1. Best practices
We have already said (ch. 3) that the positive impact of the contemporary migrations is strictly linked to the citizens’ active role in promoting the “assumption of responsibilities by the people of any origins”, within the new historical process. It is a real challenge with an uncertain outcome which depends on the ability to draw on the historical European heritage and to spend, in relatively short times, any kind of resources: financial, economic, institutional, but also ethic, spiritual and cultural resources. It is in this frame that we have to assess the identification, the reproduction and also the generalization of the good practices we found in the past and in the contemporary experience. [read more]
In the Portal you can find some of them in the accounts of the people we met and interviewed. Other examples have been coming out in the course of the project, as an indirect result of the people’s (students and teachers involved in the project) activities.
Without claiming to work systematically, we suggest three main issues for a research and a close examination work.
- Best institutional practices
- o We can take the British report as a reference, since it mention several positive actions made by the State, mostly related to the childhood and citizen issues. For example:
- The Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant
- The Vulnerable Children Grant (VCG).
- The Citizenship curriculum, introduced to develop a common understanding of British values and respect for one another.
- Out of the EU, the Romanian Report points out the state program New Canadian program, specifically addressed to the newcomers.
- Collective positive actions
- In Belgium the French Community has promoted the project LCO (Langue et culture d’origine - Native language and culture) that favours the linguistic and cultural learning at school. Other interdisciplinary class projects aiming at the citizenship education and at the fighting against racism and xenophobia are linked to the LCO. Moreover, both in some schools and outside them there are “awareness campaigns and actions” launched by the Center for equal opportunities and fight against racism.
- In Belgium again, the Italian immigrants report the experience of Arulef, an association formed by Umbrian immigrants and supported by Region Umbria and by the immigrants’ native town councils. This association has very important relationships with the local authorities, too.
- Also in Italy we can mention “best practices” embodied in associations committed in the educational and intercultural fields. Among them, Caritas, an association which depends on the Catholic Church and is committed in the field of assistance and aid, is one of the most relevant. It also writes a national Report on migrations yearly. The emigrants from Romania mention instead the committee of Non-Governmental-Organizations.
- Individual positive actions
- No social-inclusive process can exist without the direct individual assumption of responsibilities.
- We can find three examples of this in the Italian Report concerning immigration: a carpenter, a primary school teacher and a primary school headmistress.