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You are here: Home / Archives for EU Action plan on integration and inclusion

Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences: First Online Capacity-building Session for Regions and Local Stakeholders

14 September, 2022 By Birgit Sandu

What is interculturalism and how do we support the development of intercultural competences among regions and their stakeholders?

 

Intercultural Competence is what allows for a person to be able to navigate comfortably in complex intercultural settings. Accordingly, to the European Commission (2007), it means combining skills, attitudes, abilities, and knowledge to face, act and intervene effectively and appropriately in a variety of contexts, where cultural, socio-economic, ethnic, and other lines intersect and can lead to situations of intercultural conflict that can, in turn, damage social cohesion.

A person is considered interculturally competent if he/she can successfully communicate and relate with people from other cultural backgrounds. It means mobilizing external and internal resources and it is something that can always be developed and improved throughout our lives.  Deardoff (2006) defines it as the ability to develop targeted knowledge, skills and attitudes that lead to visible behavior and communication that are both effective and appropriate in intercultural interactions.

 

The EU-BELONG team is ready to kick-start its ambitious process of empowering regions and their stakeholders to develop innovative integration strategies for the first time applying the intercultural approach. As first step, regional decision-makers, civil servants and local stakeholder will build knowledge in intercultural integration concepts and foster key intercultural competences that will be applied throughout and beyond the project.

The first online capacity-building session will be held on 6th October 2022 from 10 to 12:30 CET focusing on ‘Introduction to Interculturalism and Intercultural Competences’. The session is addressed at the 11 regions of the project and 20 civil servants and/or local stakeholders from each region.  It aims at fostering an understanding of what is interculturalism and what are its key principles, how we can build an intercultural region step-by-step and how to develop an intercultural strategy. Lastly, the session will provide guidance on how to develop and organise a large-scale training on intercultural competences to support the regions throughout the implementation of their capacity-building programmes.


Structure and Programme

Trainer: Carla Calado, Coordinator of the Portuguese Intercultural Cities Network

Language: English

Participants: EU-BELONG partners, 20 stakeholders/local and regional civil servants from each region, experts working with the regions on the organisation of the capacity-building session, members of the Intercultural Regions Network


10:00 – 10:15 Welcoming words

  • Marina Medarić, AER Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity & Equality
  • Nichola Howson, Directorate General of Democracy Anti-Discrimination Department of the Council of Europe

10:15 – 10:45  Presentation and Ice Breaker

10:45-11:30h       Interculturalism

  • Definition of Interculturalism
  • Principles of Interculturalism
  • Ethnocentrism VS Relativism
  • The intercultural region step-by-step: assessment, building a strategy, implementing, and evaluating actions, connection to city strategies (examples from cities regarding housing, education, culture, labour, tourism, public spaces, etc.)

11:30 – Ice Breaker

11:45-12:15h    Intercultural competence training

  • Definition of Intercultural Competence
  • Why is Intercultural competence training important?
  • How does it look like in practice?
  • General recommendation for large-scale training. The blended learning approach (pros and cons).

12:15 – 12:30    Q&A and final remarks


Additional resources for exploration:

  • ICC Intercultural Citizenship test: Intercultural Citizenship Test (coe.int)
  • Online courses:
  • Diversity and Inclusion – AKF | The Learning Hub (akflearninghub.org): send an email to an automatic email will be sent to you via “the learning hub” platform with instructions. The course takes 90m to watch and it is divided into small lessons (3 to 4 min each)
  • ICC Course – The intercultural city step-by-step Survey (surveymonkey.com): this course does not need previous enrolment
  • Resources in ICC website in the dedicated page: Thematic papers (coe.int)

If you are interested in participating, please contact Birgit Sandu  ([email protected]), or Anna Comacchio ([email protected]).


EU-Belong is a 3-year project run by the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and 13 partners, and co-funded by the AMIF Programme (AMIF-2020-AG-CALL) of the European Union. Its aim is to support the adoption of innovative and pioneering regional integration strategies, based on a multi-level and multi-stakeholder framework that, for the first time, applies the intercultural approach to Regions as a key-player for the successful integration of third-country nationals.

Inclusive Housing: Why And How?

10 June, 2022 By Johanna Pacevicius

Access to adequate and affordable housing is a key determinant of successful integration. Housing conditions have a strong impact on employment and education opportunities and on the interactions between migrants and host communities. Poor housing conditions and segregation can exacerbate divisions, which undermine social cohesion. Inclusive housing is therefore essential for thriving neighbourghoods.

The need for cross-sectoral approaches

In the framework of the Includ-EU project AER organised a webinar on cross-sectoral approaches to inclusive housing. The 4th Includ-EU webinar looked at practices that promote the benefits of intercultural identities of neighbourhoods. Encouraging social interactions via holistic housing policies and reinventing public spaces is of utmost importance to foster integration.

