Start & End Date: 01.01.2017 – 31.08.2017
Participating Countries: Germany, Spain, Italy, Cyprus.
Project Partners: Asociación Europa (Spain), Arcistrauss (Italy) and Youth Dynamics (Cyprus).
Number of Participants: 25 participants
Grant Giver: Erasmus+ / TMBJS
Funding Programme: Key Action 1
Grant Amount: 10175.00 EUR / 4550.00 EUR
Recently a growing number of migrants and refugees from conflict areas have entered Europe and created political and moral dilemmas within the European Union and beyond. The refugees and asylum seekers have found a strong opposition from radical and extremist conservative parties. They defend not only for a better control of migration streams but also question the Schengen treaty and the free movement policy in the EU. Furthermore, the result of the Brexit Referendum and the strong campaign in the United Kingdom against liberal migration policies promoted by the EU have highlighted the necessity of rethinking the concept of borders and bringing in new ideas about the concept.We would like to create a youth exchange that tackles the concept of borders, What does it mean and what effect does it have in our own lives? Could we imagine an European Union with widespread border controls? Do we know what would it mean to have borders again? Would it be frightening an Europe that is connected by a free transfer of goods, but not of people?
For this specific youth exchange we created a common space between different visions of the European Union, specifically from Germany and other South European countries. The migration flows come through the southern areas, but most of the time migrants and asylum seekers settle in Germany and other central western European countries. We tried to build a constructive debate on the matter between northern and southern Europe, where youngsters couldlearn about the concept of border and its implications in society in general and for EU and its member-states specifically.
All in all, Border the future of Schengen is a program created to fight extremism through debates and intercultural education. Important topics like the refugee crisis and the Shengen treaty will be addressed on a daily basis but the most important thing is that youngsters will learn how to tackle complex political problems from diverse perspectives and become critic citizens.
To reach the aims of the project, we created one activity:
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[ap_tab title=”Youth Exchange”]Youth Exchange “Borders The Future of Schengen” held from the 12th till the 18th of June in Weimar, Thuringia.
This activity focused in discussing the concept of Freedom of Movement from different points of view and in doing so, changing the mentality about the topic that the participants have. It also aimed at creating common debate spaces in order to change prejudices and open youngsters´ minds, so that in the future more and more people are more open minded and able to accept `the other´.
Number of participants: 25
Profile of participants: Youngsters between 18 and 24 years old living in Northern Europe or Southern Europe with an interest for the topic.
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Impact
The program was designed to be a space where youngsters from different countries would come together and share their values and life experiences. The participants opened their minds and hearts and acknowledged the different features in their lives when facing with migration issues.
The different activities were focused on giving complex solutions to complex political phenomenons, that means fighting populism and accepting that not all the problems can be solved with a single solution or concept.
The most important part of the exchange was integrity. There is a reason why migration is in our opinion an essential issue in our countries and communities, it is extremely human. The way young people deal with migration is the manner they treat other human beings. The European Union was designed to be built upon Human Rights and that´s why we should never forget what our values as Europeans are. Therefore the main impact of this exchange was enforcing and promoting human values that are part of our identity as Europeans.
Methodology
The main working method was non-formal education in connection with a lot of community activities and group building. The main activities will be debates, group activities, games and workshops.
