago de Compostela, organises an Integration Week in Santiago from 12th to 21st June 2019. This event includes activities addressed to raise awareness of the local community about the difficult situation and the needs and circumstances linked to the integration of refugees in the host society. The activities programmed will bring the specific reality of the refugees closer to the host community contributing to removing stereotypes and to promoting mutual understanding and new perspectives to address the integration of third-country nationals.
The one day 2nd International Conference organized by the Laboratory of Communication & Media Psychology of the Department of Communication & Media Studies of the NKUA in collaboration with the ACSAR Foundation in the context of the UNINTEGRA project was attended by more than 80 regional participants. Representatives from Greek, Catalan and other European institutions operating in the field with refugees in Greece delivered presentations sharing institutional practices and experiences such as: the educational approach of the City of Athens under the Accommodation Scheme for Asylum Seekers and Beneficiaries of International Protection; the “Sky School” model to support the high school integration for young refugees; the educational programme of the American College in Greece for refugees willing to access higher education; the first newspaper in Greece made by refugee girls and boys aspiring to become journalists (an initiative supported by the Network for Children’s rights); other reflections on the economic benefits and constrains of the refugee and migrant integration policy in Greece and on the challenges of working in transit country, as well as glimpses on work in progress from the UNINTEGRA project (WP1, WP2, WP3, WP4 and WP6).
