A Guidebook for Local Farmers, Migrants and Refugees
A Guidebook for Local Farmers, Migrants and Refugees
Increase The Capacity Of Migrant And Refugees In Agriculture Sector
In times of intense political conflicts, economic crises and the impacts of climate change, refugee migration remains a major global, regional and national challenge (United Nations, 2023a). Migrants and refugees (M/Rs) are commonly used for people who leave their homes for some reason. The terms distinguish between groups of people who voluntarily leave their country for better living conditions and those forced to leave their homes. Still, specific circumstances may make it difficult to match a person unambiguously to one of the groups (United Nations, 2023b). Due to enhanced technology and mobility, many M/Rs migrate to various countries, often far away from their home countries, while the neighbouring country may be the first option for other M/Rs (Fransen & de Haas, 2023).
Refugee migration poses constraints for those who migrate and for the population in the host countries. Those constraints encompass the difficulty of developing policies and measures to integrate M/Rs into the host countries by providing opportunities to, for example, learn the language of the target country or find employment (Kıraç et al., 2020). In the host societies, M/Rs are often not welcome because they are perceived as threatening as they display different cultural conventions, are believed to take local people’s jobs away or benefit from social services to the disadvantage of the local population.
An approach to address the challenges of refugee migration is to look at how strengthening M/Rs can contribute to the host countries, i.e., developing strategies and practices that turn migration into an opportunity to facilitate the sustainable development of host countries. This idea was exactly the starting point for CAMRAS (Increase the Capacity of Migrants and Refugees in Agriculture Sector), a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (Project Number: 2022-1-TR01-KA220-VET-000089931). Run by seven partners from five European countries, the project’s aims are twofold. It seeks to increase the capacity of M/Rs to become a qualified workforce in farming, thereby contributing to their integration into the host countries. Additionally, it aims to meet farmers’ needs for the workforce in their host countries, thereby strengthening local farming. This project addresses the agricultural sector because M/Rs frequently have an occupational farming background from their home countries. Also, providing training on good practices, organic farming, and innovative technology in agriculture helps modernise the sector and fosters the integration of environmentally friendly applications.
The first outcome of all these collaborative efforts is this guidebook on the situation of the agricultural sector for local farmers and M/Rs in five European countries. This guidebook and the results of surveys conducted with M/Rs and farmers in the partner countries will form a handbook that will be the foundation for online and face-to-face training in the partner countries. Another distinctive feature of the project will be a shared platform where farmers and M/Rs can meet to create employment in the agricultural sector. That said, the whole project aims to be informative for farmers and M/Rs in the participating countries and for members of the target groups, project teams and educators in other countries.
This guidebook is organised into ten chapters. The first four chapters give a concise overview of the situation of the agricultural sectors in France, Greece, The Netherlands, Spain and Türkiye. Chapter 5 deals with the situation of M/Rs in these countries. To provide a quick overview, these chapters contain tables that summarise the main points explored in the texts. Chapters 6 to 9 are concerned with food security, agricultural education, environmental aspects and innovations; these topics are of utmost importance to arrive at sustainable farming and need to be covered in vocational training. Conclusions and recommendations finalise this guidebook.
The full guidebook is available here.
https://ila.wiki/mB2