Vulnerability: action and reflection

This article was produced for the "Enjeux" section of Omalius magazine #32, March 2024.

According to the most recent figures (EU-SILC 2023 survey), 12.3% of the Belgian population is at risk of monetary poverty; 6.1% suffers from severe material and social deprivation, and 10.5% lives in a household with a low level of work intensity (less than one day in five per week). The value of the European "risk of poverty or social exclusion" indicator for Belgium is thus 18.6%, or 2,150,000 Belgians facing at least one of these three situations. Still according to the EU-SILC 2023 survey, 15.5% of the Belgian population indicate that they have difficulty or great difficulty getting by (subjective poverty index).

In our city centers, this vulnerability is now visible on every street corner. "I have the impression that we are in an explosion of vulnerabilities," alarms Mathieu Rolain, jurist and coordinator for UNamur of the Certificat en accompagnement de la grande précarité. "In many cities, it's becoming difficult to walk around, whatever the time of day or night, without being asked "help" two or three times. It's very disconcerting, confusing and it should challenge us."

It's with these professionals in mind that, from 2021, the Certificate in Accompanying Extreme Precariousness has been set up, the fruit of collaboration between UNamur's Centre Vulnérabilités et Sociétés, HENALLUX (Haute École de Namur-Liège-Luxembourg), HEPN (Haute École de la Province de Namur) and UCLouvain. In all, ten days of training provided by a multi-disciplinary team to better understand the complex dynamics generated by extreme poverty (homelessness, over-indebtedness, dependency, lack of access to rights, begging, etc.). The aim is to "help those who help", by enabling them to take a reflective look at their practices, use relevant theoretical models, exchange views with key players such as Christine Mahy, General Secretary of the Réseau wallon de lutte contre la pauvreté (RWLP), approach precariousness in its most intimate aspects through theater or by meeting players from grassroots associations... "The aim is to meet a need, to make it as practical as possible", comments Mathieu Rolain. As a lawyer, the teacher spoke this year, for example, on begging in Belgian law. "The Belgian constitution recognizes that everyone must be able to lead a life that conforms to the principles of human dignity: it's this principle that drives much of the research at the Centre Vulnérabilités et Sociétés at UNamur's Faculty of Law", he summarizes.

"Society is making progress in taking vulnerabilities into account, particularly in the public space"assesses Laura Rizzerio, philosopher at UNamur. But this awareness - let's make no mistake - is marked by a certain ambivalence: "The law, in trying to protect vulnerable people, also stigmatizes them", comments the philosopher. "For example, if I apply for subsidies because I'm a person with a disability, it favors me but it excludes me: by falling into this category, there are other things I can no longer access." So Laura Rizzerio notes a reluctance among her students to declare themselves "special needs": while they may benefit from certain adjustments, particularly concerning assessment procedures, they are nonetheless physically set "apart". Because it is a double-edged sword, the recognition of certain vulnerabilities is worth leaving to the discretion of those first concerned.

The term vulnerability carries with it many misunderstandings: to be vulnerable would be to be fragile, weak, a victim.... Whereas vulnerability is above all a condition of human existence from which no one escapes. "Much has been made of confusing this vulnerability as a normal condition of all existence - we are dependent, bound, finite beings - with proven forms of vulnerability, i.e. the manifestation of this existential condition through illness, disability, old age..." According to Laura Rizzerio, it's only when we recognize this existential vulnerability in ourselves that we become capable of welcoming proven vulnerability. A tall order, since we are all inhabited "by forms of denial". "Denial of vulnerability is almost as normal as vulnerability itself. Vulnerability is first and foremost an experience: we only realize it when we experience it in our own flesh. Hence the fact that, at first sight, we will deny our vulnerability. Either by saying that it's a matter that concerns only others, or by making it a time-limited experience - a "passage" - or else by introducing a relationship of power."

While there's nothing theoretical about vulnerability and poverty for those who experience them, objectifying these situations through indicators is precisely what helps to guide public policy. Benoît Decerf, an economist at UNamur's Centre de recherche en économie du développement and a collaborator with the World Bank, works on these measures of poverty and inequality. "Our job is to operationalize the questions posed in particular by philosophers, he comments. "Historically, development was measured by GDP per capita, i.e. by average income. Yet this measure has been much criticized for failing to take inequalities into account: a country's GDP can just as easily rise because a Bill Gates is getting richer as because the lot of the poor is improving." This is why, today, in developed countries, we focus more on a so-called "relative" poverty line. In Belgium, for example, "poor" is defined as the percentage of the population living in a household whose disposable income is below 60% of the national median income, i.e. €1,366 net per month for a single person or €2,868 for a household consisting of two adults and two children under the age of 14. One Walloon in five is currently in this situation.

