OSCE: MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION

In particular, the discussions highlighted the crucial role of civil society in promoting integration and underlined the requirement to go beyond consultation with civil society to include awareness-raising on rights in order to address structural discrimination and institutionalized racism. Participants also acknowledged the important contribution of migrant organizations in facilitating dialogue and participation as well as their need for capacitydevelopment. Finally, participants discussed the critical role of the media in spreadinginformation on migration issues and promoting a culture of tolerance and respect for diversity. Particular emphasis was put on the difficulties encountered in ensuring the participation offemale migrants in public life, due both to cultural reasons and to the widespread exploitation of this category of workers in the labour market. In this regard, participants agreed that when elaborating integration programmes, it is crucial to ensure the full and equal participation ofwomen migrants in public life and society, and to address their specific needs and concerns,as well as to ensure adequate protection from violence and discrimination both at domestic and society levels. A generally accepted idea was that, without the integration of female migrants, overall integration could not be successful and that —parallel societies“ would be created. Strong opinions were expressed that, although the first goals of integration processes are preventing marginalization and exclusion, it should not stop here. Ideally, integration policies should be in place from the moment the migrant arrives in the country and should target bothpermanent and temporary migrants. Moreover, there is no logical end point for integration where migrants can be seen as fully integrated or a society classified as fully cohesive.Integration should be viewed as a process rather than a static goal....(Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights)