Strategy in the field of migration finally in the making in Slovenia

There is no strategy on integration of refugees in Slovenia, neither a strategy on integration of migrants in general. The only strategy that exists is the one on working migrants for the period 2010–2020 and even this one is not very »useful« since it was prepared during the economic / financial crisis and the reality in last years is completely different than it was in 2010. NGOs active in the field of migration and asylum have been advocating for the holistic integration strategy for years. Slovenian Government decided it is finally time for the Strategy in the field of migration – which will include also integration of migrants in one part.

So far, NGOs active in the field of migration and asylum are not satisfied neither with the procedure nor with the content of the draft strategy. The Government handed the coordination of the preparation of the strategy on the Ministry of Interior, which is obviously reflected in the content. So far, the focus has been (completely disproportionally) on irregular migrations, security issues, protection of the borders and asylum procedures, while the large majority of migrations in Slovenia represent economic migrations (migrant workers). Draft strategy is currently divided into six pillars: legal migration, international protection, illegal migration and return, security aspect, integration, and external dimension of migration. A group of NGOs, including Peace Institute, have addressed a letter to the Prime Minister, calling for the change in the procedure (PM office to take the lead in preparation of the strategy) as well as in the content (to rethink the purpose of the strategy, the vision of the Government in the field of migration, to proportionally address the issues, and to put more focus on the integration of migrants).