With Italy having taken over presidency of the European Union (EU) until December 2014, questions remain regarding Europe’s migration policies as reports of migrants dying at sea while trying to reach Italy regularly make the headlines.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that since the beginning of 2014, 500 migrants have died in the Mediterranean Sea and almost 43,000 have been rescued by the Italian Navy.

However, Italy’s “Mare Nostrum operation has gone a long way towards addressing the issue of saving people’s lives,” says Anneliese Baldaccini, Amnesty International’s Senior Executive Officer for Asylum and Migration.

Mare Nostrum – the Italian search-and-rescue operation – was launched following the tragedy of October 2013, when 366 migrants died as the boat in which they were travelling sank off the coast of Lampedusa, an Italian island which is closer to Tunisia than Italy.“The EU needs to do more to create legal channels for asylum seekers and migrants” … at the moment, "the EU is focused almost exclusively on strengthening its borders” – Gregory Maniatis, advisor to the U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration

Italy is the lone sponsor of the search-and-rescue initiative, investing an estimated nine million euros every month.

In an interview with IPS, Baldaccini highlighted the unsustainability of this operation, arguing that this is why “Amnesty is calling on the European Union to act in a concerted way to support Italy in these operations”. So far, she continued, “the EU has proved reluctant in doing so.”

“With its Mare Nostrum operation, Italy has been pushing for a collective humanitarian response,” said Gregory Maniatis, Senior Policy Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and advisor to Peter Sutherland, U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration. “But what is missing at the EU level is a common vision of the problem,” he told IPS.

“The EU needs to do more to create legal channels for asylum seekers and migrants,” Maniatis explained. At the moment, “the EU is focused almost exclusively on strengthening its borders.”

Maniatis also argued that the EU does not have a sustained focus “to improve asylum processing to create a truly common European system, to increase its capacity to receive refugees, and to establish ways for people to apply for asylum without undertaking the dangerous Mediterranean crossing.”

According to Amnesty International, there is a dichotomy between the “EU’s aspiration to promote human rights and the reality of human rights violations in member states.” In its recommendations to the Italian EU presidency, Amnesty International stated that currently, “border control measures expose migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers to serious harm.

Their detention is systemic, rather than exceptional. And their lack of agency makes them vulnerable to abject exploitation and abuse.”

Amnesty International has calledon Italy, in view of its presidency of the European Union, “to show leadership and steer the Union in the direction of human rights, putting people before politics”.

The European Council Summit held on June 26-27 agreed broad guidelines for Europe’s migration and asylum strategy but these “do not change the current status quo” according to Amnesty’s migration expert Baldaccini. They “even represent a setback,” she told IPS. Overall, said Baldaccini, they “show a lack of political commitment.”

She went on to explain that the Secretariat of the European Council has partly blamed the recent rise of far-right parties at the last European Parliament elections as being the reason why no progress was made in terms of migration policies.

In general, states – and not only far-right parties – are reluctant to “mention human rights as it could be perceived as encouraging more arrivals to Europe,” Baldaccini said.

Many organisations have called on the European Union to change its approach to migration policies. The Lampedusa tragedy is only one example of a long series of similar events, said Elena Crespi, Western Europe Programme Officer at the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), an NGO representing 178 organisations throughout the world.

“Despite repeated commitments to change,” Crespi told IPS, “EU migration policies remain security driven, and aim at reinforcing border control while migrants’ rights are given little attention.”

One such example, she argued, is the increasing presence of FRONTEX, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union.

Crespi explained that the intensification of FRONTEX operations has not resulted in fewer incidents, nor better respect for migrants’ and asylum-seekers’ rights. On the contrary, an increased number of allegations have been made regarding human rights violations at the Union’s external borders, which remain unaddressed.

FRONTEX has turned down the recommendation by the E.U. Ombudsman to put in place a mechanism to allow alleged violations to be investigated.

This, said Crespi, raises questions regarding the compatibility of FRONTEX’s operations in terms of human rights.

