Inclusive Europe: Build Bonds not Walls

Inclusive Europe aims to favour the integration process of newly arrived migrants through intercultural dialogue and the strengthening of social ties between third-country nationals and local people.

Grant Agreement Number: 957930

Funded by: AMIF Duration: 01/10/2020 – 30/09/2022

Challenge

The high migratory pressure and the rise of identity politics that the European Union has had to face in recent times, have made the inclusion of newly arrived migrants in their host societies more and more challenging. The two dominant models of integration in Europe, multiculturalism and assimilationism, have partially failed the objective of achieving a real integration of third country nationals.

On the one hand, multiculturalism has contributed to creating ghettos, while on the other hand, the assimilation model has forced the migrants to abandon their previous identity.

In this regard, host communities should better meet and understand new migrants and their needs. Α real and successful integration of migrants in the host societies requires direct interaction between people of different communities, as well as intercultural and interreligious dialogue. Also, this interaction can eradicate issues such as xenophobia, radicalization and racism and improve the socio-economic condition of migrants

Innovation

By strengthening the social interaction between local people and young migrants through 4 campaigns, Inclusive Europe aims at facilitating the inclusion process of newly arrived migrants into host society and improving their socio-economic conditions.

Action

4 Strategic Action Plans will be developed (Europe for Solidarity; Intercultural Europe; Intergenerational Europe; Let’s Go Forward Together).

The Strategic Action Plans will be based on an in-depth research, mapping the existing situation, the needs, the best practices and other intercultural activities implemented in Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain, Hungary and the Netherlands.

The Recommendation Paperaddresses local, national and EU institutions aiming at promoting the intercultural and interfaith approach in the definition of local integration policy.

The paper will also support the development of the supportive local cluster as measure of social cohesion.

Europe of Solidarity aims to provide migrants with a better and more effective mentoring system, that may be closer to migrants’ needs and more sensitive to their personal experiences.

This programme will be composed of two modules. The first module will establish a peer mentoring system which will allow each migrant to have a personal mentor who will assist him/her in dealing with bureaucratic procedures, informing how to access basic needs, etc.

The second module will involve local volunteers and former migrants and will be based on workshop series and activities aimed at providing migrants with useful information to overcome their daily challenges.

In short, this campaign will include: trainings for local volunteers and social workers, sessions of courses and workshops on how to deal with daily problems, communitarian breakfast to foster social interaction between migrants themselves and local volunteers, empowerment and re-planning of life for women affected by violence.

The Intercultural Europe program is composed of a set of training, activities and interactive workshops, structured in such a way that stresses commonalities, underlines how different cultures can enrich everyone’s personal life, and makes the participants curious about different stories and cultures.

In short, this campaign includes the following: training session for local volunteers and staff, visits to important artistic/cultural and religious places within the city, storytelling sessions, film sessions, library sessions, football sessions.

These activities aim at fostering the mutual understanding among migrants and local people.

Intergenerational Europe brings together elderly people, who feel alone and look for company and young migrants who have not yet established contacts with native people and many of them have arrived in their host country leaving their parents behind. This is a win-win situation, while the young migrants will have the chance to practice the language of the host country.

In short, this campaign includes the following: training sessions for migrants on how to deal with elderly people, training session for elderly people with information about the customs and habits of young migrants, reading sessions, gaming sessions, cinema sessions.

These activities aims at fostering the mutual understanding between elderly people and young migrants, as well as at the sense of belonging to the same community.

The Let`s Go Forward module includes volunteering activities for migrants in the field of recreational initiatives, social assistance and the promotion of cultural heritage. They will be matched with local people in order to constitute mixed working groups.

Thanks to the volunteering activities, migrants will be able to develop both hard and soft skills, allowing them to understand which vocational activity better suits them; this will help social operators and mentors better support them in creating their CVs and preparing for job searches.

This campaign includes the following: training sessions for migrants and local people, art festivals and sports events, painting/street art, interfaith/intercultural cuisine workshops, sessions between young migrants and their personal mentor.

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