Let's talk about migration

A few weekends ago, volunteers from Cid decided to organise an event to rise awereness about refugee' s situation in Macedonia, as well as to improve their lives in the Tabanovce camp by donating books, which were collected during the event (you can read article about it below).

Being curious what local people really think about migration and refugees. I decided to do a small research and interview several people different age. Overall I gathered 27 people including 18 man, 9 woman, most of the people were around 20s, some teenagars (the youngest person was 16) and one older woman (61). A few interviews were conducted during the event and in Multikulti, but most of them took place in bars, which explains higher number of interviewed men.


Macedonian part


Let's consider how a situation between Macedonians and Albanians looks in Kumanovo. Most of the respondents answered that relation between those two nationalites is neither good nor bad. Although, according to them nowadays the situation looks better. However the city is still divided, which indicate that definitely the situation should be improved. Some of the people mentioned that, conflicts from the past have still impact on current circumstances along with a bad education and integration system, which sustain touchy relation between Macedonians and Albenians.

Talking of migration, almost all respondents agree that the main reason of migration in Macedonia are economical and political. The low income force people to go to other countries and cities to find better job. However, there is no offical datas how many people migrated since 2005 of international migration and 2013 of urban migration. It is quite surprising and almost all my interviewees didn't know the exact number. Even though, people in Macedonia migarate, the migration itself by 3 respondents were consider as a threat to culture or nationality. Others thought that it has only negative aspects (6 respondents), 8 people said that only positive.  Nevertheless the majority claimed that migration is not a clear-cut issue and have both positives and negatives. According to them, small groups of migrants will not cause problems but bigger might if the country's immigration policy is not good.

Although, what does it mean to be a migrant and what is the difference between migrant and refugee?


Refugee part

According to modern definition drafted by UN's 1951 Convention, refugee is a person who is unable to return to their country because of fear to be presecuted. The international law only recognizes the people who flee because of conflicts nad violence. A migrant is a person who leave their country not related to persecution but mostly connected to searching for better economical opportunities. Most of the respondets were able to distinguish those two terms. Only teenage respondets didn't know the differences, the woman 61 years old and two people around twenties (age 20,23). However, even though rest of the interviewees could answer the question, sometimes they had some difficulties.

What is a knowledge about refugees in Kumanovo?  First of all, nearly all respondets were aware that there are still refugee camps in Macedonia. However, most of them could just point out that refugees are from Syria or Aganistan or say generally that come from Middle East. Only women age 61 and 23 didn't know completly anything about refugees, 5 people new more than the avarage person.

The most confusing questions were about sources of stereotypes about refugees, and if media are based when they write about refugee crisis. First of all, most of the people didn't know how to answer the question about stereotypes. Only 10 people mentioned, that media, fear of the unknown and lack of education are the sources of common misperception. Obviously, education and contact with other cultures is a key to avoid stereotypes as interviewees claimed. Another difficult question was related to based media, again only 7 people answer the question simultanieously agreed that media are predujest while showing image of refugees.The last question was related to integration refugees in a society. Almost all respondets agreed that, we should put more effort into integration because they are the same human as we are. Some of them graduated from the university and have professional-skilled jobs, unfortunately persecution forced them to leave the country. Despite that, some of the interviewees said that, in "richest" countries integration would be easier and for sure not in Macedonia.


Off the record


Overall I think the interviews went very well, however sometimes I got the feeling that some respondets don't understand questions or give me the "right answer". In spite of that, I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to talk to those people and see different points of view.

European union evening in Multikulti

          

          European union (EU) is european organisation, contained of 28 member states. More than 500 millions people of different ethnic, religious backgrounds live in EU and it is the biggest single market on the world. EU was established in 1993 by Treaty of Maastricht, which transformed the previous European economical community (created in 1957 by Treaty of Rome). EU is very important economical and political organisation with influence not only in Europe but worldwide. Despite huge power of EU, still many people don´t know much about EU, about its functions, history, geography, economy, politics and so on. That is why I decided to organise this evening, where through various activities, watching videos and discussion, me and participants tried to share informations about EU and educated ourselves. Macedonia is a country with candidate status for EU entry negotiations, so knowledge about EU is very usefull and important especially for young people who will be in the lead when Macedonia one day enter the EU.

          At the Monday 21th of August at 18:00 European union evening in Multikulti youth centre was organised. I started to prepare our playing room in Multikulti for the evening around 17:30 and luckily I made it until 18:00 when people started to come. I set the projector and screen, prepared board and some snacks to eat and drink. Not a lot of people came, just a few but they were active and was joining into activities I prepared. Whole evening was in the form of quiz to make it more interactive, not just lecture with me talking and people listening. We were finding countries on a blank map, painting the flags, trying to find out when all the member states entered the group, matching the countries with their contemporary currencies, or guessing the names of the cities according to pictures of them. I divided activities in a three blocks and between each block we watched the educating videos about EU. Participants were active and they knew a lot of stuff. 