Setting the framework

Rossella Celmi, Project Manager at the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, opened the webinar by reminding participants that

Beyond its strictly material aspect, upholding the right to housing is considered crucial for human dignity and personal development, as well as a precondition for the enjoyment of other rights

With the war in Ukraine leading to new needs to welcome migrants, mainly women with children, Rossella Celmi shared an overview of the current situation, both in Ukraine, with high numbers of internally displaced persons (for up-to-date numbers: see this UNHCR Ukraine webpage), and in neighboring countries, as well as the IOM response in different countries (see Rossella Celmi‘s presentation here)

Looking at housing through an intercultural lens

Ivana D’Alessandro, Head of the Intercultural cities Unit, Council of Europe started off with the basic principles of intercultural cities: Integration is not only about rights, it is about

  • Promoting real equality
  • Building on the diversity advantage to create a “WE” culture based on shared values
  • Fostering Interaction within and between

The intercultural model brings together the principles of Diversity, Equality and Interaction.

Intercultural Model by Carlos Jimenez

These three principles lead to a specific role for public space: social trust indeed builds across diversities in the public space. Urban planning is therefore fundamental for authorities that want to develop intercultural cities and regions. To harness the diversity advantage.

Gentrification, a process through which lower income residents are displaced from a neighbourhood due to an influx of new residents, resulting in a change of character of the neighbourhood, results in displacement, and change in social and urban character. Gentrification therefore has negative impacts on all three dimensions of interculturality: equality, diversity, and interaction. Ivana D’Alessandro cited Tom Slater Professor of Urban Geography, at the University of Edinburgh who calls gentrification “the special expression of economic inequality”.

She shared how the intercultural cities’ principles apply to the public space

Applying these principles is then reflected in work on the rent gap and affordability, in the prevention of displacement, the strengthening of participatory processes, achieving inclusive public space and the promotion of sustainable tourism… which in turn will have an impact on rent etc. See Ivana D’Alessandro‘s presentation here

Includ-EU briefing on housing

Eleonora Milazzo, PhD, researcher and migration policy consultant at Kings College London shared the findings of the Includ-EU Briefing on Housing, which analysed the housing context for migrants in Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. The data lead to a series of recommendations:

The briefing also describes a series of local and regional examples in the 6 countries, which illustrate how these recommendations can be implemented.

In Includ-EU, sharing of examples is seen as an essential tool to improve policies and practices. Eleonora Milazzo‘s presentation is available here, and provides for instance details on

  • how the “A New House” initiative in Cluj-Napoca provides material and medical assistance to vulnerable families and individuals
  • how Lucca’s House Agency in Tuscany matches supply and demand on the housing market
  • how Slovenia provides additional housing support for beneficiaries of international protection
  • and many other examples!

Unleash the potential of migration

Migration is a phenomenon that will remain and is likely to amplify in the future. In this context, rather than “solving” a “migration challenge”, sustainable policies and practices are focused on creating meaningful, equal to equal interactions between newcomers and local citizens. This in turn is deemed to enable cities and regions to benefit from the entrepreneurial spirit, variety of skills and creativity associated with cultural diversity.

Fatemeh Jailani, COO of SINGA Global, shared insights on SINGA’s “3 weapons of mass cohesion”, which are community organising, entrepreneurship and innovation.

SINGA’s tried and tested citizens hosting methodology fits in the “innovation section”, and is a methodology that ensures a healthy, equal relationship between newcomers and local citizens.

The 7 steps methodology

This methodology ensures the relationship is mutually beneficial and not rooted in a saviour-victim pattern.

  • Registration: aspiring hosts inform about motivation & space available
  • Informational meeting: to explain the programme, methods of intercultural co-housing, check motivation
  • Connection: based on location, motivation & expectations, areas of interest
  • First meeting: in neutral place. Potentially a second meeting to visit
  • Decision making: if both sides agree, then they have access to tools such as agreement, charter of cohabitation, intercultural training
  • Follow-up: the ‘J’accueille’ team will check on cohabiations regularly.
  • Facilitate communication: whenever there is a communication issue hosts and hostees can contact the team. A mediation service is available too.

While in emergency situations, the methodology may seem slow, results show that it is very effective and more sustainable than citizens hosting solutions without knowledgeable support. Safety is indeed a key aspect, both for hosts and hostees.