The presence of the European Border Agency is not sufficient to prevent people from dying at sea, she noted. Instead, enhanced border control pushes more and more people into taking increasingly dangerous routes into Europe, thus putting their lives at risk.

Italy is now pushing for FRONTEX to assume the costs of the Mare Nostrum operations, explained Simona Moscarelli, a legal expert for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Rome. But to do this, the “FRONTEX mission will have to be revised because its mandate does not include search-and-rescue operations.”

“FRONTEX’s role is not to save lives but rather to prevent and deter migrants from coming into Europe,” Crespi told IPS.

Moreover, “the vast majority of migrants travelling across the Mediterranean Sea are Syrian and Eritrean nationals and should be entitled to asylum,” Moscarelli told IPS.

According to the UNHCR, the number of Syrians reaching Europe by sea increased in 2013. Last year, Italy rescued an estimated 11,307 Syrians in the Mediterranean.

“The European Union must overhaul its approach to migration, and put respect for migrants’ and asylum seekers’ rights at its centre. Opening new channels for regular migration, enhancing reception capacity including by increasing responsibility sharing for migrants coming into Europe and investigating human rights violations are some steps that could be taken in the right direction,” said Crespi.

Most immigrant parents of children like this star soccer player want to be engaged in the lives of their sons and daughters but face obstacles in doing so. Credit: Marcelo Brociner/IPS

By Michelle Tullo
WASHINGTON, Jun 5 2014 (IPS)

Immigrant parents in the United States face serious challenges accessing early elementary programmes for their children, advocates here are warning.

The centrality of parents in early childhood education is undisputed, yet a new report from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a Washington-based think tank, highlights a broad lack of programming for immigrant parents. The report lists gaps in translation services as well as cultural and systems knowledge for parents as primary obstacles, and notes significant potential impacts on children’s education.

“With one in four young children in the United States living in an immigrant family, efforts to build trust and establish meaningful two-way communication with these families is an urgent priority,” states the report, released this week.

In recent years, U.S. policymakers have increased efforts to improve early childhood education. In January 2013, for instance, President Barack Obama introduced his Plan for Early Education for all Americans, which focuses on children to age five and includes funding high-quality preschool for all low- and moderate-income children.

Yet plans like this and others often overlook the importance of supporting immigrant parents, especially those with limited English-language proficiency. MPI’s researchers warn that fast-changing demographics in the United States are making this oversight increasingly problematic.

“Immigration for the longest time had been a five-state issue, but now it’s a 40-state issue,” Margie McHugh, one of the report’s authors, said at a briefing Monday.

Of the one in four young children in the U.S. with immigrant parents, 45 percent are low-income, and their parents are twice as likely as native-born parents to have less than a high school diploma.

“This represents a significant risk factor for many young children of immigrants,” the report states, “given that maternal educational attainment is closely linked with education outcomes for children, and parental education is closely linked with family earnings and economic well-being.”

Budget victims

Currently, no federal programme exists to explicitly support and engage immigrant parents in the United States, while ongoing budget battles in Washington are impacting on initiatives that have partially filled this gap.

The government has cut funds for Head Start, a federal programme that provides public preschool and health services to low-income children. And Even Start, a federal family literacy programme that integrated adult literacy with parenting education, was defunded in 2010.

These cuts disproportionately affect immigrant families.

Some programmes do exist, either through private or piecemeal funding, but these advocates say these typically lack accountability standards and continuity, since funding is so fickle. Such initiatives also tend not to communicate or coordinate with one another, meaning, for instance, that programmes aimed at secondary education do not build on those for primary schooling.

Focus group participants from MPI’s study said that programmes offered very limited translation and interpretation services, and generally ignored languages other than Spanish. Some projects did offer classes to parents, but long waiting lists, inconvenient hours or lack of child care reportedly deterred parents – despite a strong desire to participate.

