Young People with Migrant Parents
Making Integration Work, volume 4
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
“The OECD series Making Integration Work summarises, in a non-technical way, the main issues surrounding the integration of immigrants and their children into their host countries. Each volume presents concrete policy lessons for its theme, along with supporting examples of good practices and comparisons of the migrant integration policy frameworks in different OECD countries. This fourth volume explores the integration of young people with migrant parents, a diverse and growing cohort of youth in the OECD area.”
International
Migrant talk: IOM Glossary on migration
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has released a Glossary on Migration. The first forward in the almost 300-page document offers a succinct rationale for the glossary:
“Effective cooperation among relevant actors is probably more important in the migration field than in any other policy areas. Not only do States sometimes speak different languages when dealing with migration, but also actors within the same State often use an inconsistent vocabulary. Variations in the use of terms are also common depending on the person’s field of work.
“International law contributes to create some common denominators, through the definitions provided by international instruments that are binding on the States that are parties to them. Among the most significant examples are the definition of a refugee in the 1951 Refugee Convention or the ones contained in the two Protocols on Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crimes. Transnational cooperation would never be effective without a common understanding of the elements of the crimes prosecutors are responsible to fight, and burden?sharing could never become a reality without the commitment of many States to protect those who flee persecution.
“In other instances, States have pushed for a more humane approach to migration by calling on the international community to put an end to the use of dehumanizing terms associated with migration, such as “illegal migrants”, in favour of the more neutral attribute of “migrants in an irregular situation”. And these types of shift in the use of terminology are not only for the sake of political correctness but also to contribute to shaping the perception that we have of migration realities. The rise in the use of negative or alarmist terms in recent public discourse around the world have similarly impacted, although negatively in this case, the way migrants are perceived.
“At the time of releasing this Glossary, the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration has sparked renewed attention to migration realities. It is thus a critical moment to try to contribute to the consolidation of not only a uniform but also a correct and balanced approach to migration terminology”.
Regrettably, the glossary uses some outdated terminology that can be seen as stigmatizing. i.e., “acquisition of nationality”
“Any mode of becoming a national, i.e. by birth or at any time after birth, automatic or non?automatic, based on attribution, declaration, option or application.
Source: European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship, The EUDO Glossary on Citizenship and Nationality (2008–2016).
Note: The acquisition of nationality can occur at birth or after birth. The most common modes of acquisition of nationality at birth are the acquisition based on descent (jus sanguinis) or based on birth on the territory of the State concerned (jus soli). Nationality can also be acquired after birth for example by adoption, legitimation of a child born out of wedlock, marriage, naturalization or as the result of the ceding of territory from one State to another.
The glossary also uses he/him/his (sigh). But kudos for this explanation of the term adoption which clearly and correctly states how the process removes a child’s rights:
“adoption
“The statutory process of terminating a child’s legal rights and duties toward the natural parents and substituting similar rights and duties toward adoptive parents”.
Source: B.A. Garner (ed), Black’s Law Dictionary (10th edition, Westlaw, 2014).
Note: The Declaration on Social and Legal Principles relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children, with Special Reference to Foster Placement and Adoption Nationally and Internationally (UNGA Res 41/85 (3 December 1986)) set forth a number of commonly agreed principles and guidelines to ensure the protection of children in relation to national and inter?country adoptions.
The IOMs approach to talking about irregular migration also merits a shout out :
“Although a universally accepted definition of irregular migration does not exist, the term is generally used to identify persons moving outside regular migration channels. The fact that they migrate irregularly does not relieve States from the obligation to protect their rights. Moreover, categories of migrants who may not have any other choice but to use irregular migration channels can also include refugees, victims of trafficking, or unaccompanied migrant children. The fact that they use irregular migration pathways does not imply that States are not, in some circumstances, obliged to provide them with some forms of protection under international law, including access to international protection for asylum seekers fleeing persecution, conflicts or generalized violence. In addition, refugees are protected under international law against being penalized for unauthorized entry or stay if they have travelled from a place where they were at risk”.
Other terms in the glossary with interesting definitions include:
- assimilation
- asylum seeker
- border management
- build back better
- climate migration
- cultural diversity
- cultural pluralism
- economic migrant
- environmental migrant
- family reunification
- family unity (right to)
- healthy migrant effect
- humanity (principle of)
- integration
- migrant
- multiculturalism
- safe third country
- social cohesion
- social inclusion
UNHCRs Dream Diaries: Stories of refugee children
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) project, The Dream Diaries tells the stories of refugee children from Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and captures their struggles and their aspirations for their new futures. Inspiring and beautifully filmed, this series is important in gaining an understanding of some of what refugee children and youth experience.
