For an Active citizenship, Inclusion and Development: AID refugees and immigrants Erasmus Project
General information for the For an Active citizenship, Inclusion and Development: AID refugees and immigrants Erasmus Project
Project Title
For an Active citizenship, Inclusion and Development: AID refugees and immigrants
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 Schools Only
Project Call Year
This project’s Call Year is 2016
Project Topics
This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; Inclusion – equity; Migrants’ issues
Project Summary
The project dealt with the inclusion of immigrants and refugees in the school and the local community/society. The issue was derived from the difficult situation that all state members of the EU face: the waves of refugees flooding the union, especially some countries more than others and the consequences that the situation imposes at the schools. The complexity is identified by the multiple parameters that this situation hides. On one hand, immigrants and refugees flee the war zones to find a better place to live and to be safe and secure in their everyday lives. On the other hand, local students and families experience the same feelings of loss as they feel threatened by the amount of people invading their regularity. The balance between the two lies is the golden medium that this project aimed. For the immigrants and refugees to be accepted, included and actively participate in the community as citizens and for the local people to assist the newcomers without feeling threatened.
In order to achieve that, 7 institutions gathered from different parts of Europe (North, South, East, West) representing both primary and secondary education. These partners, representing Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Romania, Greece and Cyprus each one with their own experiences, cooperated to find solutions to cope with the above situation. As the situation of immigrants and refugees is multi-dimensional, our objectives targeted as many of those dimensions as possible. The social, educational, technological development of these students was aimed and the development of the teachers’ skills was for that reason, imperative as well. The project hosted digital ICT tools (digital map of each partner city, QR code info, digital dictionary/translator with over 700 basic words and phrases, guides for beginners about easy to use tools and software, free language apps and programmes, Creative Commons websites and other official useful websites with best inclusion practices), organized sports events (playing Korfball) and experience-sharing workshops, performed a study about best inclusion practices used in each institution and held an International Conference with the subject “Immigrants, refugees and Inclusion”. The project organized 7 transnational meetings, one in each institution, 4 learning, teaching, training activities and an eTwinning project awarded with 4 National and 2 European Quality Labels. The transnational meetings were the means to plan the next steps of the project, to assess the products being produced, to adapt activities or products if necessary and to keep within the deadlines suggested by the time line. The learning, teaching, training activities (C2-C5) were held parallel to the transnational meetings with either 3 or 4 students from each secondary school and 2 teachers accompanying them. Some of the participants in these meetings had immigrant/refugee background.
In these meetings, the students attended sports events playing Korfball in mixed teams and experience-sharing workshops with former students of the institutions that shared their immigration or refugee experiences/stories. These Life Stories, enriched by other ones written by parents, students and teachers, were published as a book. They also applied, practiced and assessed all the ICT tools. All students were certified with the Europass Mobility certificate for their attendance in the workshops. Additionally, twice a year, during the International Days of Refugees and Immigrants, celebrations and activities were held in all the institutions. All the activities and products can be found on the project website: https://www.refugees-immigrants.com/
With this project we aimed to make the transition and inclusion of immigrants and refugees smoother and with fewer problems for them and the local citizens. We had the ambition to influence with our project the local community, the institutions in our regions and in our countries, to inform and to share our products with other Non-profit organizations, NGOs and our municipalities. At the end, with our project we intended to AID Immigrants and Refugees to be Active citizens, Include them in the society in the most effortless way and Develop their future along with the society as they become part of it.
EU Grant (Eur)
Funding of the project from EU: 143090 Eur
Project Coordinator
Institut de Palamós & Country: ES
Project Partners
- Hjalmar Strömerskolan
- 1 Vrontados Primary School
- Einstein-Gymnasium Rheda-Wiedenbrück
- AGRUPAMENTO D ESCOLAS RAFAEL BORDALO PINHEIRO
- Colegiul National “B. P. Hasdeu”
- DIMOTIKO SCHOLEIO DROSIAS (KA)