Brussels, 17/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Education and culture have a key role to play in integrating migrants and their children. Teacher training must therefore be improved and support provided for new arrivals to learn the language of their new country. These are the conclusions of a public hearing organised on 15 March by the European Parliament's culture and education committee.
“Human rights take precedence over citizens' rights. Even though refugee status has been refused, migrants have a right to dignity”, stated the chair of the committee Silvia Costa (S&D, Italy) before going on to call for additional resources to finance the education of refugees, including in the holding camps, and for these people to be seen as new human resources for the EU.
The public hearing, which lasted three hours, brought together a range of experts, including Mario Piacentini, an economist in the Statistics Department of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “The number of immigrants in education has increased over recent years: between 2003 and 2012, the percentage of 15-year-old students from an immigrant background rose by 4-6% to a total of 12% of students in 2012. The culture and education of the children prior to their migrating and the characteristics of the education systems of their destination countries have an impact on their performance”, he said, drawing on the findings of the OECD report “Immigrant Children at School: Easing the Journey towards Integration”. He said that, in Finland 90% of immigrant students express a strong feeling of belonging to their schools. This is due, inter alia, to early intervention to provide linguistic support and the role played by the specialist teachers trained to work with immigrant children.
Brigitte Balbach, representing North Rhine-Westphalia teachers, laid great emphasis on teacher training. “We have to make proper provision for these children: we have to better understand their plans, maintain closer links with their families, train the teachers, put the focus from the very start on learning the language and encourage the transmission of our values”, she said, indicating that the goal was for “both parties to come to mutual understanding”. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)