This week, Caritas Europa took part in a European Parliament panel discussion ‘Promising practices on how to successfully integrate migrants in Europe’, hosted by the Intergroup Fighting against Poverty on 25 January in Brussels. At the discussion, Caritas presented the main findings of their latest publication ‘Welcome – Migrants make Europe stronger’ and offered examples of successful integration practices that could be up-scaled across Europe.
Caritas Europa said ‘For today’s multicultural Europe, it is essential that migrants have the opportunity for successful integration within their receiving societies and for contributing to these societies’ social, cultural and economic score.’
Caritas offered one example of Mousab Eloudi, now living in Barcelona, Spain, who said, ‘For seven years, I lived here without official papers. Until the day I contacted the social assistance – Caritas. Thanks to them, I started with a training in the hotel business as a waiter. Then I started working at the Princess Hotel. And after that, they contacted me to settle my situation.’
The examples given at the discussion sought to show the importance and usefulness of integration measures such as community sponsorship, aid in finding housing, intercultural exchange and development of labour market opportunities for migrants. Caritas Europa’s Secretary General, Jorge Nuño-Mayer explained ‘These concrete practices could easily be up-scaled on the national level or even expanded across Europe’.
Caritas Europa is a network of 49 member organisations in 46 European countries and one of the 7 regions of Caritas Internationalis. Their members provide services to millions of people in need. Caritas Europa aims at lifting people out of poverty by empowering them and by influencing unjust structures and unfair policies that keep people trapped in positions of disempowerment. Caritas Europa is represented in Ireland by Trócaire. For more information see www.caritas.eu.
