Developing a Complete Approach for Employees Who Communicate withImmigrants and an Effective Communication Strategy

Antalya, in Turkey, is a western Mediterranean city that hosts nearly 100 thousand regular immigrants from 170 nations. The number of immigrants in Antalya is higher than 22 out of 32 countries, including Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and 28 EU members, according to the migration report statistics published by Eurostat in March 2019 based on 2017 numbers.Antalya Provincial Directorate of Migration Management is a public institution that carries out administrative procedures of immigrants locally. The most intense and first contact of immigrants with public institutions takes place in our Directorate.It is observed that during the procedures of immigrants, there are some communication difficulties between employees and immigrants, and these difficulties cannot be managed professionally by employees.Based on these difficulties, the websites of the immigration offices, serving in Europe, were examined to get information about the situation there. The negative experiences of immigrants in these institutions were monitored through the comments made by immigrants on the internet. It has been observed that the common expressions included in the comments of immigrants in different cities, and even countries focus on concepts such as racism, hatred, discrimination, impatience, ethnocentrism, and arrogance.We think that the sensitivity and stereotypes of immigrants living in a foreign country are effective in describing the attitudes and behaviors, faced by immigrants, with such harsh concepts. On the other hand, for employees, the non-use of intercultural communication factors and the low awareness of “being foreign” psychology are effective in their adverse interactions with immigrants.In order to minimize these adverse effects, there is a need for the employees to be developed in topics such as intercultural communication, alternative communication channels, specific immigrant behavior, crisis management, reducing bias, and changing negative attitudes.In line with these needs, the target group of the project is a total of 20 people who will be trained as trainers under the title of “effective communication with immigrants” at Roma Sapienza University. Participants are selected among people working in institutions serving in the field of migration in Antalya, Helsinki, and Satu Mare.With the COMMIGRATION Project, the followings are aimed at:- Establishing a global strategy for communication with immigrants,- To contribute positively to the social adaptation processes of immigrants by increasing the share of intercultural communication factors in communication between immigrants and employees,- Providing employees the opportunity to experience the concept of “being a foreigner,”- Establishing a specific, operational and innovative training model for employees,- Increasing the institutional capacity by training of the trainers who dominate the terminology and improving the competencies of the employees to gain the ability for evaluating previous knowledge and skills, and using innovative solutions,- Long-term effects, sustainable cooperation, and experience sharing with participating institutions,- Improving the quality of the services provided to immigrants,The results of the project will have not only local but also regional, national, and international impacts and effectiveness, in terms of the needs and nature of the issue.