Throughout Europe right-wing nationalist forces are growing and getting bolder. Time and again refugees face harassment and bodily attacks from extremist groups at the ultra-right edge of society. These aggressions convey their hatred and rejection of anybody alien arise increasingly even at society´s very center. In Germany all kinds of different provisions have been taken to cope with the major influx of refugees and to help them to find their place within the society: Among other things schools have responded and set up language learning classes. A broad citizens' movement supports proactively the establishing and enhancing of a welcoming culture and awareness. It seems like other European countries are somewhat left alone with dealing with the refugee situation. Around the Mediterranean Sea, in Turkey, Greece and Italy there is a dramatic need for integration provisions since these countries are still facing a very challenging situation with the vast amount of refugees first arriving at their shores and not being able to transfer to anywhere else. By cooperating with schools in these countries the coordinating German school wants to help lift the burden and share the responsibility. This is where our project comes in: The primary objective is the integration of young refugees and immigrants at the schools, not only to enhance language skills, education, basics of the culture and heritage of the society they just moved into, but also to fight against stigmatization in the community. As intercultural awareness is being reinforced on both sides indifference and resentment can be overcome in time. Uncovering hidden defense-mechanisms will also lead to better understanding of each other. Thus students of the partner schools and immigrant children get to know and understand each other better. The project partners are schools from Turkey (Samsun), Italy (Ginosa) and Greece (Sitia). Due to the schools different profiles, the various targets of the project can be worked on more efficiently. The participating students are 13 years and older. These goals shall be reached in five steps: 1. Students learn about each other’s home countries and cultures and gain deeper insight into the differences and consistencies of each other’s native cultures, traditions and values 2. They analyze and question the concepts of “home” and “identity” 3. They document, interpret and express their impressions and perceptions in various art projects which are linked to one another (e.g. the term identity can be articulates in singing, photography, painting, writing, performing, sculpturing and moving pictures). The students may follow their talents and interests, contribute as experts and are being schooled and counselled by experts 4. In the end all students, teachers and parents involved gain a deeper understanding and profound awareness and appreciation of intercultural diversity at their schools. Friendships and bonds will grow between students who would not have met without the project Outcomes / sustainability of the project: - A website that will document and publish the work between the meetings and the joint activities during the international meetings - A project-hymn will be written, composed and performed by all participants together - Websites that will be edited for self-portrayal of the refugees and immigrant children and of their home countries and cultures at each of the partner-schools - A photobook showing pictures of the participants and scenes of the shared work and international meetings will be created, printed and edited as an eBook - Complimentary postcards (furnished for download) in various languages will be designed with a slogan to promote tolerance, acceptance and appreciation of cultural diversity and disseminated in public - Learning and teaching material will be provided for download or online-learning on the eTwinning platform (pictures showing cultural differences, customs, daily life appliances etc., a dictionary for simple conversation, a vocabulary memory game)
It seems like other European countries are somewhat left alone with dealing with the refugee situation. Around the Mediterranean Sea, in Turkey, Greece and Italy there is a dramatic need for integration provisions since these countries are still facing a very challenging situation with the vast amount of refugees first arriving at their shores and not being able to transfer to anywhere else. During the two years of the project the situation partially got even worse with a sad culmination situation in the camp or Moria ont the isle of Lesbos. By cooperating with schools in these countries the coordinating German school wanted to help lift the burden and share the responsibility. The primary objective was the integration of young refugees and immigrants at the schools, not only to enhance language skills, education, basics of the culture and heritage of the society they just moved into, but also to fight against stigmatization in the community. As intercultural awareness were being being reinforced on both sides indifference and resentment could be overcome. Uncovering hidden defense-mechanisms lead to better understanding of each other. One example for that was a highllight of the project during the final phase: After much preparatory work our students interviewed about 20 froms, either refugees in the camp of Friedland or migrants having lived in Göttingen for a longer time. Making contacts with these people, seeing their openmindedness and their trust in us by telling us their partially extremely rude and harsh stories was moving end fruitful for both siedes. The art exhibition with the artistic portray photography and the interviews turnded to very personal stories of the refugees will also reach a wider public and helf enhance mutual understanding and solidaritiy. The project partners were schools from Turkey (Samsun), Italy (Ginosa) and Greece (Sitia). Due to the schools different profiles, the various targets of the project could be worked on more efficiently. The participating students were 13 to 18 years old. These goals were reached in five steps: 1. Students learned about each other’s home countries and cultures and gained deeper insight into the differences and consistencies of each other’s native cultures, traditions and values 2. They analyzed and questioned the concepts of “home” and “identity” 3. They documented, interpret and expressed their impressions and perceptions in various art projects which were linked to one another (e.g. the term identity was articulated in singing, photography, painting, writing and performing. Unfortunately we were not able to witness the drama that the turkish partners wrote and rehearsed with and for their refugee students. 4. In the end all students, teachers and parents involved gained a deeper understanding and profound awareness and appreciation of intercultural diversity at their schools. Friendships and bonds between students grew and refugees and migrants experienced proof of european values such as tolerance and solidariity. Outcomes / sustainability of the project: The main outcome is a website (http://immigrartation.de) that documents the work done at the meetings and in between the meetings: The project hymn, conceived at the first meeging, finalized during the meeting in Greece and professionally recorded with a big choir in a studio in Germany is there to listen to but also in a karaoke version ready for download and recording in another language. The protraits of the interviewpartners are shown as well as their stories told by the german students that talked to them in a period of three months. We also provide guidance for preparing ethnografical interviews with tips for dos and dont’s during such interviews. An e-book with the pictures ot the refugees together with 5 words that they chose as being the most important words for them is planned but could not be finalized before the ending of the project. The idea originates from the french writer and philosopher Albert Camus who dressed a list with 10 words that he chose as being the most important for him. During the interview we asked the interviewpartners to chose their 5 words. On the website we tried to implement sustainability by encouraging people to react to the products exposed on the website by recording their own song, adding poems or pictures to existing poems or pictures.