Description of the project
‘We are all migrants of this world’
Free as Europeans may feel to choose where they want to live and develop their professional carriers, they still seem to suffer from a lack of enthusiasm to fully accept immigrants’ right to be part of the society with all their privileges and obligations. Due to little awareness and an increasingly multicultural society, people’s attitudes towards the phenomenon of migration are constantly changing. Bearing in mind the current political and economic situation, members of the European Union are more and more commonly said not to understand each other in terms of similarities and differences. The idea of our project is therefore to make both its participants and all the potential stakeholders be aware of what challenges they have to face and find effective solutions to deal with the issue of migration. Only by knowing and understanding the basis of the issue one can deal successfully with this hot phenomenon nowadays as well as contribute to staying part of united Europe. Without knowing the historical background, it is not possible to understand the current situation. However, while carrying out the tasks we would also like the students to focus on political, sociocultural and economic aspects. Migration is claimed by many to be discussed in national groups but we feel this is and has always been a matter of a trans-national point of view. Thus our aim is to provide enough reliable information and make students use the proper tools in order to take an active role and take the right decisions in the future for the benefit of the whole European and wider communities. Hence, the title of our project: ‘We are all migrants of this world’.
During the two-year cooperation, students and teachers from Poland, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, will carry out activities to fully understand, draw conclusions from and take steps to deal with the issue of migrations through reference to: historical background of migration waves, reasons for migration in the past and now, results and implications of migrations, governments’ policies towards migration, cultural similarities and differences between countries, asylum-seeking procedures. The participating countries, thanks to their historical migration experience will contribute greatly to achieving all the aims. This will also be supported by their experience in dealing with the issue in today’s times: Greece and Italy being the first ‘gate’ to Europe for most immigrants and refugees, Spain and Portugal being experienced in hosting migrants, Poland having undergone periods of emigration waves and learning about being a multicultural society, and Germany being one of the main target destinations for most immigrants. The project will help develop conviction of being a proud and understanding European ready to cooperate, interact and live together in peace.
The results will be seen in a number of products, e.g. presentations, interviews, face-to-face meetings with immigrants, common website, debates, leaflets and a collection of short stories written by students. The students will become the owners of the stories and they will discover them by through their own experience. We think that because of the new method of teaching students will develop a better understanding of intercultural relations within Europe and the relations it has with citizens of other countries.