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Description
Official figures on racial and xenophobic crime in Poland (about 1700 incidents a year) are incomplete and understated. As indicated by the research of the ODIHR/OBWE, only 5 percent of crimes are reported to the police. Most acts of aggression directed at people of foreign origin or Muslim faith are met with a lack of reaction from witnesses to the events. This may be related both to fear, lack of tools to react, and sharing prejudices against people of non-Polish cultural background. There is a lack of initiatives that would give tools and guidelines for responding to such situations and, on the other hand, would show a positive image of foreigners living in Poland.The aim of the project is to organize events to raise awareness of rights of migrants and refugees, and persons in the refugee procedure. A radio podcast will be produced and a performance put on to mark World Refugee Day 2021. They will be produced by four multicultural workshop groups, overseen by migration experts and artists. The participants in the workshops will focus on producing joint solutions and tips on how to mobilize people who witness nationalist-based aggression and discrimination to react and act to counter conduct of this kind. The workshop activities will go hand in hand with legal advice for migrants. The podcast will be on the Tok Fm website and other channels, and a plan for educational activities will be provided with each episode to be used in schools and cultural institutions. In the course of the project, the plans will be used by a minimum of ten schools.The project, through the creation of an artistic action and a nationwide radio podcast, will be promoting attitudes of tolerance and respect for migrants and refugees s and contribute to the prevention of hatred and racist aggression, not only in the Warsaw, but also in smaller towns which we will reach with the podcasts.
Summary of project results
The project addresses the problem of low awareness of the situation of refugee women and refugees or migrant women and migrants in Poland, as well as growing xenophobia. Official data on hate crimes is severely underestimated - according to Ombudsman Office, only 5 per cent of them are reported to the Police. Project promoter works on a daily basis with people of non-Polish origin, many of whom have experienced discrimination - on the street, in the workplace, online, often with the consent of their environment. Moreover, during the project, a humanitarian crisis broke out on the Polish-Belarusian border, which not only revealed state violence against people trying to cross the border, but also increased racist and anti-refugee sentiment.
The project created a space for sharing experiences and developed information and education materials on responding to bias-motivated violence. Four multicultural workshop groups took part in 60 workshops and rehearsals. Their work resulted in an interactive performance walk, which was presented on World Refugee Day. The joint work also resulted in a podcast - a total of 6 episodes, each devoted to a different topic, i.e. violence against migrants and migrant women, children, LGBT+ people, women and violence on the Polish-Belarusian border. For each episode, lesson plans were developed for working with young people and adults, which were tested in schools and cultural institutions. The project also provided legal consultations (36) for migrants and migrant women on issues related to legalising their stay, dealing with official matters and others.
The project has helped to empower the people participating in the workshops to tell their stories, exchange experiences and become supportive of each other. They also increased their competences in the area of recognising and responding to hate speech and bias-motivated violence. Migrants and migrant women received one-off real legal support in dealing with everyday problems. Thanks to the information and education tools, i.e. the podcast, the performance and the lesson scenarios, the issue of violence against migrants and migrant women and other social groups became more present in the public consciousness. The experiences of the workshop work were in turn incorporated into the recommendations developed for the City of Warsaw on working with migrant and refugee communities through the arts.