A cultural mediator is a bilingual professional who helps to foster the integration of and dialogue between groups of immigrants and various persons and communities. Often, a cultural mediator shares the same mother tongue and is from the same country as the migrants they work with. The mediator lives in or is familiar with the social context in which the beneficiary has been placed. In addition to providing translations, it is the role of the mediator to explain both the host and refugee culture to the other involved parties. This involves facilitating both the understanding of the welcoming community by explaining the characteristics of the beneficiary’s home country, and of the beneficiary with respect to the host community. A cultural mediator is expressly provided for in the second protocol of Humanitarian Corridors as regards the reception managed by Caritas (while reference to a mediator was included in the first protocol, this provision was not fully implemented by every host community). The mediator’s presence facilitates both the beneficiaries’ and the welcoming community’s understanding of cultural problems. When there is no mediator, there have been significant misunderstandings, for example concerning the beneficiaries’ need to understand the bureaucratic delays inherent in the process of obtaining refugee status. Another cultural disconnect occurred when certain welcoming communities failed to understand the importance of some aspects of Eritrean culture such as the coffee ritual.
