Migration in Europe

A former Comenius project where we touched upon the subject of homeland made us think about about migration in Europe. Migration has always been a part of European history and European identity. In this project we would like to make students aware of the concept of migration in modern society. We want to show how Europe, to a large extent, is a result of ongoing migration and integration processes. These processes are not easy to understand and explain and seem also, for many people, to have negative results instead of realizing that migration is an old concept that primarily has positive effects on the countries involved. To understand the present situation we must also understand the past. We need to widen our horizons and for the students and their families taking part in the project to understand the importance of migration and the positive effects of it. Cultural exchange between countries is one of the key elements of progress and innovation. The objectives of this project are threefold:1. creating guidelines for schools concerning integration of new students / foreign students. These guidelines are based on experiences made during the project where the long term individual student mobilities play an essential role. 2. creating a didactical tool kit with classroom material on the general topic of migration in Europe. This consists of material for lessons and projects concerning the various topics of migration such as history, present day society and literature.3. producing a documentary film in which we want to show successful stories of migration. The film focuses on people who have migrated to our countries telling their personal story of migration. All of our products are available on our website www.migration-in.eu and on the resource-platform on eTwinning.Number and profile of participantsOur 5 upper secondary schools are located in 5 different countries. Each school has participated with about 30 students (16-17 years old) and 4-8 actively involved teachers. 4 schools are situated in different rural areas in Germany, Italy, France and Sweden. Two of the schools are situated in small towns (Valdobbiadene and Laufen), two schools in medium sized towns (Poitiers and Falkenberg) and one school in the outskirts of a capital city (Copenhagen). This means that the diversity of the students was wide, which supported the main task of changing the mindset.Description of activitiesEach country hosted at least one short term mobility of students, 6 mobilities in all. There have been also 3 transnational project meetings for teachers’ planning, evaluation and closing of the project. Furthermore 4 students of each school have participated in long term mobilities consisting of 8 weeks in a partner school. MethodologyDuring the project we have used and created empirical selfmade case studies which are the basis of the primary products made in this project. There has been professional input from experts coming to assist and lecture during the short group mobilities. We also have organized practical field trips during each short group mobility.ImpactCarrying out this project has the following impact:- The participant students got a deeper understanding of the theme “Migration” both from a historical and a present point of view.- There integration of foreign students has been improved in our schools and an understanding of how this can be carried out in a good way.- The participants have all acquired a raised level of digital competence since much of the work in the project was carried out using ICT (digital platforms such as E-twinning, filming and editing).- The skill to use and understand foreign languages has been improved. English is the common project language, but many of the students in the project study one of the major three languages (German, French and Italian) and the project gave them rich possibilities to improve their skills. Furthermore, the project offered the option to participants to meet and learn about two smaller languages (Swedish and Danish). Potential longer term benefitsThe students and staff involved in the project have experience a change of mindset concerning the topic of migration, which hopefully will result in a better understanding of and willingness to integrate migrants in their network and thereby in society. There will be social and linguistic benefits and both students and teachers taking part in this project will not only learn about migration but will also learn about cooperation over boundaries in Europe. An international project like this one creates new networks in Europe. In short, taking part in a project like this is a lesson for life, taking into accout the past and the future.