Migration Matters
Migration Matters is a European non-profit with a mission to “empower the public to have more nuanced and evidence-based conversations about migration”. Migration Matters “produces bite-sized video courses that complicate commonly held preconceptions with original ideas, research, and solutions-oriented perspectives from leading thinkers in the field: researchers, practitioners, as well as migrants and refugees themselves”.
immigrantchildren.ca is pleased to promote its work and encourages you to take their course “Rethinking Us and Them: Integration and Diversity in Europe“. The course examines Germany and Canada and their efforts in integrating migrants. The course is a series of accessible and informative videos that challenges misconceptions and invites viewers to rethink us and them. Good stuff!
July 30th ~ World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
Sunday July 30th is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons ~ a few links with information, resources, and how you can help, with a special focus on the campaign of Save The Children
Save the Children
“Child trafficking is a crime that exploits girls and boys for numerous purposes including forced labor and sex. Because child trafficking is lucrative and often linked with criminal activity and corruption, it is hard to estimate how many children suffer, but trafficking and exploitation is an increasing risk to children around the world. When human trafficking occurs, children are often trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation or for labor such as domestic servitude, agricultural work, factory work, mining or are forced to fight in conflicts”.
Some facts:
- Human trafficking is a crime that exploits children.
- Every country in the world is affected by human trafficking.
- 98% of sexually abused survivors are women and children.
- 168 million children are victims of forced labor.
Join Save the Children’s campaign to end girl child trafficking #ShesNotForSale
International Organization for Migration
“IOM works with governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, and other UN agencies to protect victims of trafficking and associated forms of exploitation and abuse; to prevent such abuses from occurring; and to support the development and implementation of policies aimed at the prevention and prosecution of these crimes and the protection of victims”. #EndHumanTrafficking
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
“On the 2017 World Day against Trafficking in Persons, UNODC calls on all to ‘act to protect and assist trafficked persons’. This topic highlights one of the most pressing issues of our time — the large mixed migration movements of refugees and migrants. The theme puts the spotlight on the significant impact of conflict and natural disasters, as well as the resultant, multiple risks of human trafficking that many people face. It addresses the key issue concerning trafficking responses: that most people are never identified as trafficking victims and therefore cannot access most of the assistance or protection provided”.
You can help! On July 30th, support a 24-hour crowd-funding campaign: United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking
The New Yorker photo essay: Giving birth in different worlds
From The New Yorker:
“The photographs in the series “Hundred Times the Difference,” by the photographer Moa Karlberg, capture, in closeup, the faces of women in the final stages of giving birth. Across the images, there is a range of expressions: grit and sensuality, trepidation and expectation, pain and elation. But in their intimate perspective the photographs emphasize the women’s shared experience—the inward focus and physical determination in their final, transformative moments of becoming mothers”.
Documentary in development: The Deportation of innocence
The documentary includes testimonies from lawyers, social workers, academics and who have firsthand knowledge and insight into the hardship of family separation and the challenges of reunification.
The documentary is complete, but producers have turned to crowd-funding to get this documentary out.
Kids in Doug Saunders' Arrival City ~ The CityBuilder 2015 BookClub
Are you participating in the online CityBuilder BookClub about Doug Saunders‘ Arrival City? Interested in migrant child and family issues? Here’s the pages where children/children’s issues are mentioned, in the First Vintage Books paperback edition, April 2012 (ISBN: 978-0-307-38856-8):
child care ~ 16, 52, 110, 227, 238, 284, 405
child labor ~ 142, 153, 154
second generation ~ 33-34, 35, 51, 55, 68-69, 82, 127, 168, 172, 173, 184, 268-69, 272, 273, 277-78, 279, 284, 285, 290-92, 293, 196-97, 301, 320
The book club starts Jan 13th. Happy reading!
Children and toys around the world
Check out Gabriele Galimberti’s collection of photographs of children around the world and their toys.
From the website:
“Yet even children worlds apart share similarities when it comes to the function their toys serve. Galimberti talks about meeting a six-year-old boy in Texas an a four-year-old girl in Malawi who both maintained their plastic dinosaurs would protect them from the dangers they believed waited for them at night – from kidnappers and poisonous animals respectively. More common was how the toys reflected the world each child was born into: so the girl from an affluent Mumbai family loves Monopoly, because she likes the idea of building houses and hotels, while the boy from rural Mexico loves trucks, because he seems them rumbling through his village to the nearby sugar plantation every day”.