More mediators for immigrants

PALMA
THE Balearic Government is hoping that by the end of its term of office 50 percent of the municipalities will have mediators to help immigrants integrate.

Josefina Santiago, head of the Balearic Department of Immigration, said yesterday that 800'000 euros would be spent this year on the programme.
She added that the policy of the Government was to integrate people rather than to highlight their differences.
The idea was that “at some moment in the future they could stop being immigrants and become just another citizen”. “We believe that immigration is not a problem but a phenomenon in our history that generates positive and negative aspects which we have to tackle with care and with integration,” she said.

Santiago added that it was important to tackle the problem of immigration in a co-ordinated fashion, involving the Departments of Employment, Health and Education.

In relation to education, she said that measures would be put in place to “reinforce the educational system and avoid concentrating immigrant students in specific schools”.

She also proposed different departments establish a system for co-ordinating the delivery of services.