[JFKI-News] REMINDER: Invitation to Webinar "Sponsorship and Mentoring – Promising Pathways towards Migrant / Refugee Settlement or Privatization of Integration?" on March 19 at 4pm CET

["Ziegler, Anne" <anne.ziegler@tu-berlin.de>]

Hello everyone,

 

We would like to remind you of our third German-Canadian webinar titled “Sponsorship and Mentoring – Promising Pathways towards Migrant / Refugee Settlement or Privatization of Integration?” taking place on tomorrow (March 19) at 4pm (CET) online.

 

We have invited highly interested speakers who will share their expertise with us:

 

Prof Dr Phil Triadafilopoulos, University of Toronto, Canada       

Prof Dr Thomas Soehl, McGill University, Canada

Lukas Troetzer Pathways International, Canada

Dr Tihomir Sabchev, Tilburg University, Netherlands

Lisa Marie Veyhl, Robert-Bosch-Stiftung, Germany

Dr Florian Tissot, BAMF, Germany

Dr Jannes Jacobsen, German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), Germany               

Dr Alexandra David, Institute for Work and Technology, Germany             

Moderator: Prof Dr Felicitas Hillmann, TU Berlin, Berlin         

 

Abstract:

Sponsorship has been part of Canada’s approach to migrant / refugee integration since 1979. Today, multiple programs cover a high range of purposes – pre-migration offers aim at supporting migrants before entering Canada in organizing everything from booking flights to finding a job while other programs aim specifically at supporting migrants who move to rural Canada. Sponsorship has been praised as corner stones of the Canadian success in migrant integration, a system with highly selective access. The approach is anchored in a settlement sector, which is mainly organised via civil society and private stakeholders. In Germany, in contrast, Sponsorship as well as Mentoring have been part of the integration landscape for years, yet there were not put as much centre stage in integration policies. In the context of the substantial arrival of refugees in the past 8 years, initiatives such as for example “NesT – Neustart im Team” have been developed and by now show ambivalent results. While supporters claim that sponsorship and mentoring initiatives can support integration and facilitate the settling of migrants / refugees in their new environments, critical voices present the programs as a form of privatization of settlement and integration and warn against leaving this important task to private actors and civil society (and thus shift responsibilities away from social policies). While both Germany and Canada have implemented comparable programs, the approaches differ in many aspects. They deserve comparison in order to allow for valuable insights and in-depth discussions on such initiatives and strategies.              

 

More information and the link to access the webinar can be found at our website at NUPS (tu.berlin)

 

The webinar is organized by the “Paradigm Shift_New Outlooks” networking project based at TU Berlin and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS). The interdisciplinary project connects scientists from various countries and deals with questions in the areas of migration and the future of work. A central aspect of the project is the reinforcement of German-Canadian collaboration on a scientific and political level. “Paradigm Shift_New Outlooks” is headed by Prof. Dr. Felicitas Hillmann.

 

We are looking forward to an intriguing webinar and an exciting discussion with you!

 

Best

Anne Ziegler

 

 

 

_______________________________

Anne Cathrin Ziegler (sie/ihr - she/her)

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin Paradigmenwechsel_Weiterdenken

- Gefördert durch das BMAS (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales) -

 

Research Fellow Paradigm Shift_New Outlooks

- funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) - 

 

Technische Universität Berlin

Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplanung

Institute of Urban and Regional Planning

anne.ziegler@tu-berlin.de