          The event was organised at 21th of August, what is an important date for many Czechs and Slovaks, because at this day every year we commemorate the invasion of armies of Warsaw pact countries to Czechoslovakia to end the Prague spring, what was the period of liberalisation and democratisation of socialistic regime. This day is memento that democracy and freedom are not obligatory and we have to care about it, because it can easily be lost, or stole. Membership in EU is garant of our freedom and independence. So I explained to participants why in Czech republic and Slovakia we remember this day and we watched short video about this day. At the end of the evening I counted the points from the quiz and rewarded the winner with chocolate and EU handmade crown in the colours of EU flag. I would like to thank to all people who came and spent this evening in Multikulti with us and I hope that it was usefull and educative for them. 

Refugees and books (event)

„A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us“ Franz Kafka

          On the Wednesday 9th of august we (volunteers from CID) organized event on the main square in Kumanovo, which purpose was to collect books for the refugees living in a transition refugee camp in Tabanovce, small village just a few kilometres from Kumanovo and Serbian border and also make people of Kumanovo aware that despite closed borders, there are still refugees living in macedonia, not only in Tabanovce camp, but also in Gevgelija camp on the Greece – Macedonian border.

 As a volunteers, we have opportunity to work in the Tabanovce camp two days during every week. Some of us are here for two months, some for one months. It is not very long period, but  we could find out how camp works and how is life there. Refugees have covered their basic human needs like place to sleep, food, water, medical help. But what we identified as the biggest problem is the lack of activities for them. They have a lot of free time in the camp, but not much to do and they can easily fall into passivity of thinking and acting. It is possible to do some sport activities, for example like playing volleyball, or table tenis, but during the hot days it is not only uncomfortable, but also dangerous, when temperature is keeping around 45 degrees during the day.

          One of the possible solutions how to defeat a boredom at one time and at the same time learn something (for example at least improve or learn english) is to read books. That is main reason for organise the event.

       

          At first we planned the basic things like what we want to do during the event? where? when? what material do we need? how many of us should participate? After the answering these questions we started to prepare our materials and of course we needed to inform police about our event. The date 9th of august was not picked like coincidence, because this day we celebrate the national book lovers day. But dont take me wrong, we love books every day for the whole year. We decided to build three corners with various activities for the event. The first was book donation corner, where people could come and donate books (prefered in english or arabic, but every book was welcome) and of course talk with us. The second corner of interviews, where we prepared wall of photos from Tabanovce, wall of facts about refugee crisis and question wall where people could stick the sticker with the first world they think when they hear word refugee or migrant. The third was frame corner where people could make a photo with our handmade frame and to show their solidarity with refugees this way. Very important task we had to make was make people aware that this kind of event will be in the town. So we made a invitation poster in both macedonian and albanian language and spread it around the town. The first places where we came and remained there poster where of course local bars, where people usually socialise, but also in bus station and town pool, during this activity we had great oportunity to practise our knowledge of macedonian language.

          A few days of planning, preparation and hard work passed we woke up at 9th of august, when we had to come to Multikulti youth centre a little bit earlier than usually, because we needed to finish last details and at 15:30 we started to collect all our stuff to car and we left the centre at 4 pm, although event started at 5pm, we needed some time to build the tent and corners. Some problems with building of the tent occured, but we built it on 12th attempt J. After a couple of minutes we removed our main tent into the shadow, cause stay at the square right on the sun was almost impossible.

          At 5pm there were no many people on the square, but like time ran, more and more people (of every age) started to come to the centre and they were interested in our event. Some people came to donate books, some took photo with our frame, some for the interview about refugees and some just to drink or eat something (yes we were prepared for it J). Very pleasant visit was also reporter from TV Nova, who made an report about our event and inteviewed our coordinator and two volunteers.

          The event didn´t last for a long time, official time was from 5pm to 8pm, still during that short time a lot people spent their time with us exchanging opinions. People seemed to be curious and interested about a refugee situation, their answers to our questions just proved it. At the end of the event we all were satisfied, we collected 11 books in english and macedonian language and more denars than we expected, so event was sucessfull. 

         At 8pm we packed our thing and returned them back to Multi kulti youth centre. We just hope that this event helped to make awareness about refugee situation (not only) in Macedonia. Amount of people who showed their solidarity with refugees at wednesday make us a little bit positive in that way. We were happy to see that some local people care, of course we know that they are not representant of all inhabitants of Kumanovo, or Macedonia, but we are very thankfull, that they participated for a while in our event.

          At the end I would like to thank to great employees of CID and to all volunteers who helped us with organisation and with running of the action. Thank you very much for promoting humanity. 

More photos from the event:

Refugee camp in Tabanovce

People have been migrating for the thousands of years, definitely it's not a new process. However, two years ago Europe had started struggling with the refugee crisis, which still trigger heated discussion in many countries.


