West Dunbartonshire Council’s Refugee Resettlement Team have been working with Syrian Refugee’s since 2015 when the first families from Syria arrived in Scotland. West Dunbartonshire Council initially received 20 families. Since then we have resettled a total of 37 families across the Council area, with plans to continue with refugee resettlement work in future.
So far our short term integration processes have gone well, but it has always been important to us to get long term integration right as this is what builds resilience, confidence, and supports the families to contribute their skills and diversity to the local community. But this longer term integration has always been more difficult, encompassing complex social stratifications.
As we worked with the families it became clear that the men’s integration journey was taking place at a much faster rate, as the men soon made local contacts through social media or the Mosque enabling them to quickly get into employment. Employment funded the purchase of cars and the men’s independence accelerated. However this independence could only happen at the expense of the women who were at home taking care of the home and the children. So as the men’s integration and independence raced on, the women’s opportunities to do the same were diminishing at roughly the same rate.
At this point the Resettlement Team got in touch with Outside the Box to seek develop a plan for the Council, which would look at supporting and enhancing the Syrian women’s integration. From the outset there was an understanding between the Resettlement Team and OTB that when it comes to integration the local level matters. Where refugees go and how they integrate into their new communities depends on the specific characteristics of towns and cities. In our case very little infrastructure existed locally for refugees, so in the beginning a lot of work had to focus on building local support. The Syrian women embraced the idea of a women’s group and Moments of Freedom was born. The women soon began making connections across the local community and in Glasgow, attending events and meeting other groups.
Since the project started the women’s group have strengthened their contacts with other groups in the local community, hosting social events and drop in sessions for local people, and they have built sustainable networks with group both in the local area and also Nationally. They have Hosted events for Internal Women’s Day celebrations and they were recently invited to speak to a National Leadership group at Cosla about their integration Journey. They were also recently shortlisted for a prestigious Community Development award at the CEMVO EMI awards.
This year we were keen to build on the progress that has been made. Many of the women have completed adult learning courses which equip them for job market , others have learned to drive and have gained a new measure of freedom and independence, many of them have improved their English and all of them have increased in confidence.
This year OTB have developed a programme which will be looking at potential opportunities for work or volunteering, and at what barriers exist that might prevent the women from work. Amongst other things OTB will be looking at capitalising on the skills and attributes that the women have and looking at how work promotes confidence and self belief. As the project progresses the women will be linked with groups and organisations that support women into employment, their skills will be assessed, and they will take part in workshops aimed at moving the women closer to the world of work. It is hoped that by the end of the year that the women will have opportunities for work or volunteering open to them which they can confidently access.