Mediators as the Link Between Institutions and Newcomers

In our research and conversations during the workshop, it became clear that mediating figures play a crucial role in connecting newcomers to services, institutions and – more broadly – resources. ‘Handholding’ was a recurring theme in our conversations. Beyond simply being signposted to other organisations or council services, many newcomers need practical help to get to those destinations, to communicate when they arrive there, or be shown exactly where and how to register for a school place, health insurance, a council flat, etc. Mediators are crucial not only for newcomers but also for institutions and organisations. They often work informally, sometimes charging for their services, but often helping for free.

But there are also examples of more institutionalised mediators. Vital Marage, responsible for intercultural mediation and newcomers at the Prevention Service in Anderlecht, shared the experience of Brussels, where mediators with a migrant background are employed by the municipality. The municipality created mediation as a methodology and professional profile to facilitate links between migrants and council services. The mediators work in three social spaces: the municipal immigration office, the social welfare agency and schools. Practitioners in Dortmund share similar positive experiences with Roma mediators who work in primary schools, facilitate communication between families and school staff, and offer support beyond school-related issues.

But bureaucrats, teachers, service providers and others also take on mediating roles when working with newcomers. Their day-to-day work often goes well beyond their remit, in many cases in contexts of extremely scarce resources and under a lot of time pressure. Examples range from schoolteachers visiting families to encourage them to send children to school, to practitioners working many extra hours to help individuals find an apartment. Many practitioners emphasised how newcomers often arrive with multiple needs. The need for support goes beyond the initial period of arrival, and new challenges may emerge over time. Nora Oertel-Ribeiro, an educational officer at Nordstadt’s Raum vor Ort, highlighted the needed additional support for certain discriminated and vulnerable groups. Workshop participants also stressed the need to mainstream an “arrival-sensitivity”: service providers working with newcomers should be better able to communicate, understand needs and orientate their clients.

Asset-Based Learning in Schools

Schools are more than a place to learn the alphabet, especially in arrival neighbourhoods. They are important arrival spaces for children and families, particularly mothers. They do not only educate but also support newcomers with information and orientation, offer opportunities for social contact and networking, and often provide for basic needs such as food. Adult education centres play a similar role.

When considering how we can understand and support learning in arrival areas, London-based assistant head teacher Soofia Amin from the Kensington Primary School and English tutor Beverley Mohiuddin from the Renewal Programme made workshop participants rethink how to approach newcomers who do not speak the majority language(s): instead of focusing on their deficit in majority language skills, schools should see their existing language skills as assets. Kensington primary school follows an approach that celebrates multilingualism, for example with after school language clubs (Spanish, Romanian, etc.) that are open to all pupils. Examples such as the Newham Renewal Programme or Raum vor Ort in Nordstadt show that in the field of adult education, newcomers can even co-create curricula according to their skills and interests.

But the ability of an institution to adapt to its learners’ knowledge and needs varies according to the institutional setting and its funding. Workshop participants from all three sites shared the experience that primary schools in particular lack financial resources, staff and school places. Schools often have to reject new pupils and do not have sufficient resources to address the needs of newcomer students.