“I don’t go to [parent engagement] programmes like this because one time I went, and the school had me waiting for an hour, standing around and waiting for an interpreter,” one parent told MPI researchers. “I was so tired of waiting – I have no idea what they told me in the end and they didn’t help me at all.”

Even when translation services are provided or parents speak English, understanding teachers or school materials requires a substantial understanding of the U.S. education lexicon and culture.

One federal project, Promise Neighborhoods, is funding a pilot programme specifically geared towards immigrant parents in a neighbourhood near Washington.

“In the majority of the families we work with, the parents are trying to be deeply engaged in their children’s lives,” Eliza Leighton, the programme’s director, told IPS.

“Many parents came to this country to make sure their kids have access to quality education, yet when they arrive they find there’s very limited information available for them.”

The lack of information leaves parents unaware of available resources and also leaves them in the dark about early childhood development.

“For example, many parents work under the misconception that they should only read to their child in English – and if it’s not in English, then they shouldn’t read at all,” Leighton says. “That’s not true. It’s wonderful to read to your child, even if it’s not in English.”

The pilot project has four main components. First are “parent promoters”, each of whom has about 50 families to connect to the community. Second is a 13-week parent and teacher class, conducted mostly in Spanish, to teach parents how to support their child’s development.

The third component is a series of community events to build a support community for immigrant parents. Finally, the last part is a class to educate teachers on the linguistic and cultural needs of their students and families.

If the programme is successful, supporters say it could be expanded throughout the country.

Data needed

MPI notes that increasing the collection of pertinent data would increase the visibility of immigrant parents for school administrators, especially parents who speak a language other than Spanish.

Currently, from the school to federal level, data collection begins in kindergarten. But more information could help teachers better understand the needs of their students and help policymakers hear demands for programming catered to immigrant parents.

Of course, programmes to educate immigrant parents overlap with the field of adult education, like adult literacy classes. However, few federal adult-education programmes meet the needs of parents that lack English-language proficiency.

“Right now, adult education programmes are only meeting about four percent of needs,” McHugh said.

“The other dynamic … is that a lot of existing capacity is dedicated to people trying to get their [high school degrees] and post-secondary degrees. And that is a desired outcome, but that type of programme does not meet the needs of immigrant parents.”

The report also stresses the need for non-traditional family literacy programmes or adult education programmes, but structured in such a way that they can wrap together cultural knowledge, language and literacy, and systems knowledge.

“Partnerships with families are a bedrock for strong early childhood development,” said Miriam Calderon, a former senior policy analyst for early learning at the White House.

Calderon highlighted the report’s recommendation to institute a federal pilot programme that can draw from the lessons of Even Start, both from what worked on the ground and also why support for the programme ultimately declined.

“Policies regarding family engagement … lack teeth and are largely misused,” said Calderon.

Numbers or people? Migrants at Lampedusa. Credit: Ilaria Vechi/IPS

By Michelle Tullo
WASHINGTON, May 10 2014 (IPS)

On the eve of a major international conference on migration in Stockholm, a major think tank here is calling on the delegates from more than 150 countries to recognise the importance of migration in forging development policies.

“International migration and development are inextricably linked,” says a statement by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in advance of next week’s seventh Global Forum for Migration and Development (GFMD).The hope is that including migration in the post-2015 goals will generate greater political will and financial resources to address the various challenges faced by migrants.

Through remittances, the money sent from migrants back to their country of origin, and by creating new networks for technology and knowledge, migration reduces poverty and helps improve access to education, according to MPI.

Banking remittances allows recipients to mobilise their savings to earn interest, buy insurance, and build credit.

“After seven years of sending money home in Mexico, I was able to buy a house for my family,” Erick Chavez, a migrant from Oaxaca, Mexico, who lives in Washington, D.C., told IPS.

Its positive effects act on both a micro and macro level, for both countries of origin and countries of destination. Yet this powerful network for development remains widely untapped, the statement asserts.

“Migrants have been instrumental in achieving development goals,” H. E. Eva Åkerman Börje, Secretariat for the Swedish Chairmanship of the GFMD, at a teleconference last week. “But potential gains are left on the table due to poor policies.”

