IMMIGRATION MEETING HEARS CALL FOR JOINED-UP SERVICES

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Friday March 5 2010

GOVERNMENT agencies and NGOs were urged to work together to help Tenerife's immigrants at a meeting in Santa Cruz on Friday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

Speaking at the Open Island seminar, University of La Laguna (ULL) human geography professor Vicente Zapata argued that the lack of cooperation between state and non-government organisations was hindering the integration of newcomers to the island.

The summit marked the tenth anniversary of the Tenerife Cabildo government's Open Island programme to integrate, advise and provide training (including Spanish classes) to immigrants.

As part of that initiative, ULL's OBITEN group has been monitoring immigration and the effectiveness of government policies.

While the media focuses on refugees and economic migrants from west Africa making the perilous journey by boat to the Canaries, there are also large communities of Latin American, north African, Indian, Chinese and east European people in the archipelago – in addition to tens of thousands of British, German, Dutch Belgian and French 'ex-patriots'.

Cabildo youth, education and equality advisor Josefa García opened the conference, saying that the immigrant family needed minimum “tools” to integrate them into Canarian society.

Dr Zapata said that while immigration was by no means a new phenomenon in Tenerife, it was on the increase at this time.

He pointed out that most immigrants have settled in the population centres of Santa Cruz and nearby La Laguna, Puerto de la Cruz, Granadilla, Arona and Adeje.

While the distribution of existing immigrant services reflects this pattern, two-thirds of them are located in Santa Cruz and La Laguna.

While calling for a greater diversity of providers – NGOs as well as state agencies and trade unions – Dr Zapata said that different services should come together to share experiences and develop joint protocols and objectives.

In response to delegates' concerns he said that government agencies should not view NGOs as “competitors or enemies.”

Dr Zapatero insisted that government commitment and stable public policies were necessary to provide a “calm” environment to work with immigrants.

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