Response to complain about our moveurope! training in Bologna

To whom it may respectfully concern, 

   We have recently organized a moveurope! (mobility rights of refugees in Europe) local groups Training in Bologna from the 25th-29th of October 2019. As migration_miteinander we have become aware of the training participant’s post and the public perception and awareness. 

   As an organization we would like to acknowledge that there were logistic issues regarding the necessary respect for a safe space for people, who do not identify within the binary gender system. After talks and conversations, three participants decided to leave the training, which we sadly took into consideration. 

   We are aware of intersectional issues concerning the sociopolitical context and of the responsibility, as an organization focusing on providing mobility rights to people with a refugee status in the Schengen-Area, to be in allyship against oppression and groups’ marginalization.

   We apologize that we did not provide this complete intersectional awareness in the training mentioned. We are working on providing structures to ensure safe spaces for each participant of moveurope!, and also at our future trainings with our volunteers and team,  to not reproduce any other situation like the one described by the former volunteer again.

   To see more on the specific actions we will take in order to ensure intersectionality safe structures and spaces, please check our website in the next weeks. We will also provide further information on social media.

   We find it unfortunate that there has been a personal attack on some of our members. Furthermore, we are open for a dialogue with the volunteer(s), participant(s) and any other person working with us and will ensure the necessary respect, because we agree that the sociopolitical dimension of intersectionality should by now be way beyond acceptance and tolerance.

   As migration_miteinander we work on providing mobility rights to people with a refugee status in the Schengen-Area and want to and will put our focus on the intersectional dimension.

Thank you very much for your attention,
migration_miteinander team