Interim Report on Migration and Disability in Hesse

The Commissioner of the Hessian State Government for People with Disabilities, Ms. Müller-Erichsen, gave a lecture on the topic of "People with Disabilities and Migration Background" at the Integration Advisory Council on October 14, 2015. Her lecture met with great interest on the part of the politicians and the members, from which a cooperation between the commissioner, the Hessian Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration and the University of Kassel arose.

There is a consensus among experts that little is known about the interplay between disability and migration. The data situation is unsatisfactory, it is suspected that there is a high number of unreported cases of people who have a disability but are not informed about treatment and support services. Many institutions of the disability aid register a low utilization of their services and offers by people with migration background. In general, it can be assumed that the proportion of people with disabilities in the population - including those with a migration background - will increase in the coming years.

Against this background, the research project "Migration and Disability in Hesse" was launched in cooperation between the Commissioner, the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration and the University of Kassel. With funding from the Integration Fund of the state in the period from 4/2017 to 4/2019, a scientific staff position for the research project could be filled with an employee with a migration background and disability.

Parallel to the scientific work, two workshops on the topic of "migration and disabilities" were organized to involve the practice. The first workshop was held in June 2017 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Westphal with professional experts from practical self-help organizations, representative organizations and people with disabilities and a migration background at the University of Kassel. Here it was inquired which experiences with this group of people exist. The second workshop took place in November 2017 under the leadership of the representative in the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and Sport. This workshop was attended by people with disabilities (all forms of disability) as experts in their own right, as well as their relatives and self-help organizations. "As cooperation partners, we wanted to know which aspects should be taken into account in intercultural counseling," says Müller-Erichsen.

In a further, practice-oriented step, two more workshops were held as part of this research project in May and September 2019 with experts from counseling centers and other institutions for people with disabilities. These workshops discussed how disabled people, especially those with a migration background, can be given improved opportunities to participate in social and professional life through culturally sensitive counseling and services. The contents of a guide for people with disabilities were also discussed. The guide is to be published in several languages in 2020. "Our goal is to enable all people in Hesse to participate equally in social life" explained Kai Klose, Minister for Social Affairs and Integration, he emphasized: "This signpost is another step towards equal opportunities for all."

"The project represents the first comprehensive study of its kind, both nationally and internationally, and breaks new ground in terms of content and methodology in many areas. In accordance with the research objectives, the project follows a participatory, participation-oriented approach. People with a migration background and disabilities, their representative organizations, supporter networks, self-organizations and key persons from the assistance systems are involved in the entire research process," says Prof. Dr. Westphal from the University of Kassel (Professor of Socialization with a focus on migration and intercultural education).

The research topic proved to be extremely fruitful. The planned project duration was therefore insufficient to fully evaluate the wealth of data collected. In order to shorten the waiting time until the publication of the research results, an interim report (see appendix) with interesting and partly unexpected first results will be published. The scientific work will be continued under the direction of Prof. Dr. Westphal at the University of Kassel. Within the framework of the scientific project, an employee with a disability and a migration background from the Integration Fund is again employed. Thus, the cooperation of the Commissioner of the Hessian State Government for People with Disabilities and the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration with the University of Kassel is also continued.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Manuela Westphal

University of Kassel

Department of Socialization with a focus on migration and intercultural education

E-mail: mwestphal@uni-kassel.de