Human Dignity and Resilience: Migrants and Hosting Communities

MIGRANTS, HUMAN DIGNITY AND RESILIENCE

COMECE & Sant’Egidio BXL Europe

17^th February 2021, 16:00 – 17:30 pm, via Zoom

Migrants and asylum seekers entering into the EU have to face enormous difficulties. Those who emigrate experience separation from their place of origin, and often a cultural and religious uprooting as well. Their situation of vulnerability put them at higher risk of being victims of discrimination, intolerance and even unhuman and degrading treatment. But at the same time, in their journey and in the process of integration in hosting societies, we can find examples of their resilience, showing their tenacity and determination to overcome the problems they must face in their everyday life.

The aim of this event is to raise voices of migrants, asylum seekers and hosting communities and  to listen to the problems they faced on the ground and how they overcame them. It is also to reflect together on how the EU could create a more favourable environment for them and with them.

Programme

16:00-16:05 Welcoming and presentation

• Professor Jan De Volder, Secretary General of Sant’Egidio BXL Europe
• Fr Manuel Barrios Prieto, Secretary General of COMECE

16:05-16:40 Testimonies of migrants and hosting communties

Question: How have you overcome the difficulties when coming to Europe in the journey, upon arrival and in the path to become an active actor in the hosting society?

• Mathieu
• Arlette

16:35-16:55 How the EU supports and should support migrants’ resilience?

Question: How do you, regardless of political affiliation or mandate, react to these experiences? What may be done to include migrants and refugees in policymaking and integration plans?

• Javier Zarzalejos, MEP, Member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, EPP.
• Damian Boeselager, MEP, Member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and Substitute of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Greens.

17:00-17:15 A visual snapshot of daily life for migrants in Greece, by Dr. Alkisti Alevropoulou-Malli

Question: What are the roles of agency, dignity and a sense of normality in building resilience? A commentary accompanied by the display of selected pictures from migrant settlements in Greece.

• Dr. Alkisti Alevropulou-Malli, academic and freelance humanitarian photographer. Co-author of “Idomeni – Waiting for Home”.

17:15-17:25 Questions and Answers

17:25-17:30 Concluding Remarks

Register here