The context in which this project was developed is the present situation European countries find themselves in because of the mass migration of the last few years and the rise of hostile populist voices. The objectives of this project are therefore the reduction of the danger of possible present and future conflicts by furthering the communication between migrants and natives, by increasing tolerance and mutual understanding when the people get to know the different values and cultures better, by trying to increase the migrant families’ trust in local people and local institutions, and by helping migrant families and schoolchildren to cope with work at school. Four European schools will take part in this project: the Adolf-Reichwein-Gesamtschule Lüdenscheid (Germany) will be the coordinating school, IISS Galileo Ferraris from Molfetta / Italy, Escola Secundária Rainha D. Amélia from Lisboa /Portugal, and Ekonomska I Trgovčka Škola from Dubrovnik / Croatia will participate. The German and Portuguese schools are secondary schools, the Italian school is a high school for comprising courses for ICT, mechatronics or electronics, environmental biotechnologies, and applied sciences. The Croatian school is a vocational school which focuses on economy, commerce and business. The activities all the four schools have planned are interviews with people who have experienced migration first-hand (families, fellow students, single people) as well as with authorities, humanitarian organisations or private volunteers who are directly concerned with dealing with migrants and their daily lives, and using all the information gathered for the production of e.g. films and video-clips, brochures, posters, PowerPoint presentations, contributions to our different homepages, photo exhibitons, possibly producing pieces of art (depending on our students’ different ideas and talents, which are so far not yet known). Students’ research will also shed light on the historical elements of migration in the respective countries. The project will be carried out in different ways: there will be face-to-face meetings once at each school (mobilities for 2 teachers and 4 students); the communication between the students of the four schools will take place on the eTwinning platform; the progress and the products of the project will be documented there as well as on all the schools’ homepages and on a special project website, and there will be a project newsletter and a video documentary about the project meetings. The creation of an eBook is planned.The public will be informed via articles in the local newspapers. At the beginning of the project a teacher training activity on eTwinning and the use of TwinSpace, conducted by an eTwinning expert, will take place in Lüdenscheid/Germany. At each meeting, one special aspect of the project will be the center of attention (meeting in Portugal: history of emigration / immigration of each country; meeting in Italy: present situation of migration in the participating countries; meeting in Croatia: steps taken to deal with the matter of migration in the participating countries; meeting in Germany: bundling up results, editing of final products, evaluation). We hope that this project will contribute to making people (all students plus their families involved, staff members, the school community as well as the local community) aware of the situation migrants find themselves in; that it will contribute to the development of new ideas on how to further mutual understanding and tolerance. The project partners will also learn from each other and from their different towns, successful ideas from one partner town might be implemented in the other towns. The introduction and intensive use of eTwinning will be very helpful in possible future projects of the participating schools. In the long run we hope to increase tolerance, respect, and empathy, not only as far as our students are concerned, but also with members of our community, and we hope to make all participants realise the value of a strong European community and of our political system of democracy. And we hope to make a lasting contribution to securing peace in our local communities and Europe-wide.
The context in which this project was developed is the present situation European countries find themselves in because of the mass migration of the last few years and the rise of hostile populist voices. The objectives of this project are therefore the reduction of the danger of possible present and future conflicts by furthering the communication between migrants and natives, by increasing tolerance and mutual understanding when the people get to know the different values and cultures better, by trying to increase the migrant families’ trust in local people and local institutions, and by helping migrant families and schoolchildren to cope with work at school. In autumn 2019 we had a promising start with our project on migration following the schedule outlined in the application. After comprehensive consultations as to content and organisation between the four partners we started with the practical implementation of the project with a staff training in Lüdenscheid/Germany. Colleagues from Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Germany were introduced into the practical opportunities of etwinning and twin space by an expert. A teacher from the German school presented the bookcreator app (by Google Chrome) and its many possibilities for students and teachers to present their work in the colourful and attractive ebook format. Practical exercises followed. The first personal encounter of the participating teachers facilitated the collaboration in the years to come. The first project meeting with students took place like schedules in February 2020. Students and teacher met at der Escola Secundária Raunha D. Amélia in Lisbon/Portugal. After a round of introductions by the schools/cities, various aspects of the topic of migration were examined. The focus of this mobility was on a historical consideration of immigration and emigration in the four participating countries. Very diverse and carefully researched materials were presented and discussed. Official stakeholders gave talks and were interviewed, e.g. a representative of the Portuguese Amnesty International Organization. The next scheduled meeting in Molfetta/Italy was planned in detail. From March 2020 onwards everything changed due to the Corona Pandemic. The lockdown and ban on school trips went on for many, many months and it was initially unclear how and whether our project could be continued at all. A number of online meetings of teachers followed and a total of 4 larger meetings with teachers and students involved. These meetings were carefully planned (with agenda and minutes kept) and sometimes had up to 60 participants. The participants created various films and presentations on the agreed aspects of migration: 1. Current situation of migrants/refugees in the participating countries 2. Opportunities for help. The results of these sessions can be found in our mutual ebook. Because of the uncertainty as to when physical meetings would be possible again, the participating schools decided to extend the project twice by half a year, so that the total duration was extended to 36 months (until August 31, 2022). After the meetings in Molfetta/Italy, Dubrovnik/Croatia and Lüdenscheid/Germany had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, we decided in November 2021 - a point in time when school trips seemed to be plannable again - to stage a last meeting in Strasbourg - a location of the EU. The meeting was approved by the national agencies. In March 2022, 60 students and teachers met in Strasbourg. During visits to the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, aspects of the topic of migration were also addressed. A full day of seminars in the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg completed the visit, where further presentations were shown and the final production of our e-book was discussed. In the course of the 3 years, many aspects of the topic of migration were illuminated and discussed in a variety of ways. The students got to know migration in its international dimensions and facets and were able to establish various contacts with students from the partner countries. The reports on the corona situation in the participating countries and schools and the associated sensitivities of the students were also discussed several times in the online meetings and gave all those involved profound insights.