4

Many of these individuals are living in one of three asylum homes in Slovenia, where they wait through a long, drawn out procedure that determines their eligibility to stay in the country and the European Union. All across Europe, integration has to be a critical focus of policy and budgets.

Integration is often thought of in the context of official programming that exists for individuals once they are granted refugee status or subsidiary protection. In other words, integration funding often focuses on programs for refugees to learn Slovenian, get a job, and find a place to live. Between the Centres for Social Work, the Ministry of Interior and relevant non-governmental organisations, the support at this stage of the integration process is relatively robust, at least in Ljubljana. After receiving a positive result on their application for international protection, a person is assigned an integration counsellor from the Ministry of the Interior. This counselor works, in cooperation with non-governmental organisations, to help refugees navigate the process of finding a place to live, signing up for the 300-hours of free Slovenian language courses they are entitled to take and looking for a job or job training programs, many of which are run by Zavod za zaposlovanje. In reality, this process is less streamlined, individually tailored and supportive than it appears. For example, refugees often cannot easily access services like bank accounts or housing, both because of bureaucratic barriers (for example, banks have autonomy to refuse to open accounts for individuals from certain countries due to concerns about money laundering which affects refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria) and discrimination. Attention needs to be paid to removing these barriers to access if the existing programs are to be effective.

But the more fundamental problem with Slovenia's approach to integration is that it comes too late. For many people, the procedure to apply for international protection (refugee status or subsidiary protection) lasts more six months. For these months, asylum seekers live in uncertainty and have minimal access to the necessary services and institutions. They are isolated and idle, de-facto allowed to do little more than wait for the decision that determines the course of the rest of their lives. Integrating is hard work. It is not easy to learn a new language (and one with six cases and the dual form, at that!), to learn and adapt to new cultural practices or to accept the reality of being a minority. If we expect people to do this once they are given refugee status, we have to focus on welcoming them during the asylum seeking process. Not focusing on integration during this period undermines the effectiveness of any integration programs that come later. The following are three specific recommendations for improving the integration process during the asylum seeking process.

Interpreters

Integration can (and should) begin as soon as asylum seekers cross the border into Slovenia. Existing practice pays almost no deference to the hardships asylum seekers face in reaching the border. They are greeted, not only by an increased military presence and the widely controversial razor wire fence, but also by untrained, unprofessional and inadequate interpreters. As soon as a person requests asylum, he or she is interviewed by the Ministry of Interior with the assistance of an interpreter. But the requirements to work as an interpreter for the Ministry of Interior are lax at best. There is no official test to determine an interpreter's actual knowledge of a language and many interpreters lack the knowledge of the sophisticated terminology necessary for accurate translations in these critical interviews. Beyond knowledge of the language on its own, asylum seekers have reported fears that their interpreters have ulterior motives and may misrepresent their claims. These issues not only present significant problems for the effective implementation of the international and European law that guarantee protection, but also foster a feeling of helplessness and victimisation on the part of asylum seekers.

At the most basic level, resources need to be invested in developing language training and testing for interpreters employed by the Ministry of Interior. But effective integration policies should go further and also train and employ cultural mediators. Cultural mediation focuses not only on interpreting but also on helping asylum seekers and refugees effectively communicate and navigate cultural differences. Cultural mediators in Sicily, for example, explain their rights to asylum seekers (such as the right to healthcare or the right to police protection against violence) in a way that explicitly acknowledges that these rights are different than the rights in the asylum seekers' countries of origin. By way of example, approaching an asylum seeker and saying, "you have the right to emergency medical care" (or, as is more often the case, handing them a pamphlet that says this), may be misunderstood by a person coming from a war zone where emergency means something entirely different than in Slovenia. A cultural mediator has training to explain exactly what a right entails in a way that makes sense to people coming from different cultural and political contexts.

Programs to train interpreters and cultural mediators exist in parts of Europe not far from Slovenia. In Trieste, cultural mediators complete 500 hours of practical training in mediating based on the specific specialty in which they plan to work. Employing individuals with this kind of training means that asylum seekers and refugees better understand the cultural differences that they need to be aware of between their home country and country of choice, which creates a better living environment and a more fluid process of integration. As importantly, training interpreters to meet asylum seekers on their cultural and linguistic terms fosters a relationship of respect and support which is so crucial to not only respecting human dignity but also to effective integration.

Healthcare

The long waiting time before a decision on asylum applications is especially problematic with regard to limited access to healthcare for the asylum seeker. Refugees are given the same access to health services as Slovenian citizens but asylum seekers, with the exception of children, are only given access to emergency care. In practice, this means that when a person has a toothache, they can get dental care to prevent a potentially life-threatening abscess, but they cannot get the cavity filled to stop the pain. Painful ailments (such as kidney stones or orthopedic injuries) that are not considered to be an 'emergency' are not treated at all. With such limited access to care, asylum seekers may live in physical pain for extended periods of time.

Focusing purely on the effect of such a policy on integration, these kinds of living conditions give asylum seekers a perception that Slovenia is ambivalent to their hardship. As a result, some asylum seekers are unexcited about becoming part of a country where they are treated poorly, and/or they develop a hardened understanding that they have to "go it on their own" if they are going to make it in Slovenia. Both of these perspectives harm the integration process, which is as much about welcoming newcomers into a communitycas anything else.

Providing asylum seekers full access to medical care would go a long way to making them feel like they belong in Slovenia. Other countries in Europe, such as Norway and Italy, give asylum seekers access to the same medical care as nationals. In addition, it makes financial sense to expand medical access for asylum seekers. Europe has long known that accessing preventative medicine saves money in the long-run and a 2015 report by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency showed that this situation is no different for migrants. Migrants deserve holistic access to healthcare simply as a matter of limiting their suffering and such a policy is also a financially sound way to improve integration.

Financial Responsibility

At the Asylum Homes, asylum seekers are given basic clothing and served daily meals, which mostly consist of tan colored foods such as potatoes, chicken, pasta and white bread. As a means to support themselves otherwise, asylum seekers are given EUR 18 per month. Because asylum seekers are barred from working in Slovenia unless they have been waiting for a decision on their application for more than nine months, this money is the extent of their available income. This financial scheme gives asylum seekers minimal power over even the simplest decisions in their life such as 'What should I eat today? What time am I going to have lunch?'

Money could rather seamlessly be reallocated from the cafeteria and given to individuals so that they have enough to shop and cook for themselves. This is the kind of system employed in places like Finland and Norway, which allows asylum seekers to cook food they actually enjoy.

Simple changes like this can go a long way to give people back some power over their lives, which ultimately effects integration, according to Živa Gabaj, a social worker who works on integration for Slovenska Filantropija, a Ljubljana-based non-governmental organisation working on migration. Policies need to empower asylum seekers with a sense of responsibility and communicate that they are respected enough to be given a chance to make their own choices. Slovenia cannot leave people in a state of passivity for months at a time and then expect that suddenly, when they get refugee status, they'll be able to navigate the exhausting and challenging process of integration.

Conclusion

Many of these changes stem, first, from a change in mindset. When people are fleeing danger, their safety is of course a top priority. But we cannot be satisfied with merely giving them a place to exist outside of danger. We should want this place to be somewhere these individuals can be healthy; can meet people and make friends; can contribute to the labour force; can think, learn and strive to be educated; and ultimately can live happy, healthy, and productive lives that they find fulfilling. We should want this place to be their home, and the process of helping people make Slovenia their home starts as soon as they get here.