The EU Directive on the Right to Family Reunification in Europe: what is at stake for migrant women?

The lobbying kit is part of the campaign by the European Network of Migrant Women and the European Women’s Lobby for better, gender-sensitive provisions for migrant women under the current family reunification directive. It contains apart from practical lobby tools, links to three video clips showing the most burning issues for women under current EU law. The clips are in English.

http://youtu.be/7tjDWdoY5LU
http://youtu.be/UcvknZ4GVdk
http://youtu.be/MvFRDCYfIcM

For more information please see:

www.migrantwomennetwork.org and
www.womenlobby.org

The Portal, developed and managed by Unisys, the Migration Policy Group and Bilbomática is now live at: http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/

What is the EU Immigration Portal?
The Immigration Portal has been built to serve as a first online point of entry to reliable, practical and up-to-date information on national and EU immigration issues. It contains information in English and French covering the following areas:

1. Admission of non-EU citizens to an EU country
2. Risks and rights of an irregular stay
3. EU and national immigration policies and law
4. Stakeholder Directory

What does the EU Immigration Portal provide?
The Portal provides useful basic information on migration to the EU written in user-friendly language and gives rapid and direct access to relevant external websites for further details.

The Portal aims to help prospective migrants to:

1. Get direct and rapid access to practical information
2. Find their way in the complex world of European admission rules and procedures
3. Identify job and study opportunities
4. Find information on the rights of non-EU citizens who are in the EU
5. Find out how the EU protects victims of trafficking
6. Be informed on the risks of entering and staying in the EU without authorisation
7. Be rapidly informed on specific immigration issues
8. Benefit from a vast stakeholder directory

Who is it for?
The Portal is addressed to prospective migrants looking for information on migration to the European Union, as well as:

1. Immigrant intermediary organisations
2. Immigration authorities
3. Immigration law experts
4. Employment services
5. National authorities
6. Civil society
7. The public at large

The Migration Policy Group worked with the European Commission on the design and development of the Portal over a period of three years. They organised stakeholder consultations, designed the information format, gathered all information and presented national immigration law in a comparable way, working closely with MPG’s network of immigration law practitioners.

For more information about the development of the Portal, click here

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL), the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW) are delighted to invite you to a Hearing at the European Parliament entitled “Family Reunification legislation in Europe: is it discriminatory for migrant women?”, on 10th November 2011.

The hearing will take place from 15:00 – 18:30 on 10 November in the European Parliament, Room ASP 1G3. Due to EP regulations, registrations for the event must be received by Friday 28 October.

Further information on the event (including a comprehensive agenda) will follow. Registrations can be addressed to Markus Sperl (Markus.Sperl@icmpd.org) and should include full name, date of birth and address.

Please see the Programme and Invite for more information

Immigrant Council of Ireland are proud to launch their EPIM funded Project :

The Pathways to Parental Leadership Toolkit

The event marking the launch will be 13th September, please see below for the details.

Guest Speaker (provisionally confirmed):
• Prof Nihad Bunar – Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University and National Police Academy

Date: September 13th, 2011
Venue: Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8.
Registration: 09:30

Launch: 10:00 -12.30 followed by light lunch

This event is co-funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration – an initiative of the Network of European Foundations

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles are proud to unveil their new and improved website!

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) has recently changed its website to ensure that the user can easily access information on ECRE’s goals and activities related to protection of refugee and asylum-seekers.

Among the new features, the ‘Alliance’ section allows for a greater understanding of ECRE Members and the Secretariat’s strong and vibrant relationship that permeates every area of work. In order to gain better clarity on the issues ECRE is working on, the website includes the ‘Topics’ section which clearly outlines the main areas of focus.

The new style allows for a more innovative design and encourages interaction with the user, ultimately contributing towards becoming an effective advocacy tool

Check it out here!

Entitled ‘Education for inclusion: strategies to reduce immigrant marginalisation in Europe and the U.S’ the 28th June welcomed the sharing of practise and debate around the education provisions provided by host societies and the effects of parental engagement for children with migrant backgrounds. Countries with longer histories of immigration both in Europe and North America have found that targeted policy measures and initiatives have led to improved results in the integration of such children. Teacher expectations are key to improving performance, but parental attitudes and involvement are also an important element. Alistair Ross – Emeritus Professor, London Metropolitan University, Margie McHugh – Co-Director of the Migration Policy Institute’s National Centre on Immigrant Integration Policy, and Mark Levy – Project Manager of the British Council’s Inclusion and Diversity in Education (INDIE) project.

For more information please read the EPC Policy Dialogue.

- June 2011

The European Parliament’s resolution on Reducing health inequalities in the EU, adopted on 8 March 2011, calls on EU Member States to tackle inequalities in access to health care for undocumented migrants. HUMA, PICUM, EWL, and EAPN all played a key role in getting this resolution passed.

On 22 March 2011, the European Declaration of health professionals for a non-discriminatory access to healthcare, signed by 141 national and European health organisations representing in total more than 3 million doctors and health professionals and 7.765 individual signatories, was presented by HUMA, health organisations and supporting MEPs to the Hungarian presidency.

Further information
More about Medicin du Monde/HUMA
For more information see: http://www.huma-network.org

-March 2011

The question of the European borders is more and more in the headlines (e.g. the Southern border with Libya, Tunisia and Egypt today; the Eastern one with Greece and Turkey a month ago; Canary Island 5 years ago, etc.). For years borders have been one of the most important concerns of the European Union, haggling with neighboring countries. Unfortunately, migrants are often the terms of trade. In the framework of the European Borders Observatory, Migreurop, via its recent press releases, explains how in the midterm the EU has to deeply change its foreign policy regarding migration with neighboring countries and in the short term, it has to welcome refugees in respect of international and European law.
On Migreurop’s website, 3 press releases:
http://www.migreurop.org/article1810.html
http://www.migreurop.org/article1817.html,
http://www.migreurop.org/article1820.html

Further information
More about Migreuop
For more information see: http://www.migreurop.org

-March 2011

The Greek Council for Refugees GCR in its endeavor to breach conflicts, differences and misunderstandings in society has started to build communication bridges between undocumented foreigners and the Greek majority. Since the 1^st of February 2011, a first contact to launch a forum with the Afghan Community has been established: problems, concerns and ideas have been exchanged. Some days later another contact with the Iranian community took place too; while on 17 February 2011 a speech to 2^nd Primary School of Chalandri about the phenomenon of foreigners irregularly staying in Greece was held, and the public opinion awareness stimulated. Plans to establish a dialogue with the Somali Community and inform other schools are on the way too.

Further information
More about the GRC
For more information see: http://www.gcr.gr/en/node/52

-Feb 2011

On February 17^th, 2011, the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) launched the Count Us In campaign. The aims of the campaign are: (1) to raise awareness among naturalised citizens of their right to vote in the 2011 General Election; (2) to remind political parties and candidates of the need to engage with naturalised citizens and on the issues pertaining to immigration and integration; and (3) to remind politicians and canvassers that the electorate in Ireland is diverse.  For more information on the campaign, visit: http://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/images/stories/Count_Us_In_170211.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/user/immigrantcouncilie.
http://www.tv3.ie/news.php?video=32603&locID=1.2

Further information
More about the ICI
For more information see: http://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/

-March 2011