The theme of population migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries was designed to give participants an opportunity to open up to others and to mobility, to build and share memories and to combat prejudice. The tri-national exchanges were to provide a cross-fertilised and enriched viewpoint on migratory phenomena that are both singular, in that they are linked to national histories, and common, in that they form part of a shared European history since the Second World War. The two horizontal priorities chosen for this partnership (inclusion and diversity, shared values, civic commitment and participation) had been identified jointly by the teachers from the three partner schools, as they provided an opportunity for young Europeans to discuss and reflect on family or collective journeys that may seem different and remote, but which are essential and shared elements of the construction of Europe or issues at the heart of the contemporary and future European project. Our aim was to get young people talking to each other, reaching out to others, confronting their differences and trying to understand them, while overcoming language and cultural barriers.
The aim of the project was to work on issues common to all three schools: distance from major cities and cultural centres, students‘ difficulties at school, lack of knowledge about the European project, and students’ reluctance to embrace mobility and openness to others. What's more, this project essentially targeted pupils with fewer opportunities and aimed to help them discover shared European values through regular meetings and exchanges. The idea of Europe, and even more so its concrete actions and realities, were not sufficiently ‘lived’, understood and understood by our young people, and sometimes by their families. Current social and political events also brought us together, our colleagues from the three countries, and made us react together to the need to show and involve our young people both in a concrete European exchange project and, even more importantly, to understand the history of migration. 3 years after the first discussions and then the first drafts of this project, the very delicate social and political situations in our three countries show that this subject was very relevant and that it should be extended and enriched.