Raising awareness on human rights and migration

This week is global Human Right's week and Thursday was dedicated to migration/refugees.

We wanted to do a little action in Kumanovo to inform people about this day and talk with them about migration to know what they think about it. So with our "No borders"-hearts we went to the main square of Kumanovo and spent few hours there talking to young people that passed by and who were not too busy.

So what do young "kumanovians" think about migration?

* First of all, many people link the subject to emigration from Macedonia and told us they want to migrate one day too. They think migrating to foreign countries (mainly to EU*) is a good opportunity for them to learn new skills and get new experiences. Moving to EU* to study or to work is unfortunately quite hard for them because of visa restrictions, but they are hoping that in few years Macedonia will join European Union which would make moving much easier for them.

* Some people we met said that there are no human rights in Macedonia and the opportunities to find a job for example are quite limited. That is why opinion of many people towards refugees is rather negative. They said that the refugees arriving to Macedonia are not bad people and they are in need of help, but the things are though for us Macedonians too so we just do not have ressources to help them.

* "Refugee-crisis" seems to be something people in Kumanovo do not know much about and they are not used to meet a lot of foreigners in their lives. They do not really know what to think about it and for some it felt even little scary when the refugees first started to arrive in the country. However, those who have actually met refugees and heard their stories said it had really touched them and they believe that this kind of humain dimension to the situation might change some people's opinions.

* Despite some concerns Kumanovians might have towards refugees, many of them still think that everyone should have the right to migrate, especially those who are coming from war riven areas or are otherwise persecuted. They think that migrants should be seen as individuals like everyone else and treated equally with the natives.

Now, that we have a proper idea of the attitudes towards migrants that young people here in Kumanovo have, we will keep working on raising the awareness of the situation and see what we can do to change the attitudes even a tiny bit. :)

NO BORDERS!

*EU: European Union