Back to search

Act for diversity

2019-3-LV02-KA105-0027682019Youth mobilityfinalizedGood practice
Countries: LV|LT|HR|RO|ES|DE|IT · Grant: €17,516
Integration of refugeesInclusion - equityMigrants' issues

Objectives

For the past years, more than 1,000,000 refugees and migrants entered Europe because of the constant conflicts in Eritrea, Syria, the existing violence both in Afghanistan and Iraq and the extreme level of poverty in Kosovo. In 2019, which applying for this project, in view of the critical situation where thousands of families have been encountering problems are strongly related with the decline of the political systems in their countries, are still attempting to approach the EU lands, mainly via countries, such as Italy, Albania and Turkey. They seek to achieve a better quality of life. According to statistics from Eurostat, in 2015 we can find the hugest number of the applications for asylum (1,322,800 millions), a number in 2018 is less (638,200 thousands). But the amounts are less from the statistic point of view - in reality there are involved more than half of million individuals. And despite that the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) has been providing common minimum standards for the treatment of all asylum seekers, it places a lot to the discretion of EU members, a fact that inevitably leads to various types of treatment of asylum seekers and simultaneously to a variety of recognition rates in the States of EU members. Respectively, the refugee crisis accompanied with the lack of consensus, has led to conflicts within the EU, inasmuch The EU’s current institutional and legislative arrangements were clearly not up to dealing with the huge inundation of migrants. Accordingly, the members seemed unable to reach a uniform solution plan to deal with the relocation of refugees and migrants in order to evenly share the responsibilities. With the exception of the problem of relocation and settlement of such enormous number of people in different European environments, a holistic solution of the problem of full integration of migrants and refugees into the new societies constitutes a hot topic for the European Commission which, according to its action plan is seeking to provide a comprehensive framework in order to support Member States' efforts in developing and strengthening their integration policies. Specifically, the action plan agenda of EC concerning the topic of integration of refugees and migrants has been based on the following pillars: a. Education, including actions to promote language training, participation of migrant children to Early Childhood Education and Care, teacher training and civic education; b. Employment and vocational training, including actions to promote early integration into the labour market and migrants entrepreneurship and; c. Active participation and social inclusion, including actions to support exchanges with the receiving society, migrants' participation to cultural life and fighting discrimination. Based on the EC’s integration policy, our Erasmus+ training course "Act for Diversity" aimed to provide high-quality training to young educators/ trainers who are dealing with the issue of refugees' and migrants' integration into modern European Union societies, by setting as a prime aim to disseminate this specific approach-system of integration, composed of non-formal methods of education, to other organisations and foundations procuring from the rest of the EU countries. To be more clear, "Act for diversity" was seeking to provide young educators with the appropriate know-how, through a well-established and concrete methods on inclusion and integration. Hence, after the TC "Act for Diversity" completion, the young workers/educators are capable to methodically work with mixed groups consisting of both Europeans and migrants & refugees, in order to achieve the social integration of the latter into the already existing communities. To accomplish this target, the activities of this project concentrated on a plurality of related concepts, such as social inclusion, conflict management, intercultural learning, coexistence of religions, violence applied by social networks and the net, psychology of digital victims, racism and anti-racism, multi-cultural bonding, tolerance, democracy, diversity appreciation, citizenship, leadership and active participation. All these concepts are being approached through creative, experiential methods, based on non-formal educational tools, including simulation exercises, role play, creative activities, structured dialogues, group building, energisers and breaking the ice activities, theatrical games, guided discussions, presentations, activation of five senses, online activities, experimental processes, cultural activities and strategic planning.

Project partners (7)