ANCI Toscana’s new model to tackle temporary housing needs

Additional Resources

Here are some more resources from the Includ-EU project and findings:

  • Video of the webinar on Cross-sectoral approaches to Inclusive Housing
  • Includ-EU Thematic Briefing on Housing
  • Includ-EU website

Videos of the other Includ-EU webinars

  • Webinar on Access to Quality Education and Training- An Intercultural Approach
  • Webinar on Intercultural Regions: Active Participation & Social Inclusion
  • Webinar on Intercultural Regions: Improving Labor Market Inclusion
  • Webinar on Intercultural Regions: Improving Access to Services

Related articles

  • All articles related to the includ-EU webinars and workshops

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If you haven’t yet subscribed to the Includ-EU Newsletter, this is the place to be.

To get regular news about the project, the pilots, resources and upcoming events: follow Includ EU on Twitter @Includ_EU

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Cross-sectoral Approaches To Inclusive Housing

24 March, 2022 By Johanna Pacevicius

On 7 April 2022 AER is organising a webinar on cross-sectoral approaches to inclusive housing from 15:00-16:30 CET in the framework of the Includ-EU project.

Access to adequate and affordable housing is a key determinant of successful integration. Housing conditions have a strong impact on employment and education opportunities and on the interactions between migrants and host communities. Poor housing conditions and segregation can exacerbate divisions, which undermine social cohesion.

Building inclusive societies for all

The EU action plan on integration and inclusion states that:

Inclusion for all is about ensuring that all policies are accessible to and work for everyone, including migrants and EU citizens with migrant background. This means adapting and transforming mainstream policies to the needs of a diverse society, taking into account the specific challenges and needs of different groups.

In the field of housing, the European Commission aims to achieve the following:

  • Migrants and EU citizens with a migrant background have access to adequate and affordable housing, including social housing.
  • Member States and local and regional authorities have access to a wide range of tools and good practices to fight discrimination on the housing market.
  • Innovative housing solutions that foster inclusion and fight segregation are widely used across the EU.

A central role for local & regional authorities

Integration happens in every village, city, and region where migrants live, work and go to school or to a sports club. The local and regional levels play a key role in welcoming and guiding newcomers when they first arrive in their new country. In addition, civil society organisations and migrants themselves play a key role in achieving a truly effective and comprehensive integration policy.

The intercultural approach to policymaking as defined by the Intercultural Cities Programme of the Council of Europe is particularly useful to manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage.

Urban planning & inclusion

While a homogenous statistical mix of people in all neighbourhoods is not needed to make a territory intercultural, regions and cities need to make sure that ethnic concentration in a neighbourhood does not convert into socio-cultural segregation. Indeed this could act as a barrier to the inward and outward flow of people, ideas, and opportunities.

In recent years, many innovative housing solutions have been developed in several EU countries, including through EU funding. Partnership-based approaches, co-housing, and accompanying housing with employment and social services have proven to be particularly promising models that foster inclusion and community building.

Mutual learning for inclusive policies & practices

In the context of the Includ-EU project, AER is facilitating mutual learning between regional and local authorities across the European Union to improve inclusion policies and practices. This is done via a series of webinars and workshops.

The videos of previous webinars are available here:

–Intercultural Regions: Improving Access to Services
–Intercultural Regions: Improving Labour Market Inclusion
–Intercultural Regions: Active Participation & Social Inclusion

The first Includ-EU Regional Workshop focused not on discussing solutions but analysing and sharing problems and challenges in our ever-changing Europe, in a collaborative way, and with peer-to-peer dialogue.

The second Includ-EU Regional Workshop took place in the context of a two-day event on the Sustainable Development Goals and focused on two topics:

  • Rethinking services & raising awareness on design in shaping more sustainable services
  • how to counteract hate speech

Venice Workshop in June: Save the date!

The third Includ-EU Regional Workshop will take place on 14-15 June in Venice and will be organised in collaboration with the Generali Foundation, The Human Safety Net.

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The Includ-EU Project Launches Its Own Newsletter!

18 February, 2022 By Anna Comacchio

Stay up-to-date with innovative practices on migrants inclusion in Europe, from access to housing, health care and education, by subscribing to the Includ-EU quarterly bulletin!

We are glad to share with you the first issue of the Includ-EU newsletter, a project of which we are partners and promoters.

Includ-EU aims to contribute to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing transnational knowledge and experience sharing, cooperation and partnerships between local and regional authorities from Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

Funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund of the European Union, it is structured around key thematic areas consistent with the EU Action plan on integration and inclusion: labour inclusion, health care, education, active citizenship and housing.

The project website, designed as a platform where local expertise on inclusion can match migrants needs for information on local services and opportunities, presents overviews of the national and specific regional context related to the mentioned thematic area in each country involved, inspiring good practices and integration successful stories, news, events and information materials, along with a space where users can share their project and/or story.


Includ-EU is also on Facebook and Twitter.

Stay updated with our activities: subscribe to our quarterly newsletter!

For more info: [email protected]

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