The three-day conference, which will feature discussions among civil-society organisations (CSOs), followed by inter-governmental meetings that will include Sweden’s Princess Victoria and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, will contribute to the ongoing process of formulating the world body’s post-2015 Development Agenda that will succeed its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The hope is that including migration in the post-2015 goals and creating relevant targets and indicators will generate greater political will and financial resources to address the various challenges faced by migrants, including the costs associated with migration, such as transportation, brokers’ fees, cultural adaptation, remittances, and migrants’ rights to health, education, and fair labour.

“States have come to appreciate the magnitude of migrants’ contributions,” said Börje. “Most directly this happens through higher earning potential and hundreds of billions of dollars of remittances each year which are invested in education, health, and housing, but also through filling needs in the labour market, encouraging trade and skills between markets, and sharing ideas and technology.”

Previous GFMDs have had success in improving national policies, including gaining greater respect for migrants’ basic rights. Some of the key goals at this year’s forum include gaining consensus to reduce the cost of both remittances and international labour recruitment.

Organisers also hope that agreement can be reached on the importance of according recognition by the host countries of the professional skills, training, and education acquired by migrants in their homelands.

Migration also benefits the country of destination, according to MPI.

“Migrants are more mobile than native born workers…so they smooth out some of the discontinuity in the labour market,” Kathleen Newland, director of MPI’s Migrants, Migration, and Development Programme, told IPS.

“Also, there are studies that show a migrant population tends to be correlated with higher trade flows between countries of origin and investment and facilitate FDI (foreign direct investment) in both directions.”

Remittances, a neglected form of foreign aid

Remittances are the main driver behind development fueled by migration. Yet the high costs of relocation, finding a job, and sending the money back home limit their potential benefits.

Erick Chavez had to borrow 3,000 dollars at a steep interest rate in order to get his visa and work in the U.S.

“Back home, I worked 12 hours a day etching designs in stone. It’s very hard work. Here I can make better money…All the money I make here I use to pay my bills, then send the rest to Mexico…I send money about every two weeks through transfers at Western Union. Some goes to help my family, like paying for my brothers’ education. Even elementary school is not really free because of inscription fees,” Chavez told IPS.

Remittances like Chavez’s are an important resource enabling their families to attend school, gain access to health services, and even afford food. The money can reduce individual and household poverty and stimulate local economies to an extent that equals or exceeds the impact of official development assistance.

In 2011, formal remittances to Spanish-speaking Latin American nations totaled more than eight times foreign aid, according to a 2013 report by the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project.

Remittances also affect a country’s macro-level economy. In El Salvador, remittances accounted for 16.5 percent of GDP in 2012. Since 2009, the World Bank has included remittance inflows in its measure of national creditworthiness.

“The important effect of remittances on a national level is often overlooked,” said Newland.

“The money comes in as foreign payment, as dollars or pounds, but is received by local people in local currency…. It has a positive impact on a country’s balance of payments and allows a country to borrow international capital.”

Research on improving remittances focuses on two things: reducing their cost and injecting them into the formal banking system.

Newland named “competition, transparency, and technology,” as the keys to reducing the cost of remittances.

“A number of countries have set up websites that show people different costs of services to help them pick the cheapest one and to place pressure on companies to meet the lowest price.”

Another policy suggestion encourages people to use banks to both deposit and transfer their earnings.

“It’s very desirable to get people to send money through formal transfers instead of by hand. Unofficial transfers don’t get counted in macro benefits,” Newland told IPS.

In addition to reaping macro benefits, banking remittances provide migrants and remittance recipients with financial inclusion.

“Basically, being able to formally save [money], own assets, have access to financially affordable institutions, earn more than subsistence wages, manage your funds well are the ingredients for economic well-being and financial independence,” Manuel Orozco,an  expert on remittances at the Inter American Dialogue, an inter-hemispheric think tank here, told IPS.