The World Bank - an international financial institution that invests in projects in developing countries with the aim of fighting poverty - on the other hand seeks to identify the number of poor people in absolute terms. It has long relied on the threshold of "one dollar a day per person", re-evaluated since 2022 at 2.15 dollars. "This indicator enables very good "comparability" across space and time, emphasizes Benoît Decerf."The aim is to be able to get an idea of people's material situation: is the lot of the poor improving or not?"For governments build their legitimacy in part on these poverty indicators, which enable them to objectify their development results. For example, India, a country that brings together a very large number of the world's poor, has not been sharing its data with the World Bank for 10 years, "probably because it wants to keep its hand on the story it is going to tell about the evolution of poverty in the country", comments the economist.

Measuring poverty is also increasingly incorporating non-monetary criteria, Benoît Decerf's specialty. "These multidimensional poverty measures take into account, for example, access to health, education or even security." Today, to its goals of combating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity (i.e., economic growth that does not increase inequality), the World Bank has added that of a "livable planet". "This means that the World Bank now takes into account indicators linked to ecosystem preservation and climate change, and therefore to the "future" well-being that requires a planet that is not top damaged..."

In the Faculty of Economic, Social and Management Sciences, students are challenged on the theme of the fight against precariousness and poverty. As part of the Block 3 innovation project, part of the learning by doing pedagogical approach, they are encouraged to reflect on this theme with the aim of providing an innovative solution. A project designed as an incubator for social innovation projects.

Managed by the social services of UNamur, HEAJ, HEPN, HENALLUX and IMEP, in partnership with the Association pour la Solidarité Étudiante en Belgique (ASEB), the Solidarithèque makes some 150 food baskets available to students every week for the price of 5 euros. Most of these baskets come from unsold supermarket produce. Paysans-Artisans also delivers some of the fruit and vegetables. "Many students are still hesitant to walk through the door", notes Maxime Gigot, from the Cellule sociale des étudiants. "They wonder if they really belong... if they're not taking the basket from someone who needs it more." A "blockage" that doesn't surprise this social worker. "We always have in mind the idea that a good poor person is a poor person we don't see..." Open to all on simple presentation of a student card, the solidarity grocery store is a concrete response to a reality that is invisible but shared by many students.

The Fonds Social Camille Joset of the ASBL CERUNA has a long tradition of granting substantial subsidies to UNamur every year to help students in various forms of precariousness, whether Belgian or foreign. The Fonds Social Camille Joset supports several schemes set up by the university, such as the social grocery store, aid for the acquisition of digital equipment, the fight against menstrual precariousness and the FLE courses offered to refugee students as part of the Université Hospitalière project.

The Fonds Wynants-Sudan was created in 2020 on the initiative of Olivia Sudan, wife of Professor Paul Wynants (1954-2018). This Fund makes it possible to grant additional scholarships each year to Belgian and international students studying at UNamur, particularly in the field of emergency aid and mobility assistance.

This support comes in addition to the aid granted annually by UNamur's International Relations Department and Social Unit.

Migration is a major factor in vulnerability. As part of a Local Integration Initiative (LII) project subsidized by the Walloon Region, UNamur provides French as a Foreign Language (FLE) courses and intercultural workshops. Three questions to Leila Derrouich, coordinator of the ILI project.

Omalius: What is the aim of the FLE courses?

Leila Derrouich: To access higher education, young people arriving in Belgium need at least a B2 level. FLE courses are designed to help them achieve this. But at UNamur, we have the particularity of going up to level C1, i.e. the level just before the "native" level. When students reach this level, it gives them real self-confidence. In particular, we offer a course in academic French or FOU (Français sur objectif universitaire). This teaches them to acquire academic skills: how to write a synthesis, a scientific poster, an oral presentation... Alternatively, students can enroll as free auditors and learn the FOS (French for Specific Purposes) of their subject at the same time. Grammar is then no longer an objective, but a means to an end.

O. : How does the intercultural approach translate?

L.D. : In the courses, the emphasis is on the cultural codes of the campus. In French classes, we also tackle topical issues such as global warming. The learner is seen as a social player: he or she is encouraged to put forward his or her native culture. Using the French language - which we don't necessarily master - to talk about something we know well is a source of valorization.

O. : Since 2015 and the introduction of FLE courses, what results have you seen?

L.D. : We now have an Iraqi woman on a master's degree in pharmaceutical sciences, a Syrian man who has become an intensive care nurse on a permanent contract and played an important role during the Covid crisis, two Albanian women who are themselves going to become FLE trainers, an Afghan man who has become a socio-legal interpreter, three audiovisual directors.... We have many, many success stories.

This article is taken from the "Issues" section of Omalius magazine #32 (March 2024).

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