The past month, in October 2023, the CB4VOL project campaign team that is part of WIDE+ conducted an online social media campaign, which can be found under the tags: #Language4Migrants, #LetThemSpeakUp, #IntegrateThem, and the overall CB4VOL project tag: #Volunteering4Equality, which highlights the campaign of our partner associations as well (click here for more).
The campaign strategy included a focus on sharing the lived experiences of migrant women in their language learning journeys that are residing in the EU, representing various countries. The team conducted extensive interviews, did desktop research and reflected on our own experiences to provide a picture of the importance of free language and the many barriers that exist to exercise this right. By doing so, the teams aims to bridge the gap of awareness surrounding language barriers, thereby fostering a more inclusive and informed society.
The team choose to focus on the accessibility of language as it discovered through discussion how important accessible language courses are for migrant women and gender-nonconforming persons. However, in many contexts across Europe the available language courses fail migrant womxn to swiftly integrate.
Open Letter: ”Migrant Womxn Deserve Language at No Cost”
The team has prepared a letter to outline barriers, impacts and recommendation. In sum, language barriers greatly deepen the vulnerability of migrant women. And it poses significant challenges to both the economic advancement of migrant women and their access to decent work. Proficiency in the local language is indispensable for female migrants to successfully navigate their new surroundings.
