Lifelong learning and inclusion:
the ‘citizenship assumption’
and the exclusion of 30 million
bodies
maria pisani
“I imagine they mistook the fishing boat for a ship carrying illegal
immigrants, but we will check what happened with an
investigation” (BBC News Europe, 2010)
Border-crossings? 30 Million irregular migrants
“The last time the Italians did this in 2010, the number of
arrivals in Malta dropped to about 200. I will not argue against
such an agreement…Libya is more democratic now.’
‘in their best interests’
• Malta’s policy of prolonged, automatic
immigration detention—without any meaningful
possibility of judicial review or remedy—amounts
to arbitrary detention prohibited by international
law. Article 9 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights forbids arbitrary
detention, and the United Nations Working Group
on Arbitrary Detention holds that a migrant or
asylum seeker placed in detention “must be
brought promptly before a judge or other
authority.” (Human Rights Watch, 2012:26)
‘irreconcilable with the requirements of the European Convention
on Human Rights and the case-law of the Strasbourg Court’.
• the accumulation of poor conditions of detention,
including sanitary conditions, together with the
apparent existence of cases of psychological
instability, with the lack of leisure facilities, the
overcrowded conditions and the mandatory
length of 18 months of detention brought, at the
time of the visit, the situation in the detention
centre beyond the threshold of degrading
treatment, and therefore in violation of Article 3
ECHR, Articles 1 and 4 EU Charter, Article 7
ICCPR and Article 16 CAT. (ICJ, 2012:31)
‘facing a veritable invasion of irregular immigrants which is sapping
our financial and human resources’
• “Given Malta's small size you cannot expect
the government to release illegal immigrants
into the streets, especially in light of
increasing numbers. This would send the
wrong message and spell disaster for the
country... As a minister I am responsible,
first and foremost, for the protection of
Maltese citizens”
• “I don’t think we can call it
integration. We can call it ‘fitting in’,
but integration? They are still
second class citizens. And
integration is about creating first
class citizenship. And that is why I
use integration in a very narrow
way” (Interview with Director,
AWAS)
• “They want me to die in poverty. Racism,
discrimination and unnecessary deportation
are my greatest worries here. ... My fear is
that I don’t have a future here in Malta
because they don’t have a plan for me and
that I have been abandoned like every other
African who came from West Africa”. (in
Cardona, 2010, p.149)
• “But when a court of law is not
upholding rights, but upholding
policies which could be violations of
rights, well then I think it’s very
worrying’”NGO lawyer in Gauci &
Pisani, forthcoming)
• This is a ghetto, but even in the ghetto
there is privacy; but here we are just piled
up in one small room as if we were not
humans. But still we have to manage
because we can’t talk, whatever they say
is what we do ... the place is not hygienic
for children to live in. But we can’t talk
because we are the ones begging. (in
Cardona, 2010, p. 149)
The EU Citizen?
Human Rights versus Citizens Rights?
• 1997 Hamburg Declaration
• ‘Adult education thus becomes more than a right;
it is a key to the twenty-first century. It is both a
consequence of active citizenship and a condition
for full participation in society’. (UNESCO, 1997)
• Citizenship is assumed
• 2012 Joint Report of the Council and the Commission on the
implementation of the Strategic Framework for European
cooperation in education and training
• ‘Education and Training in a smart, sustainable and inclusive
Europe’
• Promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship
• An inherent contradiction - Active Citizenship / irregular
migrant
The ‘citizenship assumption’ (Pisani, 2012)
every time we associate the term ‘citizenship’ with lifelong
learning and inclusion, we are automatically excluding up to 8
million human beings in the European Union alone
thank you
maria.pisani@gmail.com
www.integrafoundation.org