The Importance and Role of Cultural Mediators in Communication and Work with Migrant Children
In recent years, the issue of migration has posed significant challenges to countries worldwide, including Serbia. Here, cultural mediation, or the work of cultural mediators in general, is neither often nor sufficiently discussed. The first obvious evidence for this claim is that there is almost no scientific research and articles dealing with this topic in the Serbian language. In addition, their importance and role are little highlighted through the media and some other forms of social activism, such as forums and discussions. Even where there is literature on this topic, it often provides only theoretical frameworks that in many cases are not of direct use to activists and practitioners. Nevertheless, many non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations recognized this problem in the wake of the refugee-migrant crisis and launched various projects to attract the attention of the wider public through periodical reports or short articles.
In a humanitarian context, cultural mediation plays an important role in the protection of migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers, precisely because the mixed migration routes of these groups of people expose them to different forms of protection they need. Given that the activity of cultural mediators is as variable as a living language, it also depends on many external factors, such as the amount of current demand for certain languages, dialects, and the mere presence of a certain language in our area in the context of its study. In this regard, it requires a certain amount of flexibility and willingness from the mediators themselves to additionally study vocabulary, phrases or dialect closely related to the field of work in which the services of a translator or cultural mediator are needed. This highlights the first key problem applicable to each of the areas of cultural mediation when it comes to working with migrant children: the insufficient number of people who know the required languages. Furthermore, this also brings an additional problem that is the fact that one cultural mediator often works with different organizations and on different projects at the same time. This type of action can result in a complete burn-out effect, which is particularly problematic when working with vulnerable groups of migrants, especially children.
Cultural Mediation in Education: Enhancing Integration and Learning
A cultural mediator working in educational settings, in addition to the basic qualifications they possess, must also know the pedagogical methods of working with children, because in this context they are no longer a mediator between the parties, but they enter, however briefly, into the role of a pedagogue as well. In addition to the support they provide to children, the mediator's role is also to support educators in the teaching and classes. This raises the question of the problems that affect the work of cultural mediators with children in the context of education. One of the problems is certainly the intertwining of different roles, which is very sensitive for cultural mediators. For children to be able to rely on cultural mediators during their education, cultural mediators must go through additional training specialized in the field of educational support. Furthermore, due to the limited resources available to non-governmental organizations, such training is not organized often enough, and therefore there are not many cultural mediators specifically trained for this type of work. In addition to this, cultural mediators in Serbia also face the problem of peer inclusion in schools. Children from local communities are often influenced by their parents or the negative narrative of the public, and they do not want to accept migrant children in their circles precisely because they do not understand the cultural background from which these children come. In this context it could be useful to start an alumni organization of migrants who would support the younger generations who are just starting their education in Serbia. This would also, in addition to strengthening the feeling of belonging to a community, reduce the scope of work of cultural mediators in education, which would result in the better dedication at work and focusing attention on children who have greater difficulties when learning the language and navigating the Serbian education system.
Cultural Mediation in Healthcare: A Right to Life
Cultural mediators play a vital role in healthcare settings, serving as intermediaries between healthcare providers and migrant patients. Migrant children in general have a special level of sensitivity, especially since they have an increased risk of being injured and having their rights violated. The physical and mental state of children can be influenced by their experiences before migration, experiences during the journey, as well as their experiences of acceptance and support they receive in Serbia. Providing healthcare to refugees and migrants is a challenging issue because it involves dealing with cultural differences that affect refugees' and migrants' willingness to seek medical help and understand the scientific approach to health care in Serbia. Furthermore, the personal cultural beliefs and values of health workers within the system can also affect the quality and availability of health services. This highlights the need for cultural mediators to address both universal and personal cultural factors in the health care system to improve the overall quality of care provided to migrants. Specialized training should be provided to prepare cultural mediators for these emotionally demanding tasks. As was the case in the field of education, training is conducted infrequently, and it is time-consuming, so organizing additional educational workshops should be a priority. Furthermore, by improving the organizational capacity of the State to provide health services, health mediators could help fully realize the right to health care for migrants and refugees in transit. Access to health care is a basic human right, and mediators can play a key role in the better implementation of this right for displaced persons.
The Importance of Cultural Mediators in Providing Psychological and Social Support:
In the field of mental health cultural mediators must possess a high command of the language, specialized knowledge of terminology and excellent interpersonal skills, especially empathy and emotional resilience. In an ideal scenario, the same mediator would perform cultural mediation for the same client to ensure confidentiality, build trust and facilitate therapeutic processes. Based on this it can easily be seen that it is extremely difficult to find a person who would meet the standards of psychological mediation, especially when we put this in the context of working with children in Serbia. It seems that in this regard, the task is quite difficult for the organizations, because on the one hand it requires highly trained staff, and on the other investing a lot of effort and time to create ideal conditions for providing psychological support to migrant children who have suffered serious trauma. The burning problem that is noticeable in Serbia in this area is that, in addition to the shortcomings of the cultural mediators themselves, the importance of psychological support and therapeutic processes, in general, is not discussed. To achieve any kind of progress, the institutions in Serbia must recognize that it is necessary to have psychological support available for everyone, as well as to work on increasing the awareness of psychological health among the general population. Only when these practices become established in the public can work be done on the implementation of these values through cultural mediation in providing psychological support to the migrant population.
As far as social support is concerned, it mainly relies on considering the quality, structure, and function of institutions in social welfare networks. Migrants represent a particularly vulnerable group that relies heavily on the system, with unaccompanied and separated children being the ones most dependent on social protection services. Considering the migrant crisis in Serbia, the social protection system needs to review its capacity to work with this group, especially with unaccompanied children. The success of interventions in social protection for migrants depends on how much cultural differences are considered when creating goals and practices in social protection, as well as whether social protection institutions and organizations are aware of the influence of culture on the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of the migrant population.
Conclusion
In summary, the use of trained and competent cultural mediators to mediate in the areas explored in this paper is essential to ensure effective communication and promote well-being among users of these services. Therefore, the Republic of Serbia and other actors, such as non-governmental organizations, should increase the visibility of cultural mediators as persons who are first on the line during crisis situations. Emphasizing the importance and role of cultural mediators simultaneously opens opportunities for their personal improvement as well as the improvement of the services they provide. Therefore, by shedding more light on cultural mediation practices in Serbia, there is a greater chance of incentivizing young people to choose this area of work for their career.
This research serves as an incentive for other researchers and students as well to raise awareness in academic and scientific circles about the importance of cultural mediators in Serbia and their work with children of the migrant population.
* This blog was written as a result of an internship with Save the Children and within the project "Violence Against Children on the Balkans Migration Route - Solutions Through Advocacy and Research (STAR)" supported by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative.
Lola Vasković
Student of Master Academic Studies – International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law
University of Belgrade - Faculty of Political Science
