[Brussels, 3 April 2014] European Network of Migrant Women Coordinator Lara Natale addressed the plenary of the 11th meeting of the European Integration Forum on 3rd April. She delivered a statement she put together explaining the general NGO perspective on the effectiveness and impact of the Common Basic Principles for Integration, ten years on from their adoption by the Justice and Home Affairs Council.
Lara alluded to the feminisation of migration in recent years, and reminded that many of the indicators used to monitor the implementation of the principles – such as CBP 3 “Employment is a key part of the integration process…” – would lead to counterfactual results if not approached in a gender-sensitive way.
Concern was also expressed that the “two-way process of mutual accommodation” was not de facto practiced: the onus is overwhelmingly on migrants to integrate, and indeed European Institutions themselves have been passing or rejecting amendments and pieces of legislation that are non-compliant with the CBPs.
In particular, the internal political context of several Member States has changed in the last decade, and the CBPs do not address the challenges of far-right xenophobic discourses.
The Forum was held on the same day that the European Commission released their long-awaited new guidelines for the application of the European Union Family Reunification directive; dependent status impacts disproportionately on the treatment, rights and integration outcomes of migrant women.
