Young refugees addressing the rise of populism
The study session took place in the Youth Center of Council of Europe, in Strasbourg between 9th and13th of July 2018 by the Council of Europe Youth Department and VYRE (Voices of Young Refugees in Europe). The study session aimed at addressing populism as a potential threat to democracy through challenging negative narratives surrounding refugees and empowerment of young refugees to access their rights.
It pursued the following objectives, using non formal education methods and activities:
- to support and empower young refugees and grassroots organizations working with them to challenge negative narratives surrounding refugees and migrants, and combat populism that is based on it;
- to identify causes of rising populism and its consequences for young refugees;
- to share best practices and successful experiences among the participants mapping/documenting initiatives across Europe addressing populism and young refugees;
- to promote refugee youth as group with potential to contribute to European societies, rather than ‘victims’ and ‘burdens’ ;
- to create space for networking and future cooperation among participants, as well as international institutions invited to the study session;
- to produce collection of successful initiatives run by and targeting young refugees on creating positive narratives.
In the study session, we were in total 35 participants, including youth workers, young refugees and unaccompanied minors from various countries. The group was diverse and the study session was built up a lot on our experience as young refugees or persons working with these groups, advocating for human rights.
The study session brought together 35 participants from 25 countries from Serbia, Afghanistan, Italy, Albania, Turkey, Armenia, Sweden, Syria to Yemen, Greece, Somalia, France, Spain etc: young refugees, students and minors in forced mobility and youth workers with refugees from Council of Europe member states.
As a participant and youth worker , on behalf of ELIX, I had the chance to meet young refugees that are studying, working or are in transitional period and discuss in a creative environment about the social inclusion, the challenges and the perspectives in Europe. The main aspects of our workshops/sessions were focused on the issue of populism and the connection with the human rights, the hate speech in social media through fake news and the methods that we can combat them in our community with non violent actions, like storytelling (Non Violent Resistance). Of course, learning from the beautiful city of Strasbourg, enriched our knowledge about the European Institutions.
As an educator in the non-formal education, after this study session, I feel more active part of the network of youth workers and young refugees in Europe, promoting intercultural dialogue and human rights, combating populism and the negative narratives for the refugees and the migrants in the local community.
Katerina STERIANOU, ELIX Educator
