Migration & Vulnerability

The experience born in 1992 with migrant women in the area began with the chance knowledge of Rebeca the day before she gave birth to her son Randi. Word of mouth among her friends before, and between those who gradually arrived in Livorno afterwards, gave birth to the birth of the Association and to a reality that allowed to know in depth and to monitor over the years a phenomenon, that of the immigration, very complex and constantly evolving, due to the different national policies, due to the continuous changes in the global geopolitical scenarios, to the types of migration flows.

Knowing hundreds of women, coming from different countries and with different migratory backgrounds, meant offering them support with a particular eye and attention to those who live, as women, the “uprooting”, expectations, responsibilities, in a society often excluded in which it is too easy to feel perpetually “strangers”; but it also meant coming into contact with injured people. The slightest wounds, if one can say so, related to the migratory path: the separation from the affections, the loneliness, the “disorientation”, the living in a “limbo”, the difficulties of expression, the anxieties linked to satisfying needs and the expectations of those who, at home, put all their hopes on these modern “heroines”. The most serious injuries, those related to human trafficking, enslavement, exploitation, torture, or violence experienced in the affective environment by those who often do not have a family or friendly support network or who do not know his rights.

THURSDAY - Place of Welcome

Since 1992 meeting place and aggregation at the headquarters of the Association and space dedicated to sharing, support, information and advice. Over the years many women of different nationalities who have attended the Association, once they have found a balance in their private sphere, have wanted to make part of their time and the experience accumulated during the years of life and work in our country.

ITALIAN COURSE

Qualified teachers also for Italian L2, if necessary with the simultaneous presence of linguistic facilitators, carry out Italian learning courses for migrant women with different levels of competence and previous schooling, and even non-literate ones.

JOB SEARCH

Autonomy, social promotion and, above all, the sense of living in a foreign land, are linked to the possibility of having a job: for this reason, Randi has equipped itself to search for answers to the many questions that come from women who attend the Association.

Over the years, individual guidance and guidance courses have been activated for the world of work, and positive actions and training courses have been designed over time to better qualify migrant women, especially in the home care sector.

ENHANCEMENT OF CULTURES

Con il duplice obiettivo di valorizzare il patrimonio culturale che ogni donna porta con sé, e con l’intento di creare “ponti” di dialogo, vengono promosse Iniziative culturali e di spettacolo, e serate finalizzate alla valorizzazione delle diverse identità culturali del territorio, in modo che ci sia un po’ di spazio per chi desidera provare a trasmettere la ricchezza di cui è portatrice

EMERSION FROM VIOLENCE

The particular experience of reception, intervention and support for migrant women has allowed us, in the search for concrete and competent answers, to develop a methodology of access to stories of violence suffered by immigrant women in which the practices of anti-violence centers are conjugated with the knowledge of the immigration legislation, of the foreign communities present in the territory, and with the anthropological and ethnopsychiatric competences acquired in over twenty years of history of the Association.

Only a competent and specific accompaniment allows the integration of what is the most vulnerable and most fragile component of immigration.

FIGHT AGAINST SOCIAL EXCLUSION

With a welfare system that generally holds less and less, the vulnerable categories are those that are affected first by the effects linked to the increase in poverty and the reduction of job opportunities. The lack of work can also cause the loss of the residence permit with consequent deprivation of social and health care rights.

As far as possible the Association is active to offer concrete support to those who are in financial difficulty with the withdrawal of food surpluses from the shops and their distribution.

Furthermore, against all discrimination and in synergy with other private social organizations and organizations and with migrant communities in the area, it favors the access to social and social-health services from the standpoint of health rights and respect for the dignity of each.

OBSERVATORY ON THE MIGRATORY PHENOMENON AND FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

Through years of field work, surveys and specific studies, the Association carries out a monitoring and analysis activity on the migratory phenomenon in the territory: knowing the reality, beyond assistance actions, means being able to carry out information activities, pressure and, sometimes, complaint. The study of the social and cultural phenomena and transformations that the migratory phenomenon brings with it allows us to continue the commitment to respect human rights and to combat stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination with events, conferences and training actions in schools and in many other areas.