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Increasing the Readiness of the Estonian Society for integrating Asylum Seeker

Development Partnership Estonia

Jaan Tõnissoni Instituut, JTI
Project Manager: Lehte Roots, JTI, lehte.roots@mail.ee

General information about the institute

The Jaan Tõnisson Institute is a non-profit, non-governmental research and training centre, founded on April 17, 1991. It was established in honour of Jaan Tõnisson, one of the primary founders of the independent Estonian state in 1918 and promoter of democratic values in Estonian society.

The aim of the Institute is to foster democratic development and the strengthening of civil society in Estonia. In the spirit of Tõnisson's legacy the Institute works to cultivate political and civic culture in Estonia and to promote citizen participation in decision making processes.

The Institute arranges research programmes, training seminars, courses, workshops and information services for teachers, politicians, governmental and local authorities and members of non-governmental organisations. The Institute is funded on a project-by-project basis and works with a great number of funding and co-operation partners.

The Institute began its work when Estonian independence was restored with political and local government training programmes and research and conducting projects on the relations between Estonia and Russia.

To promote democratic values in society the Institute developed a civic- and human rights education programme, developing curricula and training teachers for both Estonian- and Russian- language schools in Estonia. This programme has been active for several years and recently has concentrated its attention on multi-ethnic and multi-cultural issues in Estonia.
To support not-for-profit organisations in Estonia the Institute has investigated the Estonian not-for-profit sector and adult education and created a database of Estonian non-governmental organisations which can be found at http://www.ngonet.ee/db/.

The Institute is a member of the Centres for Pluralism network in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Institute has published many books and produced three videofilms.

The Executive Director is responsible for organising and functioning of the Institute.

At the moment there are 7 persons working in the four centres of the institute to implement its goals: - Civic Education; - Training Centre; - Corruption analysis Centre; - Human Rights Centre

Due to the long lasting experience with non-Estonians integration, JTI has started to work also with the integration of asylum seekers, to cooperate and develop contacts with relevant organizations in the country and in the world.

EQUAL project

The aim of the project is to work out proposals to the government, local governments and the third sector organisations how to organise the social and work integration for the asylum seekers. To achieve the aim there should be done a research about the possible problem in the near future, including what could be the estimated number of asylum seekers and their geographical, social, cultural and religion background.

Next there will be a research on the readiness of Estonian state institutions and local governments to receive asylum seekers.

After the research and analysis the proposals will be issued to the relevant institutions to adopt or change legal norms (Regional Development Act) and an overview of necessary measures to be taken to integrate asylum seekers will be drawn.

Target group in EQUAL project

The direct target group of the project are politicians, officials and organisations whose work is directly related to the quality of the social and work integration of asylum seekers, also the general public whose opinion about asylum seekers matters, specially when they live and work among us. The attitude of the society influences a lot to the integration of asylum seekers into the society.

Objective

• The objective is to analyze existing laws and government action-plans (including the upcoming law of regional development) that concern asylum seekers.
• Then present according suggestions for changes and improvements.
• Work out proposals to government institutions, local governments and the third sector how to organize the social, economic and cultural integration for the asylum seekers.
• Work out necessary training plans for the target groups.

Innovative (I)

The innovativeness is already in the fact that this is the first try to get an overview of the number of asylum seekers in Estonia during the next few years and also find out their geographical, social and cultural background. Also in creating an integration program for asylum seekers that is in accordance with the EU viewpoints.

Innovative (II)

• Study of the possible asylum seekers origin country and their social, cultural background;
• Full study of the capability of Estonia to handle the asylum seekers and integrate them to the Estonian society;
• Find out the public opinion about the asylum seekers and if necessary relieve possible tensions that might rise;
• It is the first time when Estonian different institutions and the third sector organizations together would handle the problems of asylum seekers;
• In the course of the project necessary training plans will be created towards different target groups to make the integration of asylum seekers easier.

National Experience with Asylum

• Estonia - approximately 10-15 asylum applications per year.
• Four people have got refugee status and little more than 10 have got subsidiary protection.
• Since 1997 when Estonian legislation on asylum is enforced 105 asylum applications have been placed. Most applications are rejected.
• Asylum seekers are obliged to live in the reception centre in the middle of the forest far away from the city.
• The bus from the village does not go to the city every day.
• Asylum seekers feel lonely and abandoned in the centre.

Key National Issues

• Even the number of asylum seekers is low we need to have some kind of integration plan in order to be ready to receive those who are coming. Many things at the moment are done ad hoc.
• The aim of the project is to increase readiness of Estonian society to receive asylum seekers and design their integration plan.

Key activities (I)

• The research “Olemasolevate teostatud uuringute ja olemasoleva informatsiooni koondamine ühte kogumisse ja nende analüüs projekti II etapi ettevalmistamiseks”, to find out the relevant researche done in the migration & asylum field.
• The research tackles the current issues and some problems that Estonia can face in the integration process of asylum seekers.
• The research explains terms that are useful to further work that have to be done.
• The research explains the current problems that affect immigration and emigration.
• There is a good overview of current legislation and a list of research work done in the field to analyze the migration situation.
• The aim of the first phase of the project was also to find international partners who have similar issues focused in their project.

Key activities (II)

• In January and February JTI conducted a public poll to get the opinion and attitudes of the general public. Generally Estonian people are not aware of the topic.
• 91% of people said that they do not know about the subject of refugees or asylum seekers.
• 30% of people thought that we have 101-1000 refugees in Estonia.
• 37% of people said that they are not interested to get more information about refugees or asylum seekers.
• Half of those who answered agreed that Estonia should provide social aid, help to find a job and should teach Estonian language.

Next Steps
In the next step we will need to do is to start to work out the training plans and integration plan which should become as guideline for the better integration of asylum seekers.

Key Partner: Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs

http://www.sm.ee/eng/pages/index.html

The area of government of the Ministry of Social Affairs includes the drafting and implementation of plans to resolve state social issues, the management of public health protection and medical care, employment, the labor market and working environment, social security, social insurance and social welfare, promotion of gender equality, and the preparation of corresponding draft legislation

The Ministry of Social Affairs was founded on 1 February 1993. Three ministries - Ministry of Health Care, Ministry of Social Welfare, and Ministry of Labor - were merged and formed to the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Ministry of Social Affairs, Ms. Maarja Kuldjärv- chief specialist in the employment department, Maarja.kuldjarv@sm.ee, http://www.sm.ee

Maarja Kuldjärv is a contact person from the Ministry of Social Affairs to the EQUAL project.

(C) 2006 Ľudia ako my