European Women’s Lobby

Making sure that Migrant Women’s Organizations voices are heard by European and national decision-makers has been one of the main objectives of the project EWL has been developing with migrant women’s organizations since 2006. Since its official launch on 18 June 2010, the European Network of Migrant Women’s expertise has continued to be acknowledged. This can be seen through their participation to key events (e.g. Equality summit, EC Peer-Review on the integration of migrants in the labour market, European Integration Forum, EP citizen’s agora on poverty). A key moment in the project was also the co-organisation by EWL of 2 events on 08.12.2010 on undocumented migrants with
EAPN, Médecins du Monde and PICUM where ENoMW chair spoke. The past 6 months also saw the strengthening of the networking dynamics between the members of the network that are now present in 17 countries. Internal and external communication is seen as one of the key priorities of the network, notably through the regular use of the intranet and the setting up of a Facebook account. A video-clip about the network and the website are currently being finalized. Partners are also actively working on the research that will evaluate education and employment initiatives for migrant women in 6 cities. A fullgroup meeting was organized in Dublin on 5 March 2011 to evaluate the work that has been done so far
and plan the work ahead.

The main objective of the project is for the members of the European Network of Migrant Women and the EWL to influence the political as well as the general public thinking on family reunification at the European, national, regional and local level based on the experiences of migrant women who have been experiencing the impact of family reunification laws and policies on their lives. The first 6 months have been devoted to the preparation of the strategic meeting that took place on 4^th March 2011 in Dublin. The meeting successfully achieved its main objectives i.e. to deepen the knowledge on the issue (through a briefing paper aiming at presenting the main issues at stake from a women’s rights perspective and a presentation of the Migration Policy Group), to learn from other NGOs and activists that have been active on this issue and to do some strategic thinking on the next steps, notably in communication and complementary research on the issue. The network has already started to expose the main issues at stake through their participation to MIPEX press conference and the issuing of a press release at this occasion.