EWL News

EWL calls on European decision-makers to support gender-sensitive family reunification policies

[Brussels, 15 June 2012] The EWL spoke at a Public Hearing on the right to family Reunification of Third Country Nationals living in the EU on 01 June in Brussels. This Public Hearing, held in the European Economic and Social Committee, was organised in the framework of the 7th European Integration Forum.

The EWL used this key opportunity to highlight the main demands of EWL joint campaign with the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW) for gender-sensitive family reunification policies:

  1. Stop creating dependence and instead facilitate autonomous residence for family members, especially vulnerable persons such as migrant women affected by domestic and /or other violence;
  2. Change the conditions that impact disproportionately on migrant women as spouses and family members;
  3. Change integration requirements that result in the exclusion of poorer and less educated migrant women;
  4. Change sponsorship requirements that disproportionately impact on women affected by multiple discrimination in society and the labour market.

The EWL released on this occasion with more than 70 other NGOs a joint statement on the right to family reunification.The signatories denounce Member States’ infringements of the current Directive on family reunification and urge the European Commission to take action to guarantee an effective right to family life and family reunion. The statement specifically recommends that the Commission update its 2008 evaluation of the Directive’s transposition, publish interpretative guidelines, and start infringement procedures when necessary.

Watch EWL-ENoMW video clips on migrant women’s right to family reunion here!

More about EWL-ENoMW Campaign on Family Reunion here.

You can also read EWL-ENoMW response to the European Commission Green Paper on Family Reunification here.

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