Open Hearts and Welcoming Communities for Immigrants and Refugees Erasmus Project

Project Title

Open Hearts and Welcoming Communities for Immigrants and Refugees

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Migrants’ issues; Integration of refugees

Project Summary

National circumstances such as war, political instability, economic difficulties cause many people to leave their countries and relocate to other countries as migrants or refugees. These people, who are then subjected to a different cultural setting, are faced with serious problems prior to, during and after migration. Such problems may be physical, mental, psychological, economic, social and cultural. Among the most serious issues are failure to integrate into the social life of the host country, lack of education and employment for the young, cultural shock due to alienation, refusal of the local population towards the refugees, abuse and harassment of migrant women, etc..In line with the Readmission Agreement signed between Turkey and the EU, this project especially involves the influx of refugees to Turkey. Studies on refugees in this country have shown that most of them cannot speak Turkish, women and the young fail to integrate into work life, many of those able to carry out qualified labour are not employed in their line of work and are faced with harsh working conditions, women are subjected to sexual abuse, refugees do not know how to access basic amenities such as healthcare, education and trade, and they are unaware of the refugee acts specifying their basic rights and liberties.The fact that refugees do not only aim to relocate to countries with a border to their own, but to further countries calls for international collaboration in dealing with these issues. Therefore, any resolution towards the refugee crisis should be undertaken at the international level.
The first objective of this project is to assess the refugee situation in Turkey at academic level in collaboration with domestic and international partner organisations of different fields of activity. The next objectives are to develop a roadmap to alleviate this crisis and to act on it by developing and offering guidance, as well as disseminating resulting solutions.
In total, 7 organisations collaborated during this project. The assembled consortium consisted of 2 higher-level education organisations for scientific assessment, counseling and training, a rehabilitation centre for shared experience and training of trainers, 2 local public bodies for implementation and valorization of project outcomes, an IT enterprise for software solutions, and an NGO for monitoring and evaluation of the project.
Activities and methodology undertook under the project are:Each of the project partners in Spain, Germany and Turkey worked in its own country preparing the documentation aiming for the social integration of the refugees and immigrants. Guides for healthcare, legal proceedings, practical language, cultural adaptation and a report on the effects of the immigration from Middle Eastern to Turkey are prepared by Turkish partners. Guides are reachable on android system phones and an ICT-based module (e-information) on special website. All these outputs and project activities are listed on Project website. 15 researchers from Turkey and 2 researchers from Sevilla had a short-training in Germany (Consultant Centre for Immigrants in Berlin). In addition to training activities, 2nd TPM was organized with the participation of all project partners. All researchers in the scope of the project attended the training where they had the chance to learn about the policies and immigrants-related services provided in city of Berlin, Germany. Knowledge gained through this training was used during preparation of the handbooks previously mentioned as project outputs. 3 dissemination seminars were organised in Antalya with the goal to present the findings of the project collaboration and raise awareness on the refugee and immigration issues. Further, on the International Migrants day 18th December 2018, panels, presentations and festival were organized in Sevilla and Antalya. Finally, more than 3000 booklets were distributed in special places for refugees located in the cities of Kilis and Gaziantep in the southeastern part of Turkey.
In the final stage of the project, Report on Effects of the Middle East migration to Turkey was prepared where the most important conceptual and empirical studies were reviewed and interviews with the main stakeholders in Antalya province that interact with migrants were conducted. Results presented the most important effects of migration in Antalya followed by suggestions and implications on how the further integration process should be approached and conceptualized.
It is believed that the outputs of the current project will have significant contribution in helping both immigrants to adapt to the conditions of the country they migrated to, as well as to the local community and authorities in their attempts to create a better society where all members will live in the spirit of understanding, respect and harmony.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 144184,53 Eur

Project Coordinator

AKDENIZ UNIVERSITY & Country: TR

Project Partners

• BEdCon GmbH
• Buyuk Dusun Dernegi
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA
• Bilisim Uzmanlari Egitim ve Danismanlik Merkezi
• Konyaalti Belediyesi
• Antalya Il Saglik Mudurlugu