Project “Welcome to Romania!

Improving the knowledge of the third country nationals concerning their rights, duties

and integration opportunities into the Romanian society”

 

General Program: “Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows”, European Union Funds

Budget line: European Integration Fund for third country nationals (TCNs) - Annual Program 2008

Action: Action 3 Enhancement of the dissemination of information to the TCNs regarding their rights, duties and opportunities of integration in Romania

Beneficiary: ARCA- Romanian Forum for Refugees and Migrants

Ref: IF/08.02-01

 

 PRESS RELEASE

 

Bucharest, 28th of January, 2010

Organization ARCA - Romanian Forum for Refugees and Migrants together with the Association for Organization Development – SAH ROM and the Soros Foundation Romania have implemented in the period August 2009 – January 2010 the project “Welcome to Romania! Improving the knowledge of the third country nationals concerning their rights, duties and integration opportunities into the Romanian society”. The project took place within the Annual Program 2008 corresponding to the European Integration Fund (ref: IF/08.02-01), having as aim to improve the access of the TCNS to information concerning their rights, duties and integration opportunities into Romania, in order to enhance their potential to fully participate to the social, cultural and economic life of the host-country society. Besides the approximately 60.000 TCNS, the project  also took into account the actors involved in the migration field – public institutions, employers, trade-unions, NGOS and immigrants  associations – as well as mass-media and the Romanian community in general.

The Research Report „Immigrants’ information needs in Romania”, carried out within the project, pointed out the major problems the TCNS are confronted with in their process of integration in the Romanian society: the system’s lack of coherence, the insufficient coordination between the institutions involved in the immigration management and immigrants’ integration, the excessive bureaucracy  and the variability of the information given, the poor knowledge about their rights and the language barriers.

The conclusions of the research report contributed to information increase in the guide „Welcome to Romania! Information guide for third country citizens”. The material contains both general information about Romania and specific information concerning the residence permit in Romania, labour and working conditions, education and culture, social and medical services, transport, access to accomodation, family, finance and fiscality or participation to the community life.

The guide, available in hard and electronic format, was translated in four languages – English, French, Chinese, and Turkish and launched in Bucharest in December 2009. It has been distributed within local seminaries organized in Constanta, Cluj and Bucharest. The dissemination seminaries aimed to facilitate a direct dialogue between aliens, authorities and the organizations active in the immigration field at local level, through interaction with the  existing situation.

The dissemination of the guide continued with its publication on the websites of the organizations which participated in writing the material: www.arca.org.ro, www.adosahrom.ro, www.soros.ro, on the project’s website http://integrarertt.arca.org.ro or on the websites of the Romanian Office for Immigration, of the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection and of other institutions and organizations active in the immigration field, also on the websites and discussion groups of  immigrants’ asociations, of universities and international websites.  

The results of the project consist, among others, in: the increase of the TCNS’ s information concerning their integration possibilities, their rights and duties on the Romanian territory, the increase of their access to public services and to programs for learning the Romanian language and cultural accomodation offered by the Romanian Office for Immigration, the increase of the authorities’ capacities to offer integrated services adapted to the existing realities with the aim to manage efficiently the immigration phenomenon, the diminution of social exclusion and discriminatory practices towards the TCNS communities and also the increase in their feeling of belonging to the host community.

Through  formulating conclusions and recommendations resulted from dialogue and the common efforts of the host-country society and the immigrants communities in Romania, the results of the project represent an important basis for developing further initiatives and interventions.

For further information, please contact:

Simina Guga, Project Coordinator ARCA, tel. 021 252 73 57, office@arca.org.ro

Răzvan Samoilă, Executive Director ARCA, tel 021 252 73 57, office@arca.org.ro

Rodica Novac, Project Coordinator, ADO SAH ROM, tel. 021 210 71 60, adosahrom@starnets.ro

Iris Alexe, Project Coordinator, Soros Foundation Romania, tel. 021 212 11 01, ialexe@soros.ro

 

ARCA – The Romanian Forum for Refugees and Migrants is a nongovernmental organization, apolitical and non-confessional with humanitarian and ecumenical character, having as purpose to defend and to promote the fundamental human rights, especially those of refugees, repatriated and other categories of migrants. The purposes of the organization are: support social and professional integration of the people forced to live away from their origin country, facilitate cultural exchanges between migrants and their adoptive country, develop partnerships with institutions and organizations in order to properly cover the needs of the refugees and of other types of migrants and to support the socio-economical re-integration of those repatriated. 

The Soros Foundation Romania promotes patterns for the development of a society based on liberty, responsibility and respect for diversity. The program “Migration and Development”, initiated by the Soros Foundation Romania in 2006, aims to identify the integration patterns of migration, as well as its effects on central and local authorities’ policy and to promote patterns which allow minimizing the negative effects and maximizing the positive ones. Within the program there are carried out analyses and researches on the current situation, focused studies, lobby and advocacy activities for the recommendations and identified solutions to be integrated in public policies for the migration field. The migration phenomenon is approached from a development perspective that considers that migration has positive effects on the origin country and on the destination country, as well as on the migrant, his family and the local community.

ADO SAH ROM is an NGO founded in 2000, which promotes organizational development, policies and services in the social field and actively contributes to the consolidation of the civil society and the collaboration with other organizations at a national level and abroad. The organization has an experience of over 7 years in project implementation on the labor market and social dialogue development and collaborates with organizations and national and European networks for projects that support access to decent work and foreigners’ active involvement in the economical, social and cultural life of Romania.