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Council of Europe Working party on Refugee qualifications RECOGNITION OF QUALIFICATIONS
Background I’m here on behalf of World University Service, a London-based NGO, set up in the aftermath of the First World War to assist academics and students who had been displaced by the Great War. We now run an advice and guidance service for refugees in the United Kingdom on education and employment. This service has been established now for about 20 years, and World University Service is one of the leading agencies in Britain advising and supporting refugees in the fields of education and employment and, in particular, in the area of recognition of foreign qualifications. In the last years, we have been involved in a number of transeuropean projects funded by the European Social Fund with partners such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, and which have focused on employment issues and, in particular, on refugees holding professional and technical qualifications from abroad, and the difficulties they face in having their qualifications recognised by educational institutions, professional corporations and employers. I intend to briefly discuss some of the key issues regarding recognition of qualifications and how they relate to the refugee experience, but first I would like to put this matter into some kind of perspective by telling you a little about the role and the numbers of refugees and displaced people in our world of today. Every single refugee is the consequence of the failure of a government to protect human rights. Some governments commit violations. Some tolerate them. Others are unable to prevent them. ‘As long as there have been wars, persecution, discrimination, and intolerance, there have been refugees’. ‘Refugees as a group may be the most endangered people anywhere in the world.’ United Nations High Commission for Refugees Refugee situations are not new. Large population movements have taken place in every century, and the causes in each case were much the same as they are today: war, intolerance, discrimination and persecution. However, at the dawn of a new Millennium, when we are all waiting for the first light of the first day of the first year of a new century and hoping for a better world, we find that the inhumanity of man and the modern State has resulted in massive displacements of people around the world. ‘Tens of millions of people have fled more than 130 wars waged since 1945. More than four million people fled just in 1994. Wars and refugee flows are concentrated in certain parts of the world: Asia until 1993, but since then, Africa’ ‘The Third World has over 90% of conflicts and refugees. But with the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, Europe is now receiving and sending almost equal numbers of refugees’. Amnesty International More than 22 million people have fled war or persecution. The number of uprooted people around the world, including those displaced within their own countries, approaches 50 million. One out of every 120 people on earth has been forced into flight. Global Statistics Number of uprooted people around the World.
Source: UNHCR One out of every 120 people on earth is a displaced person! The 1951 United Nations Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as Any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reason of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of his or her nationality country and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country. Three elements define a refugee: (I) a fear of persecution; (ii) that this persecution is due to race, religion, nationality, belonging to a particular social group or because of holding a political view; (iii) that this person is outside her country. For our contemporary sensibility, this definition is far from sufficient; it does not, for example, include persecution because of gender or sexual orientation. However, there are very little chances that the countries of the world might agree on improving on this definition. It happens that in Europe the words ‘human rights’ are regarded as good words, but the words ‘refugees’ and ‘asylum-seekers’, so closely linked to human rights, are bad words, so that refugees are stigmatized quite often as ‘bogus’ refugees representing a burden for the host society. Are refugees a burden for society? Are they completely unable to make a contribution to society? This is just a tiny representation of some of the most well-known refugees: Theodor W Adorno So refugees have made their contribution to the welfare and happiness of mankind. But isn’t unfair to some degree to say that only refugees like Einstein or Freud make a contribution to society? Is not the case that each one of them brings knowledge, skills, talent and their own personal individuality enriching our societies with new ideas and ways of living and enjoying life, new artistic conceptions, new kinds of food, new religions and gods, new music and dance, new loves and pleasure? The fact is that if refugees seem not able to enrich our societies, this is not because of lack of talents and capacities but because of the many barriers they have to face and which are due to the short-sightedness of our policies. Many refugees are professional people. For example, most refugees in the UK come from an urban setting and have good levels of education; a substantial number of them hold academic and professional qualifications and have had considerable work experience. A 1995 report by the Home Office, spelling out the findings of a survey undertaken with near 300 refugees in the UK, notes that REFUGEE/IMMIGRANT PROFESSIONALS (a) The United Kingdom “Over a third… have been to university before applying for asylum. Some were students when they applied and had not finished their courses, but a quarter did have a degree, some of them postgraduate degrees. Another 8% had professional qualifications (e.g. in law)”.
