The project “Welcome to Europe?! Refugees‘ biographies and living conditions in the context of asylum policy in the participating countries and the European Union” deals with a topic of international and regional importance and currentness. The refugee flows, which come from different conflict areas to Europe in general and the European countries in particular, challenge the participating countries on different humanitarian, political and social levels.Central goal of the project is to reduce prejudices of the participants and the society concerning refugees in order to foster tolerance and respect during different encounters. The cooperation between adolescents and teachers of different countries as well as the contact to the refugees trains the intercultural competence of all participants.Language acquisition and language variety is promoted by using different foreign languages during the encounters either in oral or written form. The participants will get in touch either in person or through digital media in order to work on special tasks like the preparation of different professionally designed posters concerning the topic. Furthermore, the participants will improve their media competences by using different kinds of media for research, communication and presentations. The involvement in the topic and the political structure on regional, national and European levels help the adolescents to participate actively in the ‘democratic society of Europe’. The refugees will be provided with help in their everyday life and therefore get support in terms of integration. Furthermore, all participants will be exploring common European values and defining those concerning the project’s topic. The project can be divided into three sub-areas: First, the participants work on the question, to what extent their particular country is concerned with the issue of asylum. They will analyze statistic material, which gives some indication of e.g. numbers, home countries, national and regional distribution of the refugees. Biographies of the refugees will be investigated and compared. Besides the investigation on a local level, the asylum policy will also be elaborated in order to understand different criteria and procedures on national and European levels. In dialogue with refugees and politicians will be talked about how the reception and integration of the refugees can be improved and which measures and activities could be taken. The last phase of the project will be concluded in a simulation game: The partners discuss values and norms relevant for the European context of asylum policy on the basis of their previous approaches. During the project, the participants will document their findings with the help of different media. All products will be used during the project meetings to provide relevant cooperation. The products of the project (posters, documentaries, handouts etc.) will be used in an interdisciplinary school context (geography, religious education, foreign language classrooms and social sciences). All products will be documented, evaluated and made publicly accessible. There will be exhibitions at the schools, theme nights with professional guest speakers, publications in the local newspapers etc. Furthermore, the cooperation between different participants on local, national and European levels will be continued. The established offers in school and local institutions (e.g. language courses, cookouts, clothes donations etc.) will be continued by students and teachers even beyond duration of the project.
The project “Welcome to Europe?! Refugees‘ biographies and living conditions in the context of asylum policy in the participating countries and the European Union” dealt with a topic of international and regional importance and currentness. Central goal of the project was to reduce prejudices of the participants and the society concerning refugees in order to foster tolerance and respect during different encounters. The cooperation between adolescents and teachers of different countries as well as the contact to the refugees trained intercultural competences of all participants. Language acquisition and language variety was promoted by using different foreign languages during the encounters either in oral or written form. The participants got in touch either in person or through digital media in order to work on special tasks like the preparation of different professionally designed posters concerning the topic. Furthermore, the participants improved their media competences by using different kinds of media for research, communication and presentations. The involvement in the topic and the political structure on regional, national and European levels helped the adolescents to participate actively in the ‘democratic society of Europe’. The refugees were provided with help in their everyday life and therefore got support in terms of integration. Furthermore, all participants explored common European values and defined those concerning the project’s topic. The project was divided into three sub-areas: First, the participants worked on the question, to what extent their particular country is concerned with the issue of asylum. They analyzed statistic material, which gave some indication of e.g. numbers, home countries, national and regional distribution of the refugees. Biographies of the refugees were investigated and compared. Besides investigations on local levels, the asylum policy was elaborated in order to understand different criteria and procedures on national and European levels. In dialogue with refugees and politicians we talked about how the reception and integration of the refugees can be improved and which measures and activities could be taken. The last phase of the project was concluded in a simulation game: The partners discussed values and norms relevant for the European context of asylum policy on the basis of their previous approaches. During the project, the participants documented their findings with the help of different media. All products were used during the project meetings to provide relevant cooperation. The products of the project (posters, documentaries, handouts etc.) were used in an interdisciplinary school context (geography, religious education, foreign language classrooms and social sciences). All products were documented, evaluated and made publicly accessible. Each school organized exhibitions, theme nights with professional guest speakers, publications in the local newspapers etc. Even after the end of the project, the cooperation between different participants on local, national and European levels will be continued. The established offers in school and local institutions (e.g. language courses, cookouts, clothes donations etc.) will be continued by students and teachers and can therefore contribute to a lower amount of prejudices and racism against refugees.