Being Heard or Being Seen.

To Participate or Not To Participate

Oriol Romaní, Carles Feixa, Andrea Latorre

IGIA (Barcelona) – University of Lleida

IntroductionThe concept of ‘global citizenship’ is useful for extending Marshall’s (1950) classic three dimensional definition of citizenship: civic, political and social. The arena of citizenship is extended to:

a) economic and cultural rights and duties; b) ICT are added to traditional citizenship institutions; c) the transnational level is added to classic nation-building.

The participation of young adult migrants is a key arena for these changes, not only because as young people they are pioneers within the digital society, but also because they move across national and social boundaries, living ‘global ethnoscapes’ and ‘transnational connections’.

Engaged citizenships

The decline of traditional political participation coexist with news forms of participation, passing from a "duty-based citizenship" to an "engaged citizenship" (Dalton, 2007), with diverse manifestations such as community-volunteer work, local support, or participation in demonstrations. Young adult immigrants are partly involved in this transformation of the modes of participation in European societies, contributing to the redefinition of the civic map of the city.

The 3 welfare regimes

The material collected is discussed according to the typology proposed by Esping-Andersen (2002) for the countries with welfare states:

1)the social democratic welfare regime (Norway and Sweden); 2)the liberal welfare regime (UK); 3)and the conservative welfare regime

1)the Mediterranean countries (Spain and Italy), where the family and the civil society realize substitutive functions2)and the Continentals, France, with large government presence, and Estonia, with significant market penetration.

Forms of participationThe main aim of this chapter is to consider the aspects of young adult immigrants participation that are most pertinent to their processes of social inclusion and exclusion. We will focus on the continuum between the two classical social fields where the game of participation is played out and solved (both for the winners and losers):

formal participation, the field of political and civic inclusion/exclusion; and informal participation, the field of community and peer network inclusion/exclusion.

We will use the Extended Case Method (Buraway, 2000) in the form of illustrative biographcal cases

a) Formal AssociationsIt is important to put political participation among young migrants in the kinds and level of participation among young people in general. According to data EUROSTAT (2009) about political participation among European youth, neither the belonging to political parties nor trade unions is very high in European countries: young people affiliate themselves more with recreational, religious or civic organizations. In general, men are slightly more active than women in political parties, trade unions, professional associations and significantly more active in recreational groups, while women’s participation is somewhat higher in religious or charitable organizations (EUYOUPART, 2003).

Political ParticipationPolitical inclusion is related to whether one experiences the political system as representative for oneself, also involves participating in politics through voting or having a voice in the public sphere, and is related to the experience of being heard by the authorities, such as social welfare offices, public care institutions and schools (Fangen, 2009). The transnational perspective of the social sciences warns against a «national container» type of thinking, where the nation state is taken as a given, and as the most important unit to analyze (Wimmer and Schiller, 2002), still the nation state in itself is built on the distinction between us who are inside and them who are outside (Fangen, 2010), and the barrier of us and them is imposed in different ways.

Inter-cultural citizenshipEspecially in Mediterranean countries, there are a significant number of people without access to legal recognition that guarantees their rights (except voting), and the residence permit. The importance that subjects give to legal recognition goes beyond a matter of rights and obligations of citizens, that it has to do with dignity, with feeling valued, with the fact of no longer feeling as "other", to continue to constitute a new us that, in the new Europe being built, must involve not only social inclusion, but also political and cultural representation of the diversity in our societies, moving in the direction of inter-cultural citizenship.

Civic ParticipationAssociative activities and voluntary work occur with a relative frequency among young immigrants. There is a clear contrast between those oriented to work towards their own community (whether from a political standpoint or practising social assistance) and those who practice a kind of civic participation that is highly integrated with the model of the host society, and in a continuity with their more strictly political activity. Perhaps this contrast reflects different positions in the mode of inclusion in society, which could correspond to a selective acculturation and a full acculturation respectively, following the model of segmented integration that Portes et al (1993, 2007) proposed for second generation immigrants. In the first modality, solidarity and community ties are the key for an integration that improves living conditions, while the second refers to assimilation into the dominant culture.

Barriers to ParticipationThose who do not participate in civic

organisations argue that it is down to a lack of time, or to save energy to dedicate to personal projects. It also reflects the necessity to prioritize certain life aspects, such as education or work. These factors, as much as they limit time for participation, paradoxically constitute strategies for insertion within the host society. In any case, the possibilities for success are diverse, dedicating time to academic training and to bettering life conditions, involving long working days in precarious jobs, is not the same.

Case 1: Mustafa (21, male, Turkey/Norway)

Last year I was in Young Liberals and I was part of the city council. […] They did not call me because they liked me so well; they said that right to my face. They just wanted my name on the list, because it sounded foreign. […] When they called me and said: «yes, your name, it sounds different, and we want it on the list», I just said «all right». I mean it is fine. Why not? I had nothing to lose. […]. I will improve my standing within the party by having been on the list. That was what I was thinking, that it could give me an advantage, better than nothing, they think of me as different. It was the opportunities I was thinking of.

Case 2: Edrin (25, male, Albania/Italy)It would be ok if Italian society were not so discriminatory and racist. The point is the fact that I am no one here and I have to keep in mind always that my rights are not the same as yours. It is easy for you here….you go out and walk at night in the old town and if the police stop you it is fine, you have Italian documents….but for me it is much tougher, I can be stopped and questioned even if I do have documentation, the police can do anything to me, and if I react I am charged. Do you think that this would happen to you? The police are only brave with people like me, when they catch an Italian they are always attentive as they do not want to be accused of mistreatment but with immigrants…. no problem, they can mistreat them with no fear of the consequences…

Case 3: Natasha (23, female, Estonia/Russia)

Where is my home? I do not know. Russia is not my home. I was there several times, but I do not feel this is my home, but I have a red passport [Russian citizenship] (...) Yes, just in the beginning I was thinking to apply for an Estonian passport, because I had this opportunity to get it without any trouble, just because the people who were born that time when I was had this… I told myself, I’ll go and get it. But they, my parents, asked me ‘why would you do that? If you take the blue one you will not be able to go to Russia without a visa. Wait a little bit, Schengen will come soon.

