JDC's Center for International Migration and Integration Helps Immigration Experts From 20 Countries

Jonathan, a native of Sierra Leone, works as a project assistant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) where he deals with questions of refugee migration and integration on a daily basis. As his country is currently witnessing the return of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers who fled during its years of bloody civil war, Jonathan has come to Jerusalem looking for answers.

"I came to look at Israeli models of immigration and learn from other countries’ experiences in dealing with these issues. Like Israel, my country has also been affected by war for a serious amount of time. Today we are dealing with repatriation from neighboring countries and we need to learn how to handle it," Jonathan explains.

Jonathan's visit to Jerusalem is part of a course entitled "Migration and Integration for Development: From Policy to Practice" sponsored by CIMI - JDC's Center for International Migration and Integration (CIMI) and MASHAV – Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Center for International Cooperation. The course, which ran for a second time in November 2004, exemplifies CIMI's mission, as the center was founded by JDC with the aim of sharing Israel's extensive knowledge in the realm of migration, immigration and integration.

Through an intensive period of seminars, case studies and site visits, 27 participants from 20 countries from diverse regions – from Africa and Latin America to Eastern Europe and the Baltics to the former Soviet Union and Asia – came together to study Israel's methods for dealing with questions of immigration, emigration and homeland-diaspora relations.

Amid the hectic schedule, participants also had a chance to share ideas and learn from one another, leaving them optimistic that on their return they would be able to integrate what they've learned in their own countries. Indeed Jonathan, who through the course worked on ways of helping the return of Sierra Leonian refugees from Israel to Sierra Leone, admits, "The course was exhausting but truly worthwhile".

Liliana Foca, a young woman from Romania, is another participant in the CIMI course. Liliana, who could almost pass for a college student with her shoulder length brown hair, loose sweater and dark jeans, serves as the project coordinator for the Asociatia Alternative Sociale, a Romanian NGO that provides support to victims of human trafficking – buying and selling of women and children for prostitution and slavery – through education, prevention and assistance.

Liliana explains that the course particularly interested her as Romania is hoping to join the European Union in the next few years and is expecting increased levels of immigration from the Eastern European countries as a result. "I applied for the course because I wanted to see how the system in Israel works with immigrants and trafficking victims," Liliana explains. "As we travel through the country, I keep thinking of how I could adapt the programs we see to the situation in Romania."

Liliana had a real opportunity to take lessons back home when she was able to visit a project of choice with a personal mentor. During her visit to a shelter for victims of trafficking in Tel Aviv, Liliana saw for herself that, in her own words, "they have similar problems here to those that we have in shelters in Romania."

Fortunately for Liliana she had a chance to compare solutions as well as problems. Liliana’s final project, aimed at promoting Diaspora investment in her home country was inspired by a visit to JDC's PACT partnership with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

As Liliana acknowledges, "I learned how the Jewish Diaspora in the United States supports programs here in Israel. I want to encourage that in Romania. I need to do more research to build a Romania-Diaspora association, but it is definitely an idea I would like to take back with me and implement in the future."