(A 1995 Home Office Report) (b) Sweden “An increasing number of highly qualified immigrants (are) being placed in low-qualified jobs, where they have no use for their former skills" (A 1996 Government Report) (c Germany “Many refugee professionals are condemned to unemployment because they cannot obtain recognition of their diplomas” (German Red Cross) A similar picture applies to other European countries. A study from Sweden concluded that “an increasing number of highly qualified immigrants were being placed in low-qualified jobs, where they had no use for their former skills”. The German Red Cross reported that many refugee professionals were condemned to unemployment because they could not obtain recognition of their diplomas. The same situation can be found in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc. This is a waste of human resources and a cause of grief for those concerned. So the point I’m making here is that refugees can make a rich contribution to our cultures in many regards, but the one I like to focus on now is on the wealth of skills, knowledge and professional experience they bring to our societies. The other point I’m making is that our societies impose a number of barriers and difficulties which result in a waste of talent and resources where the loser is not only refugees but also the host society. The point can be brought home if we imagine for a moment what would have happened to Albert Einstein or Sigmund Freud’s careers in exile under the current procedures for recognition of qualifications which prevail in many European countries. It’s very likely that Dr Einstein would have had no choice but to give up physics work unless he could manage to have his diploma legalised by Nazi Germany Authorities and compelled to take exams to satisfy professional standards! Dr Einstein’s Career in Exile Would Dr Einstein be welcome in your country as a refugee? Would he be given permission to work? His qualification as a Physics Scientist, would it be recognised? Would he be able to get a professorial position in the University? Would he be able to work for the Government in atomic research? This comment takes me to the main topic I want to address here: the topic of recognition of refugee qualifications. What happens to refugee’s qualifications? Can they be recognised? Who is supposed to recognise them?
Each country has, of course, different systems for recognising foreign qualifications. There is in Europe a large variety of systems and procedures dealing with the recognition of qualifications. How to deal with this variety? A practical solution is trying to classify the various systems of recognition into a few categories which stress salient aspects of a particular system. There is a number of ways of doing this, and I’m sure that you will be able to suggest a few other classifications on top of those I’m coming up with. My own list is as follows:
Systems of recognition: Unitary and Dual Systems for Education and Employment Centralised and Decentralised Systems “Qualification-centred” and “individual-centred” First, unitary and dual systems. What do we mean?
Unitary and Dual Systems Unitary systems are those where recognition in one field – let’s say academic recognition - entails more or less automatic recognition in the other field – let’s say employment. Dual systems are those where recognition in one field does not entail recognition in the other. The significance of this distinction is plain. In dual systems, academic recognition for the purpose of education and further studying will have no bearing on recognition for the purpose of employment. In other words, international conventions setting up a framework for the mutual recognition of qualifications for academic purposes, such as the 1997 Lisbon Convention, will have little, if any, impact on recognition for employment in countries like the United Kingdom which has a dual system. Of course, the effect should be the opposite in those countries which are attached to an unitary system. Centralised and Decentralised Systems Centralised systems are those where recognition is made by a single competent authority and where a single model/procedure normally applies to applications for recognition. Decentralised systems are those where there is no single authority for assessing and recognising overseas diplomas and where there is a bewildering array of disparate procedures.
In centralised systems, the competent authority is normally a single entity like the Ministry of Education o perhaps Employment, which will then apply more or less the same procedure for recognition, regardless of whether it is a medical qualification, a law qualification, an engineering qualification or whatsoever. In the case of decentralised systems, the range of competent authorities is so large and so heterogeneous that basically you have one for each particular profession with its own specific procedures – procedures keeping very little resemblance between them! Competent authorities for employment may include professional associations, government departments, and even autonomous services like the National Health Service. In the case of education, assessment might be made by one or another educational institution leading to very different results. In Britain, for example, each university is free to make its own assessments, which is no binding on other universities, so foreign students when shopping around for university studies might find that one institution regards his/her qualificational standards very differently from another one.
