1. Intercultural education

A. Definition

The objectives of Intercultural Education in our organizations are:

• To promote the right to be different.
• To improve the tolerance with respect to the difference, to liberate oneself from negative stereotypes and prejudices, to call oneself into question, to analyze their own attitudes and if necessary learn new strategies to change them.
• To discover and to profit from the richness of the diversity.
• To support the personal development and to fight against certain forms of discrimination like racism.
• To promote knowledge about other cultures and respect for them.
• To promote the relationship among people with different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural education is not only aimed at foreign students or people coming from minorities, but at all the students. It must enable them to gradually open towards other cultures (to start with the cultures of reception or origin), to make a distinction without discriminating, to recognize cultural diversity without uneven judgement, to apprehend it on the mode of the reciprocity, to fight against the ethnocentrism, to structure their personality in pluralist terms.

B. Methodology

Various subjects tackled in the framework of the intercultural education and the used methods are the following ones:

• Modes of communication, expression, listening, cultural valorisation: The professional training imposes rules which constitute tools accepted fairly well by our public. However, we come across particular practices of communication and greetings directly related to the culture of origin. The misunderstanding of the technical terms of vocabulary can sometimes generate troubles and interpretations. This problem exists also frequently with young nationals. One way used by one partner organization for the valorisation of the culture of origin of young people is the implementation of an internal newspaper in which certain young people present some aspects of their country of origin voluntarily. We use group dynamics aimed to promote the students knowledge about themselves and cultural diversity respect. One example is “identity card” (see Activities) that we also use in order to promote the self-concept and self-esteem; in this activity the students tell each other where they are from, their hobbies, favourite meals and music, etc. We use videos, internet and newspaper’s articles in order to reflect about prejudices and discrimination and promote knowledge about immigration and intercultural dialogue and integration in our society.
• Clothing aspects: The subject is very difficult to approach, because clothing touches the intimacy of the person, sometimes even the concept of cleanliness, body odours that are much related to food. The educational action does not pass in an authoritative step, but rather in the awakening of the young person of what he/she shows and of the standards in which he will have to adopt to be integrated.
• Religious values: There are differences among the partner countries related to this topic. In France the work is based on the law on secularity, and prohibition to show ostentatious signs of membership of a religion. We however run up against the religious festivals different from our calendar, and which impose to us absences and shifts of the rates/rhythms of work. The problem of identity and recognition of our young people arises often around the religious question. In Spain in occasion of cultural or religious special days (Christmas, Easter, Ramadan) we work in class about their meanings and habits.
• Food habits and traditions: We set up a workshop “cooks of the world” or cooking classes. This subject always has much success near the young people. Our animator is herself of foreign origin, and that help her to tackle the intercultural subjects of the activity.
• Representation of the professional world: Some professionals and training sectors are directly identified with a particular “ethnos group”, by its migratory history, predetermined ideas and an intergenerational tradition. These factors can be very positive if they are integrated in the mind of the young people convinced by a specific training, but are sometimes carrying illusions which do not correspond to the reality of insertion. Certain professional sectors are very noticeable by their requirements and not very tolerant for cultural diversity, such as activities of contact to the person (hairstyle, aesthetician and waiters). It is very difficult for us to take into accounts these realities that sometimes go against our educational goal.
• Other activities: Language training in the language of the country with focus on different topics, for example: “Language for cooks”, apprenticeships in bi-lingual organisations, cooperation with people in the neighbourhood, participation in exhibitions.

2. European citizenship

A. Definition

European Citizenship education is aimed to:

• Promote social participation and foster democratic habits.
• Promote knowledge about European countries.
• Know European Union purposes and some important achievements.
• Understand how European Union influences their life and how they can participate in it.

B. Methodology

Various aspects tackled in the framework of the European citizenship and the used methods are the following ones:

• Appropriation of the rules/codes of the society: The reference to the law is rather omnipresent in our daily educational action, because our public has the characteristic to have had very often difficulties in assimilating this concept and regularly recall it to us in their attitudes and behaviour. The rules of procedure of the establishment/organization help us to work on the concept of the law; the transgression allows us to approach the concept of damage to others and the repairing process.
• Civic values, rights and duties: Within the framework of the training we give courses of social and professional life that are related to the rights and duties of each one. In a partner organization they are animated by a person of foreign origin in order to fit with insertion. We work with students about citizens’ rights and duties. Example of specific activities are “Student council” (See Activities) that takes place one a month and “Election – Democracy” aimed to learn how democracy functions and prepare the students for participating in real elections.
• Citizenship at European level: The educational partnerships and European projects that we organize with the concrete participation of our young people represent new unexpected tools in order to make our students become aware of the concept of European membership, and by consequence, of their national identity. We work on Europe, European Union and European Citizenship in some specific classes (from 2 to 4) supported by an European volunteer who carries out her/his project (called EVS, in the framework of Youth in Action Programme, European Commission) in our organization. The students carry out brief exercises on European Countries, maps, images of monuments, famous people, etc.

C. Difficulties and Results

• Sometimes the knowledge of national language is too inadequate.
• Sometimes the students show no interest in learning about other cultural experiences. Sometimes the students have very strong negative prejudices against other cultures based on lack of knowledge or false ideas (For example: “When immigrants arrive, they receive economical support and houses”).
• It is difficult to approach the concept of European citizenship to our public, for different reasons: young immigrants who did not come to Europe for a real motivation but in order to escape from the problems of their country and they are legitimately attached to them (economic difficulties, wars, corruption, etc). Young people, who were born in France, but from immigrants’ parents or grand parents, are lost between the culture of origin and the culture of adoption.
• Our organizations welcome young people who are in difficulty with the society. We offer them a place to be protected, to rebuilt themselves, to consider something else than failure. However we confront ourselves to young people with a strong deep membership to district, to neighbourhood rather than to ethnos group. The ghetto from where they come from is their culture with its rules, traditions, codes, systems of values. We welcome them in a situation of difficulty and we do not have the means of exploiting the cultural richness’; we have a predominance to guide them towards social insertion in the mainly national culture. Young people who are with 2nd, 3rd generation of immigration master neither the language of their native country, nor the national language. They are confronted with a priority of social integration, priority of all those who guide and accompany them, and this step is not always in adequacy with the valorisation of their cultural identity.
• It is difficult to promote awareness of the citizens’ rights and duties because of the students’ personal situation. They have economical difficulties, they dropped out from the school system and they are aware of the difficulties they have to face in order to find a job and satisfy their needs. They feel Europe as very far away as normally they do not travel nor participate in social initiatives with a European dimension. They also do not participate in any social or cultural organization in their community and do not feel the power that they have as citizens.
• Thanks to the reflection and the knowledge about other cultures’ aspects they become more aware about the rights of every person and cultural community and learn to respect them.

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