The Case for a Multi-Faith Approach to Assist the Integration of Migrants

religion and migration

Policy Briefing

The Case for a Multi-Faith Approach to Assist the Integration of Migrants

Dr Majbritt Lyck-Bowen & Dr Mark Owen

Executive Summary

In the last two decades, the number of international migrants has increased significantly world-wide. This development has pushed integration to the top of national and international policy agendas, as the successful integration of migrants has become one of the most important challenges states and communities currently face. The issue of integration impacts to varying degrees directly on the successful achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals: not least poverty, education, equality, economic growth, sustainable communities, climate change and peace, justice and security. A new study from the Centre of Religion, Reconciliation and Peace at the University of Winchester and the European Council of Religious Leaders explores how a multi-faith approach to welcoming and helping integrating migrants is beneficial.

Introduction

Since the beginning of the new millennium the number of international migrants defined as persons living in a country other than where they were born, has risen by 41 percent to 241 million in 2015 including almost 20 million refugees[1]. Violent conflicts in different parts of the world including Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq and unrest in countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Eritrea have contributed to this increase[2].States and communities have struggled to handle the substantial increase in people needing not only immediate humanitarian assistance but also a new long-term home. In addition, there have been noteworthy differences in various countries’ willingness to help the newly arrived people and this has led to tensions between states.Concerns overnumerous issues including the pressure on social services and challenges to community cohesion have been raised by many of the host communities. In some countries, this has manifested in increasingly negative attitudes towards migrants, and in the most extreme cases overt xenophobia and violence against migrants. These events are perhaps made even starker when set against a back drop of the recent rise of extreme right-wing political parties and ideologies across Europe and the US.

In light of this the successful integration of migrants into host communities remains a high priority not just because international law dictates it but because many of the migrants arriving to new countries are in desperate need of not only immediate humanitarian aid but also long-term rehoming because the situation in their home countries is dangerous and volatile and unlikely to improve any time soon. Integration of migrants is a complex and dynamic process that involves actions at many different levels from the local community to the international governmental level and encompasses a wide variety of actors.

Given the scale of the challenge of welcoming and integrating large groups of migrants from diverse backgrounds and the many competing priorities and limited resources of national institutions, it is important to look for different non-governmental actors who can get involved in welcoming and helping integrate the migrants. One possible group of non-governmental actors that can potentially play an important role in this, is faith-based organizations. Many faith-based organizations have a long-standing tradition of being able to mobilise financial resources as well as volunteers for a wide variety of social activities ranging from social work in their local communities to helping deliver humanitarian aid abroad. Hence, many faith-based organizations are already involved in integration-supporting activities placing them in an important position to assisting in the welcoming and integration of the many new migrants. However, though organizations representing many different faiths have long been involved in these kinds of activities they have so far largelyworked side by side rather than together. This is surprising considering how cooperation between different organisations and agencies is generally seen as being beneficial in the social sector.

Consequently, this research project set out to identify projects where faith-based organisations where cooperating with other faith-based organisations in the welcoming and helping integrate migrants in order to explore in what ways such a multi-faith approach was beneficial. The research identified a range of interesting ways in which a multi-faith approach was beneficial for the welcoming and helping integrate migrants and concluded that such an approach should be encouraged and supported. Though it also acknowledged that more research and case studies are needed to help determine under what particular circumstances this approach is most suitable.

Approaches and Results

This research is based on an examination of four case studies.The criteria for selecting relevant case studies were situations where cooperation between two or more organisations representing different faiths had been initiated in order to assist in the welcoming and integration of migrants. One casestudy namely the UK based project Refugee Support[3]was identified via the network of the researchers. In addition,the European Council of Religious Leaders also helped identify three more case studies: a Swedish project called GodaGrannar(Good Neighbours), a German project called Weisst Du Wer Ich bin?[4] (Do you know, who I am?) and a Polish project called Dialogue for Integration – a Multi-Faith Approach.

The project included both primary and secondary research. Semi-structured interviews with representatives from the different projects were conducted in the end of 2016. The representatives were chosen as interviewees because they are directly involved in the work their organisations carry out on the integration of migrants and hence, they are considered to be in suitable positions to elicit information about these projects. The research also included information from the homepages of the faith-based organisations and from news reports from reliable sourcesabout the projects.

Our research indicates that a multi-faith approach to welcoming and helping integrate migrantsis largely beneficial. Some of the principle ways in which it enhanced integration processesinclude:

• Counter discriminatory narrative:Multi-faith cooperation can help counter the increasingly prevalent narrative that it is more important to help migrants from a particular faith (Christian) than other faiths (mainly Muslim). Multi-faith cooperation can help show migrants that they are all equally deserving of help regardless of their faith background and it can help promote the equal application of human rights for all people regardless of their faith.

• Help migrants with everyday problems: Multi-faith relations and networks can help migrants who share these faiths with everyday problems, such as how public services work and how newcomers can learn the local language as well as establish new social networks, that migrants face when arriving to an unfamiliar location.

• Introduce migrants to local faith community:For religious migrants to whom a spiritual dimension to life is important for their well-being the cooperation between organisations representing different faiths can help facilitate the introduction of these migrants into the relevant local faith communities.