Qualification-centred and individual-centred systems Recognition systems are called qualification-centred if the process of recognition is exclusively focused on the qualifications themselves. Individual-centred systems are those which, in addition to assessing the qualifications themselves, also assess the individual's standards of skills and competences. Stages in the process of recognition Systems of recognition include a number of stages: Stages in the process of recognition Application to the competent authority TRANSP 9 Stages in the process of recognition Application to the competent authority Verification Assessment Compensation Demonstration test Registration Application is made to the appropriate body which can be a government department, a professional corporation, or an independent public authority. Verification occurs when the existence and authenticity of qualifications are checked and confirmed. The evidence will normally be the original diplomas and testimonials. Assessment is the process whereby foreign qualifications are compared in terms of the professional standards prevailing in the host country. All processes of recognition involve the stages of application, verification and assessment. The phases of compensation and demonstration test depend on the particulars of the system of recognition. Compensation occurs when the competent authority concludes that the academic or professional credentials do not quite meet the levels of knowledge or competence which are required in the host country, so further compensatory measures need to be undertaken. Typical examples include the so-called “bridging” and “adaptation” courses. In addition, authorities may ask for a demonstration test of skills and competences on top of the qualifications. This is the case with what I earlier called “individual-centred” systems of recognition. Having briefly described the main features of different systems of recognition, I like now to turn to issues related to recognition for employment rather than education by introducing a key distinction between regulated and non-regulated professions. Regulated and non-regulated professions Regulated professions (RP) are those governed by rules and directions set up by an authoritative body (also known as the competent or regulating authority). In RP, a key regulation is that access to the relevant occupation is in principle limited to holders of qualifications obtained at specific (usually national) education/training providers. Non-regulated professions are not subject to rules and directions by an authoritative body. Three situations can be constructed: Regulated systems All professions are regulated No profession is regulated Some professions are regulated while others are not We can safely say that there is no country where all professions, absolutely all professions, are regulated. I think it is also safe to say that there is no country where all professions are freely exercised. Most countries fall in between, regulating some professions but not others, so that diversity among countries is more about the extension of regulation than about extremes between regulation and complete lack of regulation. In the UK, the rule for most professions is that they don’t require foreign qualifications to be formally recognised for the purpose of employment or self-employment. Some professions are, however, regulated, but there is no clear rationale to explain why this is the case. Regulation prevails in the medical and paramedical fields and the traditional liberal professions such as law, architecture and dentistry. We can now formulate a more rigorous definition of professional recognition: Professional recognition It’s the process whereby a foreign qualification is given formal acknowledgement by a competent authority so that the holder is allowed to use it and work in areas which are normally reserved for holders of specified, usually national, qualifications People holding foreign qualifications for a regulated profession can have access to this profession only if they go through a process of professional recognition. Key Issues in the process of recognition A look at the different stages of the process of recognition suggests the main difficulties refugees and foreigners may face: Key barriers in the process of recognition Lack of documentary evidence for verification Lack of information for the competent authority to make an appropriate assessment General lack of funding for professional recognition; and, in particular, for compensatory measures and for preparation for demonstration tests Inappropriate Demonstration tests Sometimes close regulating systems which do not allow for recognition These barriers speak for themselves. My own experience in the UK teaches me that the critical ones are the general lack of funding to sustain the process of recognition, and the requirement of taking demonstration tests which may be hard to pass even for nationals. I believe that the lack of funding for recognition, in particular professional recognition is a widespread unfortunate situation in Europe which brings pain and devastation to refugee professionals and represent a substantial waste of human resources to the host society. Refugees and the Lisbon Convention The final section of my talk is to mention the contribution of the 1997 Lisbon Convention in regard to refugees and academic recognition. Art. 7 of the Lisbon Convention reads: Art. VII of the Lisbon Convention ‘Each Party shall take all feasible and reasonable steps within the framework of its education system and in conformity with its constitutional, legal and regulatory provisions to develop procedures designed to assess fairly and expeditiously whether refugees, displaced persons and persons in a refugee-like situation fulfill the relevant requirements for access to higher education, to further higher education programmes or to employment activities, even in cases in which the qualifications obtained in one of the Parties cannot be proven through documentary evidence.’ What is the purpose of this Article? Within the framework of the Convention, refugees who get academic qualifications in one of the party states will have them recognised in another Party state. But refugees often are forced to leave their belongings, including certificates and diplomas, behind. The Article commits the Parties to establish provisions to facilitate the assessment and recognition of these papers when there is a lack of documentary evidence. The scope of this provision is limited because most refugees don’t come from a Lisbon Convention state. However, the important point is the formal recognition of such a serious issue for refugees. Furthermore, even countries which have not yet ratified the Lisbon Convention can seek inspiration in this Article for setting up models of good practice. The situation of refugees from Kosova is made more complicated by the fact that from 1990 onwards Albanians ran a parallel educational system to retain elements of their culture such as language and history which were being suppressed by the Government. This parallel system had no legal status, was not recognised by official authorities in Kosova. However, there is a feeling among European nations that natural justice demands that this parallel system be given some sort of recognition. We expect to explore these issues in Strasbourg and come up with recommendations which are compassionate and give encouragement to people who are not prepared to see their culture and national identity destroyed by political ambitions. Key points in a positive programme of professional re-qualification Finally, I want to briefly mention what I believe are the key points for any positive programme concerning the question of recognition of qualifications. Key points for a programme concerning recognition of qualifications Unrestricted acceptance of the right of refugees to seek recognition of qualifications for the purpose of employment Appropriate funding made available to applicants for this purpose and, in particular, for the stages of compensatory measures and demonstration tests Appropriate measures which take into account refugees’ likely difficulties in dealing with the stage of verification of qualifications If the recognition system includes a demonstration test, this demonstration test should be reasonable and include an option between an examination or a period of supervised work ending in an evaluation of standards and competences
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