Case 4: Jade (19, female, Melilla/Catalonia)

J.: Yes, I can work but I can not vote. I can not vote here for two more years here in the country and that is too many years, huh?I: Would you like to vote you say?J.: Yes.I: Why?J.: Because we live in a democracy and now that we have a democracy maybe I could speak my mind, why not? Although it is indignant [politics and politicians], but anyway. I want do it.

b) Informal GroupsAccording to recent research, the participatory practices of young people are not oriented especially towards spectacular anti-state activism or cultural politics but take the form of informal, individualized and everyday activities (Harris et al., 2010). However, this would be substantive motion on which are expressed direct participation practices, such as movement associated with the “anti-globalization”, the demonstrations of democratic protests in Arab countries, or more recent demonstrations to the “15-M Movement” in Spain, Greece or Israel. Here we will discuss informal, individualized and everyday types of participation found mainly through friends, neighbours and relatives: the openness and density of social networks, and the diversity of ethnic relations, could be indicators for social inclusion or exclusion.

Social NetworksThe empirical material analyzed in these research confirms the central importance of social networks in processes of inclusion – exclusion, and at the same time the diversity of contents that they put into circulation in the said social networks. Social networks are configured in relationships established in the physical and virtual spaces. The mutual support, wich would be the concept that could synthesize the main function carried out by these social networks, translates into very different aspects of life, such as guidance on how to move around in the host society, work, leisure, affection, etc.

Networks and Welfare RegimesBoth in the conservative regime of Mediterranean societies (Spain and Italy) and in the liberal regime (UK), social networks more or less oriented toward their own ethnic groups or those nearby, are key to give access to different aspects of the host society, thus facilitating the bridges towards inclusion. Inclusion can be more or less limited, but becomes virtually impossible when there are no such social networks. We also found that when social networks are dense and varied, they can facilitate a successful process of inclusion in society of weak states as Spain, but also play a complementary role in welfare states as Norway.

Case 5: Jasmina (25, female, Bosnia/Norway)

I simply think that to be able to create a network has made me better at getting a job.It’s not about discrimination; it’s just that I in that moment [when she calls them] feel like talking to them, in Bosnian. Oslo was a much bigger town, with many people from different countries. (…) and in Oslo I started listening to Bosnian music and thought it could be nice to visit Bosnia and see how things are going there.

Case 6: Juan de la Cruz (26, Male, Philippines/UK)

I have friends from the Philippines, from Mauritius, yeah, basically that is it. Indian, Asian, other Asian races as well, but not white. It is not that maybe our language barrier is there, but actually we can feel that they are trying to show that, yeah, we are above you, yeah, that is what they feel.

Case 7: Alejandro (26, male, Colombia/Spain)

I am a very selective person with my Latino friends... There is a profile of the Latino which is the one you can see most in here, to me, it is the profile of somebody who feels... like resentment towards Europe, like they are discriminating against me all the time. They have not been able to overcome their inferiority complex, they always go with people from...Colombia or with Latinos in general. But on the other hand the Colombian friends I have are... fine. They are people with... who in general they do go with other Latin people and all, they make all the difference, have an education, they have good jobs, maybe not wonderful but... they have more manners, one can invite them some day to meet my... Let’s say that out of every four times that I go out with Catalans, I go out once with Colombians.

Case 8: Barbara (20, Female, France/ Morocco)

Well, I like... the relationship we have with everyone, with all the people of our region or another region, the French, the Turks ... there is no ... I don’t see many racists here, most are normal, they speak with us as when they speak with someone normal, that doesn’t change. When we leave the area, well, we hear a lot of... the Arabs... - When you hear this, how do you react?I don’t even react. If I had to respond to everything you hear, then! Well, it’s up to us to manage, to know how to talk to people, if there are people who say to us "Oh, Arabs ...", and we don’t respond to all of that, we need to leave them alone, it's as if they were in Morocco and they said to them "Oh, the French" .

Final. Being Heard/Seen and Crossing Borders

Young adult migrants cross not only geographical/political borders but also biographical/ social ones: they are moving into the host society but also into adulthood. This dual journey increases their vulnerability as a generation, although it can strengthen them as individuals. The voices of the young people we have heard talk to us of sensations of contempt and rejection, but also of maturity and fight, of overcoming the difficulties of participation. But their efforts to become independent and gain prominence are not always welcomed.

The young people do express their interest in becoming citizens through the acquisition of the nationality of the host country. Besides the positive effects this will have on their quality of life, as taking part in the relative benefits of the Welfare System, it also has an impact on their political rights and their sense of being part of the society they live in. But the lack of legal status, which is so important in having access to the basic resources of integration, it is not an obstacle to some of these young people practising methods between formal and informal participation, more centered on social and transnational networks, made possible by new technologies.

The links between local and transnational networks, and between informal networks and institutions, are given within the marker of us/them relationships which continue to be nation-states, but at the same time helps to create a reality, increasingly dense, that lags widely. As we have seen from the standpoint of both formal and informal participation, one of the outstanding issues to be discussed by European citizens will be how to transform their political institutions so as they have a greater capacity for inclusion of this new contemporary phenomenon that goes beyond classic migration, that is, transnationalism.

Mileuristas, Ni-Nis or Indignados?

Last but not least: before being heard, young adult migrants must be seen: not as dangerous “visible minorities”, but as potential “active citizens”.