Best Practice 19

Due to the well known social, economical and political developments that are taking place during the course of the recent years, globally, great number of immigrants and refugees are finding a new home in the EU. According to the data that we have up until now, the societies of the future are going to be multinational and intercultural and one of the challenges that the EU countries are facing is how to successfully stir the ”melting pot”. Greece as a contemporary European country and according to the European tradition is trying to help TCN to live and integrate within its territory and promote multiculturalism and diversity.

In order to succeed the above goals, and with the support of the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals in Greece, multiple activities and actions are taking place in order to promote closer cooperation of the European Union  with Third Countries. This aims in the successful management of Migration and for the integration of the migrants and refugees that have already arrived at their destination country. 

According to that the Action 1.9/09 “Training course for Intercultural Mediators” aimed in training 144 Intercultural Mediators, in order for them to become the connecting bridge between the TCNs and the host society in housing matters.

The specific goals of the Action are aiming mostly in identifying the problems that the TCNs are facing, especially concerning housing, and in continuance developing the actions that need to take place in order to resolve those problems.

The whole idea derived from the fact that the first step in integrating in the host country/community is to have “a roof over your head”, which should also be a basic human right but it hasn’t been defined as such. Education, health, employment are regulated by the national, European and international law, however housing is not a basic responsibility of the countries against their citizens, even if there are various laws concerning it.

Hence, as housing is one of the first things that someone will try to find when arriving is a host country, the project aimed in developing and publishing a Syllabus to facilitate this procedure through the use of Intercultural mediators. Of course. Most of the migrants in Greece are renting their house, however it is, unfortunately, still very usual the phenomenon that the house owners will not rent their apartments/houses to immigrants and refugees, as they don’t trust them with how they will use their property. This derives from the lack of understanding of their cultural, religious and social differences. Thus, even without having intention, the owners are taking part in supporting injustice in society. Furthermore, there are those that are taking advantage of those people that are in need in order to profit from their urgent situation, sometimes even by violating their rights and dignity.

The Syllabus was created in order to train mediators that will face those problems and create an environment of equality for the migrants and refugees that are seeking to find housing in Greece.

The main objective of this Syllabus is to provide trainees with all the needed knowledge, skills and atitudes, as well as all those critical competences that are essential for intercultural mediators in order to move between different cultures; provide practical help to TCN in order to facilitate their integration, help them better understand the host society and facilitate the development of their network, including individuals and services.