Second European Conference of Trade Union Services for Migrants
15-16 June 2015 Brussels
REPORT
This conference was organised by ETUC to expose the results accomplished by the network of Union Migrant Net, and to discuss its future. Union Migrant Net is a social on-line platform created by ETUC to assist migrants from everywhere who are willing to settle in a European country. It is a network of contact points for migrants established, managed and supported by trade unions across Europe. These contact points support migrants by delivering crucial information to start off their journey and then to integrate migrants in their host society. Hence, the main aim of Union Migrant Net is to support fair labour mobility. For EPSU, Christine Jakob and Morgane Le Guet participated to the conference.
The UnionMigrantNet network is the main output of the project “ETUC A4I – ETUC Initiative to Implement a European Network of Assistance for Integration of Migrant Workers and their Families”. The project, co-financed by the European Integration Fund of DG Home Affairs started in December 2013 and will end in July 2015. In this perspective, as the final step, the Second European Conference of Trade Union Services for Migrants was to discuss migration, anti-discrimination and the integration of migrants in society, at the workplace or through collective bargaining.
Since the economic crisis kicking off in 2008 social dumping and low wages particularly affect migrant workers, there is an increase of illegal conditions for migrants in a number of European countries and the number of asylum seekers is steadily on the increase. Combined with austerity the integration of migrants, asylum seekers and migrant workers is hence increasingly difficult. So trade unions e.g. in Greece, Italy and Spain have developed specific approaches in support of working migrants and refugees in their effort for equal exercise of their labour and social rights, with e.g. specific approaches on women, victims of human trafficking, domestic workers and Second Generation. The Greek General Confederation of Labour, CGIL and UGT have developed such support to migrant workers. The Dublin convention was mentioned as a problematic instrument as it cannot work on the basis of a conclusive presumption that asylum seeker’s fundamental rights in each Member State will be observed. Member States will have to ensure that they apply the Dublin Regulation in a manner which respects the fundamental rights of refugees.
Moreover, the discussions pointed out concerns of trade unions regarding the lack of European action to deal with the worrying situation of many migrants. Today, migrants, document or undocumented, are the main victims of exploitation and unequal treatments. Luca Visentini, the Confederal Secretary of ETUC, explained that this situation brings competition between regular and irregular workers which does not only affect migrants but also companies and public budgets. Yet, as stressed by Laura Corrado, head of the Unit Legal Migration and Integration at the European Commission, even if migration is a newly brought topic on the European Agenda, it is crucial to take into account the public opinion to create policies. In this respect, speakers denounced the negative political discourse delivered at national levels about migrants. Many participants gave several examples of widely spread stereotypes which strengthen xenophobia and discriminations, and which have to be counterattacked. Therefore, all participants agreed on the strong need to develop a positive discourse on migrations to emphasise its economic, social and cultural benefits to the European States.
In this regard, most speakers underlined the positive impact of ICT tools such as UnionMigrantNet to change the perspective on migrants. The workshop “Building quality services for migrants” brought several examples of the use of ICT tools to deliver informational, accompanying and inclusion services dedicated to migrants. Migreat.com is an online-application to help immigrants to prepare their arrival and to integrate once arrived. Camelot is a remote mediation service dedicated to migrants based on a connected platform, implemented within a municipality in the region of Emilia Romania. Both projects brought much satisfaction and respond to a growing demand from migrants, who struggle to navigate through highly complex legal systems. However, a main obstacle is to assure the sustainability of these projects. Indeed, the authorities in charge of such tools need to possess adequate facilities and skills to make a proper use of them. Beyond that, it is the problem of funding which was addressed. Indeed, within the current economic and political context, governments are willing to finance control policies but not supporting policies. Therefore, many initiatives of this kind are often completely dependent of European funds, which are time-limited. The same concerns on financial sustainability were raised regarding UnionMigrantNet.
At this step, the question of responsibility was raised. Thus, many participants stressed the importance of connecting the accompanying work toward migrants to the work accomplished by trade unions. The director of the International Labour Organization insisted on the role of trade unions to take part of this responsibility. Others mentioned the social responsibility of enterprises, when the representative of the BDA (Confederation of German Employers’ Associations) insisted on the fact that it is not the responsibility of employers to transfer from undocumented people to documented people, but of the States. This statement made echo to the denunciations of the hypocrisy of some Member States in avoiding to involve further on the issue of migration. Laura Corrado explained that dialogue with Member States on such a sensitive point remains delicate, whereas all speaker agreed on the lack of solidarity among European States to tackle the issue of migration.
Therefore, the participants asked for a joint European action to create a regularisation program in order to give legal rights, statuses and recognition to migrant workers. Trade unions also asked for the set-up of a long term objective for the end of irregular work in European Union. The director of ILO also proposed a framework for this European action based on the realisation of 3 points; a EU free from labour exploitation, a EU which promotes equality and equity, and a EU which invests in its people.
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