Reflection on my Engagement in Johannes Mihkelson Center (JMK)

Heyhey,

Here is the link to the scanned Verification Document.

Quick recap as of what is Johannes Mihkelson Center (JMK). They are a foundations that used to be the official refugee resettlement service provider for the state, but as of the last procurement, that is the job of Estonian Refugee Council and JMK works with helping more on the social support side. They provide volunteer-buddy system, organise events and provide opportunities for people with refugee statues to engage in their local communities.

My 4 hours in Johannes Mihkelson Center were mostly spent talking about the system of resettlement of people with refugee status and the flaws the system has, as seen by Dan, my supervisor. I do not have any visual images from that day, but I did write notes on our conversation, so I could remember details later.

I will go by points so that the structure would help me organise my ideas.

  1. The people with refugee statues in Estonia are treated equally to Estonians. That means, that their rights and obligations have been essentially copied over. But when thinking about unemployment support, such equal treatment often times keeps people at home, because they would be stupid to work. Ex. unemployment support per person would be 800 euros, and going to work your salary would be 800 euros. There are no added monetary benefit. In this case, you still receive the same amount of money, you just cannot be home with your kids and have to work.
  2. Such situation shows the lack of effort put in by the ministries to create a working system that would minimise such situations. BUT, there are only around less than 200 people with refugee statues in Estonia. And there are around 15,000 unemployed Estonians. As a ministry, thinking of your time, there is really no point in putting all your time to work with a situation that is essentially working and includes such a small amount of people.
    1. As talked in my Vao reflections, both Dan and Jana agree that the fact that all of the workers know the people in the refugee system personally, means that the Estonian system is very well advanced in social interaction and support systems.
    2. What Dan brought out, is the problem of relevance, such small numbers mean.
  3. With the small numbers, also comes the problem of critical mass. Since there is not enough people to fill out workshops given by support organisations (such as “how to find a job in Estonia?”, “how does the E-Estonia online platform works?” etc), the price of the workshops for the organisations are expensive.
    1. There would be no problem, if people spoke Estonian.
  4. And here come the other big problem and flaw of the system – language learning. The system requires each person holding the refugee statues to receive 400 h of Estonian language classes. That means 2 x 1 h classes a week. That is not enough. And currently there is only one company that meets the requirements of the state procurement for the language learning service. That means that they hold the monopoly, and as seen by the lack of knowledge people get, their learning philosophy is outdated.
    1. If the people got proper language training and would be able to converse and work in the Estonian language sphere, they could take part in the official workshops given to the regular Estonian unemployed, and the problem of lack of critical mass would be gone.

Talking about the funding underlined much of our conversations, since all of the social support work done by the foundations is done project based, meaning that it is very unstable. Dan also mentioned, that in his opinion, the system of who gets and who does not get the money for their project and why lacks transparency. He also mentioned something me and Jana had also talked about, that under the current more conservative government, the funding of their organisations and foundations is a bit worrisome topic anyways.

We also talked about volunteers and how active they are in JMK. Dan brought out the same kind of statistic I had already heard from Jana – in 2015 JMK had 70 volunteer applicants and Estonian Refugee Council 150. This year, Dan had put up a call for volunteers and around 8 people had signed up. And of those 8, if 1 stays for longer, things would be good, as he said.

In the end, I was happy to listen to Dan rant about the system, as it was clear that he feels very passionately about what he does every day. He also said, that even though most of what he told me was negative, Estonia is actually doing quite well in general.

For me, the main problem seems to be bureaucracy and people who lack passion. Like Dan brought out, even though everyone who works directly with the refugees, knows them by name and their story, that often stops at the doors of the ministry.

/Best!/

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