Project

Mobility and Migration in Europe as a tool for understanding diversity, facilitating intercultural communication and creating European identity

24th - 29th May 2009

International Youth Meeting Centre Krzyżowa, Poland (near Wrocław)

Mobility and Migration was an exchange project for young active and mobile Europeans.

Young participants from Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldavia, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey met together in Krzyżowa (Poland) in order to analyze the situation of migration and mobility in today’s Europe and work on concepts for using the potential young migrants bear in themselves. Migration is strongly biased as a negative phenomenon. The aim of our project was to find out and show its potential for intercultural and diverse European society of today and tomorrow.

Mobility and Migration started with an academic session, where experts on migration and minority issues brought the participants up to date with the state of today’s research. After this theoretical part the focus moved on to a series of workshops during which participants searched for answers to the following questions: Why do people migrate? How do the local society profits from migrants’ arrival? How do societies of origin can use emigrants’ potential? Is it possible to build up networks between migrants? How can these networks function? What can they reach together? How can they influence their local society as well as the European and global world?

Poland, as a hosting country, was an example for contemporary migration flows. As a country in transformation period it perfectly connects the trends existing in Eastern and Western Europe. In order to get an objective view, the group visited organizations and institutions dealing with the field of migration and mobility in Wrocław – one of Poland’s biggest cities.

During Mobility and Migration participants worked out a set of methods for using the potential of young migrants in their local communities. The results can be viewed here.