Transcriber: Ale Heredia Allegretti Reviewer: Pari ‌Szi
Have you ever thought about migration, how people move and why we move?
And have you ever played with the idea that actually not
a single one of us would be here on the other islands if it weren't
for migration? People move all the time.
And the reason why is rooted in conditions and opportunities.
If a person chooses to stay depends on the same thing conditions
and opportunities. And it's all combined with expectations
and levels of participation.
I would not go all the way back to the beginning of the migration as
a phenomenon, nor the start of humanity.
But a little bit of history is always good for perspectives.
First, let me give you a question to bear in mind is staying where you are
an attractive alternative or are you opportunities better elsewhere?
You know that a lot of Scandinavians migrated to America right in
the year hundred at a time when Sweden had 5.5 million inhabitants,
the city with the largest population of Swedes was the capital of Sweden,
Stockholm and at the second place was Chicago.
Nevertheless, it was not only people from Sweden, all and islands Finland, Norway,
Denmark that migrated. The migration was from all over Europe.
And the migration was big.
Did you know that during a period of 74 years between 1840 and 1914,
it is estimated that 50 million Europeans migrated to America? 50 millions.
And the reason, the conditions; there were unemployment, poverty, starvation,
malnutrition and religious persecution.
And during the same time, an active,
welcoming campaign from America was screaming out one opportunity after
another. Get land of your own, get a job, become rich, find gold,
start a new life and participate in building a new country.
The campaign sent out an endless stream of opportunities with
the message that you were both welcome and highly needed.
The expectations were clear you would be included in building a new country.
In return, the country wanted you to be an active, productive inhabitant.
The shortage of workers combined with immigration made it possible
for many dreams to come true.
After finding work, it was coming to send money home for further tickets to
the loved ones left behind. The dream of a better life was clear for everyone.
When you migrate to another country, you will be facing different challenges.
And yes, it is a fact that no matter how prepared you are.
Not everything will be predictable.
Social codes and local expressions are some examples of that.
Why actually, why is every conversation
or almost every conversation here begin with talking about the weather?
Another example is the way humans thinks about time.
It differs a lot around the globe if you made an appointment.
How important is it to turn up in time and actually what does intime mean?
When are you late? And what happens if you're late?
What will the people around you think and how will they react with
a good coaching information and communication?
Some of the social codes and local expressions can be presented
and explained before the person face them in real time.
There are lots of valuable potential to gain from
the individuals that are moving in by not giving access to the society.
You will not fully use that potential living here.
That's why it's important to remember that the quest of a better life rarely,
if ever, is fulfilled at the bottom of a society.
In general, people want to contribute to society and fulfill their dream.
So what can we do to include the nuclear right and to speed up the process?
Yeah, you need to clarify the dream to make it come true,
if you have a clear dream, you will strive.
You would constantly try to build a better life if working with integration
and inclusion. This should always be your focus.
Be gentle and interested and include the individual in the process.
It is essential to begin with asking about their dreams and interests.
In this kind of coaching, you should also be prepared to take
an active role to remind that
the dream should not be affected by past restrictions that
the person had before migrating.
The country you grew up in often offers a different kind of access.
A social network of family and friends combined,
we don't know how about societies function like no where knowing where to
find answers to your questions.
You also have an idea of what expectations you can have on your life
and what the expectations on you are.
Both private and professionally moving to a new country,
you need to figure it all out again.
Learning the language and getting a job is not enough to get a total access to
the society and its cultures.
Nor is it enough to find out which road you should choose to fulfill your dream.
Obstacles and possibilities in your foreign home country does not necessarily
migrate with you, the conditions will most likely have changed.
Individual support is not only good to visualise the dream and get information,
but also to figure out possibilities and obstacles in the new context.
A personal network is also an important and valuable key of being included.
It is in the interaction with others that you define and develop yourself
and find answers that are hard to find elsewhere.
Every society is built on cultures. But culture is not one thing.
