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Inside the Brussels bubble: Two reviews of the JCI EUKHT

Update on EUKHT October 8-12th in Brussels by Heidi Larsen

Prefix for the debate panel EUKHT, Monday October 9th 2017
Participants: Erin Bouwen, Abdullah al Jaber, Laurent Aujean
Topic: How to better integrate refugees to the European labor market

I will personally act as moderator for the debate, and will begin by introducing topic and panelists. I will then introduce the background for the topic chosen, and mention that since the civil war in Syrea began, more than 11 million people has fled. According to Migration Policy Institute, more than 2 million people has applied for asylum in Europe since 2015

After this Jeremy Martin, producer of the documentary film Through Abdullahs Eyes – featuring Abdullah al Jaber will show a short 2-3 minute vĂ­deo sequence from the film, and tell us how he was inspired to do this documentary and what he hopes that the outcome will be. You can see the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEZWj_s8z7U

The debate will begin by asking Abdullah al Jaber to share his experience with us on coming to Europe leading to his current relocation to Dublin. He will bring 3 bullet points that he finds could better integrate refugees to the European labor market. After, we will ask Erin Bouwen to share with us her experiences as a visitor in the refugee camps, working to bridge real practical life in the camps with the political scene in Europe. She will be asked to prepare 3 bullets as to where she finds the biggest gaps between the two worlds, and what could be done (by JCI members) to close these gaps in the future. (10 min total) Having heard both Abdullah’s and Erin’s thoughts on the topic, we will focus on the political scene in Europe, and kindly ask Laurent Aujean to share with us his imidiate reactions and thoughts to above mentioned bullets, and also his personal view on the topic. He will be asked to share the political actions taken so far since the refugee crisis began in 2011, as well as his views and planned actions in near future gathered in 3 bullet points, including how JCI members could assist this plan 

After this, there will be a Q&A in the panel alone, giving Abdullah, Erin and Laurent a chance to ask and reply questions internaly. They will be asked to prepare 1 question for each of the other panelists, and after this we will ask the participants to debate this in smaller groups. 

The debate session will therefore generate insights, inspiration - and a guide to which actions we as JCI members could take in our local communities to better help the integration process of refugees in the labor market in the future.

Heidi Larsen
EUKHT COC Director

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