    Most of the migrants are from Middle East and African countries. It's said that, those people escape from the civil war, abusive politics towards human rights and terrorism itself.

Unfortunately, many stereotypies arouse about refugees since those years. Probably lack of education and unknown culture play a vital role in sustaining controversial image about them. Moreover, the description of refugee crisis showing by biased media might arouse fears and aggression in society. Additionally, it is thought that increase of the right wings parties in Europe make situation even worst.


    We shouldn't forget that the journey from Middle East to Europe is highly dangerous. Those people risk their lives to have better one and save their families. According to The International Organisation for Migration in 2015 more than 3.770 refugees were reported dead while trying to cross Mediterranean sea.


    Majority of refugees want to migrate to Germany. According to one of the refugee's story, in Germany, the process of being integrated into society, go to university or find a job is faster than in other countries. In Macedonia refugees mostly migrate from Greece in order to travel further to Serbia, France and of course Germany.


    In Macedonia exists two refugee camps, one in Tabanovce and the second one in  Gevgelija. Both of them function as a transit centre, which means that people should stay there for a short period of time. Nevertheless, NGOs try to make refugees lives as easy and comfortable as possible.

Nowadays, in Tabanovce camp are 25 registered refugees and around 60 unregistered. The amount of people is changing almost every day, because of the high rotation.

In the camp mostly live men around their 20s, there are a few women and children. Mainly, they come from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Algieria and Maroko. The camp is quite small, there are dozen booths, in each live around three people or whole family.


    There are many rumors about conditions in refugee camps. Probably, because of the small amount of people in Tabanovce standard of living is quite good. As might be expected, in the camp works a few NGOs such as Legis, Red Cross, Sos Children Village and UNICEF. Each organisation has different aim and target group. The purpose of Sos Children Village is to provided entertaimnet for youngsters, along with helping in process of growing up. Legis intends to release the stress through the sport and cultural activities and provide mental support by a conversation.


     Nowadays, situation in the camp is pretty calm because of small amount of people. The main problem the refugees have to struggle with, is boredom. That's why volunteers try to organise some activities such as cultural nights or just talk to them. However, I must say, that even basic conversation might be problematic, because of language barrier and no translators present at the camp. Although, there are many things, which should be improve, seeing smile at one person's face makes that, you want to help those people even more.

Refugees and books

Did you know that there are still around 100 refugees at Tabanovce transit center? Many Macedonians don't seem to be aware of that there are any, now that the worst wave of refugees is over and the borders closed.

Tabanovce, where the EVS volunteers work twice a week, migth not be what you expect of a refugee camp. The biggest problem the refugees there face are not humanitarian, but simply boredom. There is pretty much nothing to do in the camp, except for to let the time pass.

This is why we decided to try to collect some books in Arabic and English to take to the camp, and organize a whole event about refugees around it. Tomorrow, on Wednesday 9 August, we'll take CID to the Kumanovo main square with an interviewing corner, a photographic exhibition with pictures from the camp, and much more, to raise awareness on the refugee situation in Macedonia and Tabanovce and collect some books for the camp.

It's great to be organizing an event like this, trying to make a small difference where we can. Hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to many local people tomorrow!

CID volunteers took event posters around the city.

The poster at the main square immediately got some attention.

Lipkovo

          It was 2th of august, day when a lot of people on the world commemorate the holocaust of the Roma people during the World War Two, but in Macedonia is also Day of the Republic, so for many people free day. With other EVS volunteers from Multikulti centre in Kumanovo we decided to spend this hot day, when temperature was keeping around 40 degrees at Lipkovo, lake just a few kilometres away from Kumanovo.

          By car it was around 30 minutes, direction to Kosovo borders. In this area of Macedonia majority of people are Albanian ethnicity. During armed conflict in 2001 between Albanian National Libertation Army and Macedonian army Lipkovo was central strategic village.

          But back to the closer history. After Lipkovo village we saw very nice smaller lake, what was sign that this small trip will worth it, and it definitely was. From the old road we saw the beauty of the nature and clear water of Lipkovo lake in the middle of not high hills covered by green forrest. In a very hot weather some volunteers decided to hide under the trees a few meters from the water, while other volunteers including me decided to go kayaking (in my case just trying).

          Great thing about Lipkovo is that although it is very beautiful lake with a clean water, it is very hard to see there many tourists, so on the „beaches“ you have a lot of place for yourself. From the kayak on the surface of the water you can watch the nice surrounding and in the middle of lake is a small island for somebody who really love jumping to the clear water. After the hour of kayaking we realized that hunger is not a good friend so we packed our kayak, waited for another few minutes for the guys who borrowed our another kayak and didn´t have the need to return it and we went to the local restaurant.

    Lipkovo is great example that maybe Macedonia is not very famous as a touristic country with seacoast, but still dispose with a many beautiful places worth to visit J. Considering the fact that we are living in Kumanovo, we know that Lipkovo is still with us, cause it supplies the whole town with water.