Information
| Author | L. Michiels |
| Date | 01 July 1988 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1988.tb00654.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1988 |
Information
EUROPEAN FORUM AGAINST POVERTY
BRUSSELS, MAY
3
1
It
-
JUNE 2”d, 1988
The Council of Ministers of the European
Economic Community (EEC) decided on
December 19th 1984 to launch the ‘Second
Programme to Combat Poverty’. This
programme runs from the end of 1985 till the
end of 1989.
In order to realize an experimental
programme of 9
1
projects for the benefit of the
poor in local communities of the EEC-member
states, a budget of 29 million ECU’s was
granted. The first objective of the Programme is
to develop innovating methods for helping the
poor by supporting their personal efforts on an
individual and social level. The second
objective is the realization of cross-national
network in order to transfer information
between the EEC-member states. The
coordination, evaluation and diffusion of
projects is realized through the establishment of
a clearing house located at ‘the ISG
Sozialforschung und Gesellschaftspolitik’ in
Cologne (FRG). The ‘Universitk Catholique de
Louvain’ (Belgium) and the University of Bath
(UK)
are charged with the research work.
Specific attention in the Programme is given
to ethnic minorities, migrants and refugees
because an increasing number of them is
affected by poverty. Twelve of the 91 projects
concern this group. The 12 projects focus on
three main themes: a) unemployment/
socio-economic protection
;
b) aged people,
health and families; c) strategies and policies
combating ethnic discrimination and poverty.
..
One project deals with the creation of
employment possibilities for Turkish and
Syrian refugees residing in Brussels. The Danish
project is sponsored by the Danish Refugee
Council and aims at the development of
methods to improve integration of refugees in
the labour market. The German RIZA-project
attempts to help Greek immigrants who are in a
preliminary stage of planning a definite return
to their home country. In Greece four projects
were started: two dealing with returnees, two
with refugees. The Italian project is an
integration project of immigrants. In Portugal
two projects concern relations between different
ethnic groups. And, finally, the British project
concerns social and health education for
recently arrived Bangladeshi in London.
Field workers and research teams exchanged
their experiences and findings at an ‘European
Forum Against Poverty’, held in Brussels from
May 31st to June 2nd, 1988. According to the
participants, the negative public and
institutional opinion and attitude towards these
groups is the main factor leading to
impoverishment. Educational efforts should be
taken in order to inform the public about the
needs of refugees, ethnic minorities and
migrants in European societies.
L. MICHIELS
GOM, Brussels
(Belgium)
335
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