Society built upon the interplay of cultures that exist within
a specific area. Some cultures are local and some have a more global character.
So by knowing a person's interests,
you can use that information to include
the person by introduce them to others who share the same interests.
Like being a poet. Where is the library? And it's just poets society somewhere.
Being a drummer, is the band missing a drummer?
It is in the interaction that you can feel included and be a part of
a culture that you actually already are familiar with.
The result would be an inspiring, including a supporting network.
To fulfill the dream. It's also very important to keep up the motivation.
The key is to find out how it's to include two interaction and dialogue.
In the beginning, it is likely important to focus on learning how to speak
the new language, as well as figure out how to build a social network.
In a new society, you might need a push in
the right direction to find out where to go.
It is always not the same place at all time.
Having worked with integrations in multiple organisations from both public
and third sector, my experience is that
the most important ingredient to include people is trust.
Trust is required to build up motivation and to keep the motivation up,
no matter the mindset of the person.
Trust is also imperative to lower the threshold
for asking about things that may otherwise feel awkward to ask about.
Things that cannot be explained within the person's normal frame of reference.
Let me give you two examples.
The first one is a question asked in confidence by a man.
He felt compelled to ask the question that had been actually bothering him
for months. And the question was, are men not allowed to work in this country?
He explained that every working person he had met so far had been a woman.
As we started to sort through his work context,
it his question came into a new light.
He had been in contact with social workers, health care workers,
the Office of Social Insurance, the Employment Office,
the tax administration and the grocery store.
All predominantly female places of work, after explaining this,
he still saw it as a big mystery; where all the men in the society were.
Another example was a woman with reading and writing skills from
the elementary school. She had a dream.
Yet she was convinced that it would never come true.
The dream was to become a chef.
The fact that she had been at home with the kids,
she thought that was one of her biggest obstacles.
Usually, she answered that she had done nothing
and that she had no works working experience whatsoever.
What she didn’t tell it. The employment office was
the fact that not only did she take care of her own children,
but also the children of her siblings and some additional kids living in
the neighborhood. All in all, about 20 kids wanting breakfast,
lunches and snacks daily on top of it all.
She was also preparing the dinner
for two children under Sheila's parents after work.
And that's still not tell from the livestock
and cultivation that she also was taking care of, maybe just me,
but when I close my eyes, Picture me doing nothing.
It does not involve two children and cooking.
The African culture has a globally known saying it takes a village to raise
a child. It is just as true as
the context of including people in general.
The new normal should be to not live inclusion to others,
but to figure out what you can do to contribute to participation
and conclusion in the society.
Be aware that you are sending out messages all the time.
The questions you are asking the ads and verbs as you are producing
or even by invitations to your events.
The new normal should be to include everyone,
not just by saying everyone is welcome, but also act like it.
Start by saying hi. The new normal should be to value experience in general to
send out the message that not only formal education and work experience is valuable.
If you, as an authority, want to reach everyone living here,
be aware of how excluding the word citizen is,
it takes years to become a citizen.
And even if you do plan to live the rest of your life in
a country you migrated to. You don't have to be a citizen.
You don't even have to apply for it.
If you want to contact newly arrived people to talk about your company,
the best channel may not be an ad in the local press.
If you want to invite all the people to an event, knowing that newly arrived don’t
yet have a big social network,
have you considered to offer a babysitter during it?
And think twice. Did you get all the important information?
Did you remember to inform about the address?
Not everyone knows what a clubhouse is.
Even though you were crystal clear about it being just not on the roundabout,
so making the society sustainable is to reflect over your own situation as well
as reflect on others. What would it take to make the society even better?
How are we empowering everyone to participate
and contribute to our common society?
Worldwide Australians, we will always have one question in common.
Is staying where I am an attractive alternative or oh,
my opportunities better elsewhere.
If we all accept and agree to participate in building a society together,
we will make a new, inclusive,
sustainable society that also will be for everyone.