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Description
The migrant community in Croatia - particularly from marginalized groups such as refugees and migrant workers in precarious jobs - is largely poorly organized, dependent on humanitarian action or on small informal groups based around a common origin or language. Integration policies are almost non-existent, whil wider organization is prevented by the lack of language competences in Croatian. The activities of this project include continuous work with a group of migrants through theatre workshops aimed at language acquisition and creating their own counter-narrative in relation to the dominant discourse, as well as at the preparation and performance of a legislative theater play that will enable participants to co-create concrete solutions. Through this project, participants will receive targeted support through the methodology of drama education for second language acquisition. At the same time through the legislative theatre performance they will be able create counter-narratives and analyse and seek strategies to solve specific problems in the community. The expected wider impact on society is an increased level of integration (as a multilateral process) and concrete legal changes that will reduce administrative violence and discriminatory practices
Summary of project results
The Theater Language project, which is independently implemented by the Center for the Theater of the Oppressed POKAZ, is aimed at people with migrant experience who live and work in Zagreb. The community of foreigners in Croatia, especially those who are in a worse social position - persons with approved international protection, foreign workers from third countries in precarious employment - is largely poorly organized, dependent on humanitarian action or small informal groups based on common origin or language. Integration policies are almost non-existent, and lack of knowledge of the Croatian language prevents wider organizing.
Since 2016, when the first large number of refugees arrived at Croatia''s borders via the Balkan route, the so-called "migrant issue", as the official dehumanizing narrative calls it, has become a first-rate topic for collecting political points, while people who have requested or received asylum in Croatia are not provided with sufficient support in the integration processes. This is particularly a problem in the context of growing political conservatism, anti-immigrant public opinion and economic problems, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and earthquakes, as well as rising inflation and new wars, the effects of which are most drastically felt by the most vulnerable groups. Fear, worry and helplessness contribute to the loss of a sense of well-being, connection and fulfillment. For women, the situation is multifaceted, since some of them also face long-term traumas from the past, related to the trip to Europe and the uncertainty they experience here. Due to the lack of organized care for children, many of them are less mobile and have fewer opportunities for learning the language and other forms of education, also they have less job opportunities than men. Current political trends are characterized by a lack of public support for programs related to culture, arts, integration, community development and psychological support.
"Administrative violence" is also present, which was warned about by both civil society organizations and individuals from the community. For example, exceeding the deadlines for responding to the residence application leads to legal uncertainty; in the health system there are a number of discriminatory provisions and practices (foreign workers must pay for health insurance for a year in which they did not use it, the fact that persons under international protection are not in the Government Healt Insurance system but directly under the ministry leads to a large number of situations in which their access to care is very difficult); based on the asylum seeker''s status, banks refuse to allow overdrafts on accounts even in cases where the person has all the conditions for enabling such service.
Addressing all these questions is particularly complex for this community due to weak language competence, since it includes reading and understanding complex legal texts in Croatian. Organized language learning available within the framework of integration processes is insufficient for more serious participation in political life within the local community and more serious engagement for the purpose of protecting human rights.
The activities of this project included continuous work with a group of foreigners (persons under international protection and foreign workers) through theater workshops aimed at learning and adopting the language and shaping one''s own counter-narrative in relation to the dominant discourse, as well as the preparation and performance of a legislative theater play that will enable the participatory creation of specific solutions. Theatrical methodology has proven to be an extremely successful method for learning languages, and the theater of the oppressed as a means of fighting injustice. With this project, the participants received targeted support through the methodology of drama education for learning and adopting foreign language, and at the same time, through a legislative theater performance, they created counter-narratives, analyzed and sought strategies for solving specific problems in the community.
The key achievements of the project are as follows:
Increased language competence of the participants: The project enabled the participants to better acquire the Croatian language through theater workshops, which improved their ability to communicate with the local community and integrate better. This effect is particularly visible in people who attended the workshops continuously, as well as in those who already had a basic knowledge of the language, less so in those who had no previous knowledge (and they gave up more often).
Promotion of counter-narratives: Participants jointly shaped their own counter-narratives in relation to the dominant discourse, thereby empowering themselves and gaining the ability to express their views and experiences. This happened through work on mini-scenes of the forum theater as part of supporting language competences, which was then used as part of the material for the scene of the legislative theater.
Performance of a legislative theater play: The project resulted in the creation of a legislative theater play called “I''m not racist, but...” which enabled participants to collaboratively create concrete solutions to problems in their community. This play is a key tool for raising awareness of their challenges and needs. The topic they chose and which clearly connected all their lived experiences was everyday micro aggressions (which sometimes resulted only in discomfort, and sometimes had long-term consequences, such as the impossibility of renting an apartment or illegal dismissal).
Social integration: The project contributed to increasing the level of integration of foreign workers and persons with approved international protection into the local community. The participants became more active and visible members of the community. Some people remained connected to the activities of POKAZ, and continued to participate in other activities, while many people from the group were part of various activities organized by migrant associations and collectives (for example, the celebration of Everest Day organized by a Nepalese organization) or, for example, a public picnic on Ribnjak, organized by Doctors of the World (MDM) and Living Atelier DK.
Legal changes: The project is expected to have a long-term impact on legislative changes that will reduce administrative violence and discriminatory practices against people with a migrant background. Concrete proposals that were obtained through discussions during the preparation of the legislative theater play and during two public performances, were analyzed and turned into requests for state institutions. At the same time, requests were made to the organizations involved in the Coordination for Integration (to which POKAZ joined), with whom joint advocacy actions were agreed based on that document. The open letter that was prepared was also forwarded, together with the shadow report prepared by the Center for Peace Studies, for the second time to all relevant institutions in the Republic of Croatia.