Proposals for Socio-Educational Intervention to Sensitize and Raise Awareness of Citizenship and Integration. Breaking Stereotypes and Promoting Citizen Participation
Tackling racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination requires, besides the implemented public measures, a constant work of awareness raising of the whole society and the empowerment and training of the groups most exposed to these forms of violence (racialized people, immigrants, refugees, women, sexual minorities...).
It is also essential to train professionals, and future professionals, working in the social, educational, health and security forces, among others. This training should be focused on the identification of discrimination situations and more specifically it should allow:
(i) reflection on professional and organisational practices that perpetuate and legitimise discrimination, or that do not guarantee conditions of equity - institutional racism;
(ii) identification and understanding the complexity of multiple discriminations (intersectionality), their consequences on the increasing fragilities and risks of social exclusion (such as, exposure to violence, labour exploitation, human trafficking, among others). Regarding this aspect, the situation of immigrant women is highlighted (for the possibility of conjugating several vectors of subordination such as: being a woman, racialized, belonging to single-parent family, belonging to a religious minority, being older, or being very young, among others);
(iii) to consider the role of education (formal, informal and non-formal) in the promotion of human rights, within a logic of education for global citizenship, extended to various educational contexts and concerning Lifelong Education.
Educational proposals focusing on immigrant women should promote their agency, through capacity building and empowerment, in order to enable them:
(i) to know their social rights and responsibilities;
(ii) to reflect on social inclusion processes and recognise situations of discrimination;
(iii) to develop instrumental skills for their social inclusion process (e.g. proficiency in the language of the host country or in the formal procedures necessary to regularise their administrative process),
(iv) to develop capacities to affirm their culture of origin, through the promotion of the learning of their native language, the organisation of the necessary conditions to profess their faith, among others.
(v) to understand the importance of associative movements in the processes of social inclusion (immigrant associations and in associations of (and for) the community - parents' associations, residents' associations, sports and recreational associations, etc.).
The socio-educational intervention with the community should involve educational institutions (schools at different levels of education), civil society organizations, public services, professional associations, trade unions, mass media, among others. And consider the following objectives:
(i) to consider the issues of cultural diversity and gender in the curricula in a continuous and systematic way;
(ii) to value and welcome diversity, exploring its educational potential at school in articulation with the community;
(iii) to promote awareness campaigns in the mass media about human rights and the fight against racism and other forms of discrimination;
(iv) to encourage the adoption, in the media, of a non-stereotyped language, promoting gender equality, sensitive to issues related to culturally defined concepts concerning immigration and minority groups
(v) to alert, in the public space, to the need to critically analyse the information shared on social networks, with special emphasis on the fake news that disseminate intolerance discourses.