Refugees and migration are two very hot topics right now. The interest in the topic led the Comitè Directeur to create a mailing list and a Facebook group dedicated to migration, and right after Autumn Agora Kyiv an open call for a Policy Officer on migration was issued. Luca Bisighini, from AEGEE-Brescia, was selected and he has already started working on his policy paper. Moreover he is Lisa Gregis’ SubCommissioner working on Human Resources and IT.
The AEGEEan: Please describe yourself
Luca: A little disclaimer, in every AEGEE event I’m attending I’m trying to be partially funny and partially serious. Definitely I won’t miss this chance to still do it at my best.
My name is Luca, I am a 26 years old specimen from Brescia, Italy, representing AEGEE-Brescia. I am an MBA student in International Business graduating in April. I lived in three countries outside Italy (Canada, Poland and Turkey), I am a long lasting traveller (over 40 countries visited), I am proud to have friends from more than a 100 countries and definitely I am an unconventional music enthusiast like very few on the planet and a “culturaholic”.
What is your experience in AEGEE?
I have been in AEGEE for almost two years, enough to do two Summer Universities, an Agora, a Network Meeting and participate in two events (one currently on in Amsterdam). Last year I was the Social Media Manager of AEGEE-Brescia, while this year I am the IT Responsible and I decided to do something more for the whole Network by joining the great SubCommissioner team of the Rainbow led by the extraordinary Lisa Gregis (AEGEE-Bergamo) and apply to later become Policy Officer on Migration.
You are the Policy Officer on Migration. What does your job consist of?
I am the individual in charge of making the Policy Paper on Migration that will be presented to be ratified (hopefully) at Spring Agora Bergamo. It consist of making a lot of researches on the current situation of migration, no matter if it is based on paper studies or just getting news. It also means getting a specific background on several policies and frameworks, knowing different opinions arising from the whole Network, while making them aware to a certain extents on the “AEGEE Migration in Europe” Facebook group or in the Migration-L list.
You recently launched a survey about migration. How many replied? Can you give us some preliminary insights?
I launched it on January 9th after getting some important hints from the European Planning Meeting Content Managers, from Svenja, Pablo and Anna from the CD, The Chair Team, from Jorge (Policy Officer on Civic Education), from Nils and especially from Selin Sivis, former AEGEE-Ankara member and PhD student on Migration at MiReKoç in Istanbul.
Results were beyond expectations: 219 replies from 88 antennae in 30 countries, almost 2% of all the AEGEEans. Those results got me six days of cluster analysis to read all the 36 x 219 answers (I don’t want to know what number it may result from that multiplication). These numbers mean a lot: despite the length of the survey, a lot of people were eager to contribute to this new field of expertise AEGEE wanted to focus on in order to create a solid opinion on such a delicate topic and contributing to my Policy work as well. For other insights, I will soon be at the AEGEE Fair to present the results to all of you. I hope you’ll come there in Leiden on Saturday 27th, from 1 PM until 3 PM, to discuss, debate, ask questions and so on!
Why do you think it’s important to speak about migration in AEGEE?
It’s important to discuss about it, due to a wide series of reasons. I’ll try to summarize them all into a general concept. Nowadays in Europe there’s a lot of debate about which can be the most effective measures to implement for refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants. In most cases, the national public opinion had many conflicting opinions, thoughts and took some actions about these issues. At European level, the whole emergency for quite a while was underestimated and this underestimation led to poor results, lack of coordination and socio-political tensions in both domestic and multilateral paneuropean scenarios.
AEGEE needs to discuss a lot about migration as an international association of students which strives for a border-less, diverse and democratic Europe, where freedom and human rights are essential elements of a European society and which is built upon the foundations of respect, tolerance and solidarity. I think these words, taken from the Statement of Principles approved in Agora Zaragoza 2013, are perfectly fitting with this topic and it’s time for us to take position about it and not just do nothing and stay silent while these events are happening.
What do you expect from the discussion in Leiden?
I expect two things for two separate kind of people:
– For the people who are not aware with this whole crisis, to be sufficiently informed in a very precise way, about what is going on in Europe: raising awareness is always the first step for everyone in order to later take actions.
– For the people who are currently aware, to cooperate and contribute with their expertise in order to be as much as possible useful in creating a fruitful, detailed debate on the topic.
Anyway I just wish to all of them four great days of democratic debate full of great opinion exchange.
You are also a SubCommissioner for NetCom Lisa Gregis. What are your tasks?
It’s a very cool thing to cooperate with the Rainbow Watchers [my SubCom colleagues, N.a.] to help 22 antennae in both Italy and Malta. It allowed me to help great people and to get closer to certain antennae’s problems in order to solve them. My tasks are HR and IT for the whole 22 locals, and supervising AEGEE-Milano and AEGEE-Brescia when needed. And of course, report everything to Lisa and help the other Watchers when needed.
What are your plans in AEGEE for the upcoming months?
As a Policy Officer I will make the Policy Paper on Migration for AEGEE-Europe. It will be great to cooperate on this important step for our association, then i will probably participate as Policy Officer on one event in Turin, Italy, organised by UNITED named “Moving Stories: Narratives of Migration Crossing Europe”. Then I will continue working as SubCom…I want to rejuvenate AEGEE. About HR I will see, I have few ideas in mind, but still have to discuss with Lisa and the team.
Regarding the plans in my local, there are still some IT/Social Media things to deal with, Incoming for the upcoming local SU, and to participate at Spring Agora Bergamo as a Delegate. You’ll see me on the stage also for the Policy Paper and maybe for some other applications. I have a lot of ideas in my mind and my contribution to this association I think will get bigger.
Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona