Sweet Social Inclusion

Storytelling: Oana Maroti

We hear a lot about inclusion, but what is it?

Social inclusion is defined as the process of improving the terms of participation in society, particularly for disadvantaged people, through enhancing opportunities, access to resources, voice, and respect for rights. (Online definition and not the best)

As a resume, social inclusion has a strong relation with human rights implementation.

I can observe from the media and by participating in events orientated to inclusion that the very concept is not understood by those applying it.

In my neighborhood, there is a banner saying -tanquem la precariedad- we close precarity, but I´m in a precarity situation and have lived here for years. I had too much direct experience, regrettably to believe such a banner. I´m not on the streets due to nice random people... Institutions in charge of social inclusion and bureaucratic dynamics are not helpful or difficult to access. Since the pandemic having someone face to face is even more problematic, as precarity is induced once more by the very own internal dynamic.

If I had lived on a hill, among just a few people I would consider moving, but in this case there are so many like me affected by the illogical bureaucratic dance around the subject. With prolonged delays, like 3 years process to recuperate my finiquito after a company literally emotionally abused me, and didn´t want to pay the lay-off fee. Delays in medical care or wrong diagnosis. Immobility or severe impairment post bad treatment, yet no support, xenophobic remarks, and consistent delays from departments in charge with papers, and the list goes on.

My mother used to work in Madrid and she cannot believe my experience, since she was even helped with rewriting her CV and guided through formation and job orientated. It never happened to me in Cataluña, in 9 years and that´s why precisely I´m struggling. I had to change jobs, domains, and language systems, work with no payment, be delayed with some months' payment, or hang on to the job while verbally abused.

To work in Barcelona and surroundings at least it needs a lawyer. There are still businesses if not the majority that rely on immigrant's backs. Will be using them for some months, making them think they will have a contract and papers issued, but that´s not necessarily true. The delays between registering a contract in the system and actually having the papers can be consistent.

Lots of people work in the very center of Barcelona, in our face without papers, conditioned by their bosses that will only pay them from time to time the rent money and some little extra for food. Modern slavery interaction is to be found especially in big towns, touristic ones.

By not having access to the system that makes a logical coordination and assists new arrivals, to ensure a safe experience, these modern slavery businesses are flourishing. I would like to just say I´m exaggerating. I do not. My experience working in Barcelona was not a safe one. Why are lawyers not available, given the situation?

First of all, there are explicit laws that in essence protect the individual and install equity. It´s just a problem of implementation and the lack of implementation reflects corruption. When those laws are applied, the field is prepared for social inclusion, the next step is to have also the people prepared.

Even in kindergarten, when we introduce a new member to the group, there is an intermediary protocol and guidance. If we just throw the newly arrived member into a group that has xenophobic or racist ideas, that´s dangerous both for the individual and for the group. As we are not lions, we tend to punish abusive behavior by law.

In Barcelona, people are thrown to the lions, from abusive flat owners to abusive prices for water if looking as foreigners, restricted access to public institutions or medical facilities, or language preferential treatment. Immigrant workers suffer because of this daily inequity. The social internal dynamic is forcing people to leave, constantly replacing them.

The publicity and auto-laudative photos, rewards, and so on are just showing off.
Any town that wants to be respectable has a Social Inclusion Plan. Such a plan, if well-targeted and implemented can reduce severe issues like: crime, precarity, school abandonment, domestic violence, suicide, and depression.

If not well formulated, targeted, and implemented exclusion will keep appearing and complicate things. For any objective to reach a successful level, those receiving the immigrants need a cultural introduction, so they might interact respecting other cultures, not just imposing or taking advantage of them.

Someone starting to speak a new language will still need to be heard and make themselves understood until they can express themselves in your favorite way. Some might never reach the linguistic expression, as so many people are non-verbal or have the brain part of calculations more active.

Others might develop dyslexic traits or even early dementia by superposing different linguistic systems, imposed, yet not well guided during transfer. All these people, many of them specialists in different fields, are in majority Spanish speakers.

My heart breaks especially for the families that have an autistic child and are consuming all their incomes trying to give them equal chances, by leaving their original countries and homes and trying to integrate somewhere else, where access to learning is, in theory, more possible.

Those families are dragged around and not respected; the effect comes from inside the social nucleus. According to the Inclusion Plan, which is based on human rights, there are special resources to support these people, not offend them, and even apply social exclusion or let bullying happen to their kids.

Cultural mediation is often seen as a last resort, when, in fact, it is necessary as the first step in social integration.

Any big city has a mix of identities, with individual development or adaptive needs. Among the basic adaptive needs is social appartenance. We work and live here, but we are charged extra for water or involved by default in mistreatment, which does not go well with feeling accepted.

If laws only apply to some and the inclusion strategy is actually an exclusion strategy, in practice, people are left out of the system, trapped in a chain dynamic that makes them lose all energy and money and can be in fact prevented and the bureaucracy black market closed.

With personalized guidance, any person can surpass themselves. I find it more challenging to address genetic or developmental problems and find solutions than I find bureaucratic or technological impediments problematic. Some problems are just induced.

The whole process involving legislative aspects, language acquisition, or technology access and comprehension is easy to integrate at this moment. Reducing the traumatic factor is a more difficult task. But to arrive at this point of maximum importance, to minimize the traumatic factor and induce security feelings there is a whole meticulous strategy.

In a functional inclusion strategy, among big groups and small groups, we also recognize and protect individuals.

The whole process of inclusion goes in explicit steps from macro-groups to micro-groups and can only be successful if the receiver group, the country that receives the immigrants is aware and makes efforts to educate the big group.

Implementing a strong Strategy for Inclusion is any city´s objective and the real challenge.

Where there is social inclusion, that´s a safe place.
So, let me ask an essential question: How important is safety for you?