Two years welcoming refugees to the UAB

The experience aims to achieve the full integration of migrants with the help of the university community through welcoming and accompanying actions.

Since 2016, the UAB and its Solidarity Foundation (FUAB) have been working together with the Catalan Committee to Help Refugees (CCAR) to take in refugees. Each year, some 40 to 60 refugees are invited to live at the UAB's Vila Universitària and participate in accompanying, training and awareness-raising programmes.

On 28 September, the Vila Universitària hosted an event organised in gratitude of all those participating in these programmes. The CCAR presented the UAB with a report on the past two years, and the UAB presented a video showing the experiences of Emad, Sara and Salem, who talk about their stay at the UAB campus.

President of the CCAR Miguel Pajares pointed out his satisfaction in the successful work detailed in the activities report: “a unique experience in Spain has made it possible not only to take in refugees, but also offer them academic studies in a university environment”.

Vice Rector for Students and Employability Sara Moreno stated that “more than two years after starting this programme have served as a learning process in which we have been able to heighten the possibilities of being a university campus” and that programmes such as these fit in with “the foundational values of a UAB committed to equality and justice”. She ended by saying “This year we aim to give visibility to what has been done and dedicate the year, starting with the next edition of the annual FMUAB festival, to all migrants, with the motto "#UAB refugi: l'Autònoma acull”.

FAS Director Jordi Prat spoke on the video presented during the event and explained that the experiences of these three people could be applied "to the almost 120 people who have passed through the UAB during the first stage of their stay" and defended that the UAB and the FAS "must offer the objects and the knowledge we have: campus, residence halls, training, volunteer work, language services” but that “the specialists in the matter are the people at the CCAR”.

Finally, Estel·la Pareja, Director of the CCAR, expressed her gratitude for the involvement of all sectors of the university: “Governing team, lecturing staff, administration and services staff, and FAS volunteers”. She also pointed out that the challenge now was to set "a methodology, beyond numbers, which can serve to evaluate the differential trait of taking in refugees within a university environment",although she affirmed that experience "shows us that being treated as a member of such a community has been very positive for the refugees".
 
Welcoming and Accompanying
The UAB's refugee welcoming programme is the result of a collaboration agreement between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Catalan Committee to Help Refugees. The FAS coordinates the activities to make international asylum seekers become fully integrated by involving the university community in conducting welcoming and accompanying actions. The UAB offers housing and full access to university campus services and resources, while it also implements a volunteering project focused on offering language and social integration (social mentoring for emotional and instrumental accompaniments).

The people living at the Vila Universitària are beneficiaries of the Welcoming and Integration System for International Protection Applicants of the Spanish Ministry for Labour, Migration and Social Security, managed by the Spanish Refugee Aid Committee.

More information at:
Fundació Autònoma Solidaria (FAS)
Catalan Committee to Help Refugees (CCAR)