• Religious peace, tolerance and freedom:Multi-faith cooperation on welcoming and helping integrate migrants,illustrates to the migrants and help them understand that in their new countries some features of society are different from the migrants’ home countries. In many of the new countries people with different faiths, including those groups who are on opposing sides of violent conflicts in the migrants’ home communities/countries, can work, talk and socialise together and they can build a democratic, peaceful society together (≈ religious peace), people with different opinions can work together (≈ religious tolerance) and people have different beliefs and are free to practice their faiths (≈ religious freedom).This also helps counter-balance the negative stories about religious groups and the role of religion in violent conflict.

• Coordinating and complementing efforts: Multi-faith cooperation on the welcoming and helping integrate migrants also help ensure that the efforts of faith organizations are coordinated and that they complement each other. Some faith organizations have substantial experience in helping with the welcoming and integration of migrants and hence they can help other faith organizations who want to become involved but lack the experience in helping out efficiently. Multi-faith cooperation also helps ensure that the organizations’ work is coordinated and linked and that the organizations are complementing each other rather than working next to each other on the same issues. Furthermore, multi-faith cooperation also ensures that the organisations can draw on each other’s strengths.

• Religious leaders can influence opinions:Religious leaders can influence the way people think and hence they can encourage their congregation to warmly welcome the migrants into their local community and they can use the case of multi-faith cooperation on the integration of migrants as an example of what can be achieved when you reach out to and cooperate with people from other faiths.

• Alleviate fear of radicalisation:Multi-faith cooperation on welcoming and assisting in the integration of migrants can also help alleviate the feat that migrants have been/are being radicalised. Faith leaders and volunteers from the different faiths who help out with welcoming and integrating migrants can jointly speak out against the perception that migrants already are or are being radicalised.

Added benefits of multi-faith cooperation not directly related to the task of welcoming and help integrating migrants:

• Promote inter-religious dialogue:Having a set of tasks that different faith organizations can cooperate on can also help promote more general inter-religious dialogue and cooperation.

• Improved relations between people:Coming together as local faith communities to work for a common cause can also positively affect the relations between all the people involved.

• Enhanced cooperation and networks:Multi-faith cooperation in one area has led to cooperation in other areas and the initiation of horizontal and vertical networks.

Conclusion

Conclusion

This research project clearly indicates that faith-based organizations can make a significant contribution to the welcoming and integrating of migrants and that this contribution can potentially be enhanced through these organizations adopting a multi-faith approach by cooperating with other organizations representing different faiths. These projects can be a much needed addition to states’ attempts of integrating migrants considering the limited resources and the many competing challenges states currently face.

However, more case studies from different parts of the world need to be examined and multi-faith projects need to be closely monitored and evaluated over a number of years in order to determine under what circumstances and in which contexts multi-faith cooperation on welcoming and integrating migrants is most helpful. A comparative study between non-faith based, faith-based and multi-faith-based projects focusing on welcoming and integrating migrants would also help elicit the differences a multi-faith approach makes.

This work has already been initiated by the Winchester Centre of Religion, Reconciliation and Peace but it will need continuous financial support to be sustainable.

Implications and Policy Recommendations

The research implies that a lack of funding and hence a reliance on volunteers for not only carrying out the different activities within the project but also the management of the project jeopardizes the projects’ sustainability and potential for expansion. Hence, if multi-faith cooperation on projects focusing on welcoming and integrating migrants are to become more common, then funding for such initiatives need to be available. This is already the case in Germany where the Ministry of Internal Affairs has made substantial funding available and even made the funding of individual projectsfocusing on welcoming and helping integrate migrants depended on organizations representing different faiths working together. More than 40 projects have been established based on this funding. This kind of funding should also be made available in other countries.

The research also identified a need for the establishment of local, regional and national platforms where faith leaders and representatives from faith organizations can meet and vertical and horizontal networks between relevant actors can be developed. Several of the projects included in this research pointed out that it was difficult to establish contact with organizations based on other faiths because inter-faith dialogue and cooperation is still in its infancy in many places. Hence, if faith-based organizations are to begin cooperating with each other across faiths then they need local, regional and national platforms where they can get to know each other and initiate projects together. Such platforms aka councils of religion have already been set up in several places in Germany and more are being established. Similar councils should be set up locally, regionally and nationally in other countries.

Finally, this research project also indicates that if organizations representing different faiths are to effectively cooperate on the welcoming and integrating of migrants then they need guidance on how to plan, implement and manage such projects. Several representatives from the projects included in this research reported that they did not feel they knew how to best implement projects aiming at welcoming and integrating migrants. Hence, they relied on an uncertain trial and error approach. An important first step in this process is the development of a model for this kind of cooperation that can guide interested parties in their endeavors and that can be adapted to the particular circumstance in each country. An attempt to develop such a model has already been initiated in Sweden but more work is needed on this. Another important step in this process is providing relevant training in project development and management for the representatives from the faith organizations who are responsible for the implementation of these projects.

[1]

[2] BBC (2016): Migrant crisis: Migration to Europe explained in seven charts. BBC 4 March 2016. Accessed at: and UNHCR (2015): Europe refugees and migrants emergency response: nationality of arrivals to Greece, Italy and Spain, January – December 2015. Accessed at:

[3]See:

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