The Regional Coordinator of URI MENA participated in “Integration of Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers” Seminar as a key speaker in Sicily- Italy. The seminar was organized by the Cooperative “Servizi Sociali”, an Italian NGO that manages reception centers for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers since 2008.
The seminar which was sponsored by the University of Messina, aimed at exploring innovative practical strategies to facilitate the integration of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Italy by drawing on the experience of social workers, psychologists, educators, labor consultants, journalists, medical, lawyers, nurses and cultural mediators.
As a speaker, URI MENA Regional Coordinator highlighted major facts about refugees’ crisis in the Middle East & North Africa and shared URI groups (CCs) good practices of social integration of refugees. Also, he shared some innovative practices of like-minded organizations in this field.
Other key speakers were:
– Prof. Giovanna Messina – Manager of Provincial Center for Education and Literacy of Italian and Foreign Adults Immigration legislation. She spoke about immigrants’ access to education and training.
– Mr. Claudio Alosi – Honorary Judge at the Court of minors of Messina, He spoke about Social integration of migrants and social services of the territory.
– Ms. Palmira Mancuso – professional journalist, Director of the network messinaora. She shared her experience on the Acquarius rescue ship: stories of men and women fighting for life.
– Mr. Cono Galipò – President of Cooperativa Servizi Sociali, his topic was “3rd of October 2013: broken dreams”
After the key speakers, workshop was facilitated to develop ideas to improve the quality of life of immigrants and to overcome the problems related to their social and work integration. The results of the workshop will be presented to the Ministry of the Interior Service which monitors the reception system in Italy.