Creatιing the conditions for integration

GEORGIOS TSIAKALOS

Combating Social Exclusion, Fostering Integration, European Commission, DGV Conference, Brussels, 2-3 April 1992

The experience of the Third Poverty Programme demonstrates that action against social exclusion can work. But such action needs much greater resources if it is to match the scale of the problem. It also needs to create the conditions for integration, by addressing the root causes of social exclusion, whether in education policies, social attitudes or political dogma. Moreover, the Community needs to find ways of by passing blockages at national ieveζ and delivering support direct to local actors.

Ι should like to give a few pointers to help people dealing with the hard-core of the excluded population.

First, that combating social exclusion is not a lost cause. Τ'he success of the model projects supported by the Poverty 3 programme shows this. If we have not been more effective, it is because we have not reached more people. Our resources have been modest, and they should be increased by an order of magnitude.

Secondly, it is necessary to create the conditions under which integration can take place, by tackling the root causes of social exclusion. For instance, we can use targeted training to get people who left school early into a job, but why did they quit education in the iιrst place? We have to look at education policy, and do it through the eyes of the excluded people.

Thirdly, social exclusion is at its most rife where structures are outdated, where discrimination exists, where political power is unbalanced. Yet these are precisely the places where EC funds will not be able to fιnd matching from the public sector. Therefore, the EC needs to be able το intervene directly, being flexible in its fιnancial proceduτes so as to channel resources to those with direct experience of the problems.

Fourth, our work is hampered by dogma. We need a strategy based οn redistribution and solidarity, yet the introduction of a minimum income is held back because of the dogma that says welfare beneficiaries are scroungers.

Lastly, social engineering is not enough in itself. We have to change attitudes. Social policy is often based οn fear - that our societies will break down, or even that Europe will break up - unless the needs of the excluded are dealt with. Yet this attitude can have a perverse effect: concern for the needy turns to fear, which leads to more discrimination, and hence to a vicious circle creating yet greater social exclusion. The rise of the far right in European politics is evidence of this. We therefore need to base our policies οn shared values.

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