Inclusion of Immigrants project

The inclusion of immigrants and refugees into our every-day life in Europe – Ideas, concepts and opportunities and its environment 2017-2019

Erasmus+ Programme Our project “Inclusion of Immigrants and Refugees in everyday life in Europe�

Solidarity as the basic European principle is often questioned in the current political situation. The inclusion of new members into the different societies of Europe is a challenge all Europeans face today. The inclusion of young immigrants starts at school and in its community.

Social inclusion Our project prioritizes the social inclusion of immigrated students to foster the equality and non-discrimination in everyday school education. The project aims to include immigrants on the different levels of linguistic, social, civic and intercultural competences. Within three phases of the project, the students will encounter the individual stories behind immigration and become aware of the different challenges of starting a new life in an unknown country and culture. Based on this analysis of the current concepts of the participating schools, the students will develop an improved programme including good practices from all participating countries and their own innovative ideas. Students, teachers and the local community of each participating school will become more sensitized for immigration in Europe and more open-minded towards foreign people in general. Their critical thinking, as well as their civic engagement, will be enhanced.

Supporting schools to tackle early school leaving (ESL) and disadvantage When immigrants and refugees arrive at school in Europe, they enter the educational system with several major disadvantages: a lack of the new language, the cultural habitus and the knowledge of the school system with all challenges and opportunities.

Although they might have the cognitive precondition and talents for more education, these start-up disadvantages may lead to frustration, educational failure and even an early school leaving (ESL). Our project aims to diagnose problems, challenges and disadvantages of newly immigrated students. With the help of a profound knowledge of political and internal school conditions, our new Erasmus project works on a concept for inclusion that raises equality of chances within European school systems and therefore tackles reasons for early school leaving (ESL) and disadvantage.

Achievement of relevant and high-quality skills and competences English as the lingua franca has a great importance as a means of communication in Europe. It is the linguistic key to higher education and to the ability for transnational and professional cooperation. Therefore, schools should offer the opportunity to learn English for all students. However, a first basic research at all four partner schools has revealed that the inclusion of older immigrated students into regular English language classes is one of the biggest problems in terms of inclusion European schools are facing today. It seems impossible for these newly arrived students to catch up on missed

learning with students of the same age. Since English is the basis for an achievement of relevant and high-quality skills and competencies within European cooperation, our project intends to make the linguistic inclusion for immigrated students into regular English classes easier.

Context and objectives of the project needs and target groups The subject integration of immigrants or foreign students and refugees is importance at school, it is an actual problem of our society. Repeatedly media report particularly about the unsuccessful integration of people with migration background. Especially for children, this process is difficult if they are torn out from their known social sphere and must acclimatise to a new one. Children develop in the society, in other words, they try to integrate into a society, in which they grow up. What this integration looks like however is different from child to child. In immigration societies (like Germany, Italy, France or Portugal) the process of integration of immigrant children or families is central because they are threatened in a special way by exclusion and marginalisation, which often results in disadvantages especially in the field of education and thus, later, vocation. Particularly at the transitional age between 9 and 16-years essentials, fundamentals, fundamental principles are laid for the later communal life in multicultural societies: it depends on whether and how children with and without migration background learn to handle each other and how they are prepared for the life in an immigration society. Therefore, the institution of school (in which children get into contact) must make a huge contribution to the integration into the society. The process of integration can be examined as an interaction between the own activity of the children and youngster, adolescents on the one hand and the institutions referring to them, on the other hand. Both sides make a major contribution to the success or the failing of this process. Children, youngsters and adolescents can grow successfully into the society despite or because of the institutions influencing them.

This problem is not and can never be a national one, but now more than ever, is an international issue, broadly discussed in the media and unfortunately often used by right-wing groups to foster fears and xenophobia. Nearly every country is currently struggling with the strengthening of nationalist political parties, like the AFD in Germany, the Front National in France or the Lega Nord in Italy. This proofs that it is of the utmost importance and urgencies to strengthen the bonds that have been forged across Europe and work together towards a better inclusion of immigrants and refugees into our communities and to remind our young generations of the chances transnational cooperation and solidarity offers everyone. By allowing young students to visit other countries and experience the way immigration and the inclusion of new fellow citizens works, we aim to change their perspective and sharpen their sense of compassion and solidarity. We want to inspire our students to take different (no and European) experiences and perspectives to create a new concept to help immigrants in starting a new life in their new home and welcome them into the community locally, nationally and on a European level.

Innovative project complementary other projects already carried out

The topic of integration of foreign students concerns all partner schools. But even in Germany itself there are a great number of different concepts on how to deal with the difficult task of integrating refugees or newly arrived immigrants into everyday school life, and throughout Europe the solutions are as diverse as its landscapes. But the problem is equally pressing in all countries. This project aims to channel the different approaches and perspectives from four countries, four schools and over a hundred students of different ages and backgrounds to create an innovative and transnational concept to tackle the challenges of language learning and educational disadvantages that can prejudice somebody's biography irreparably and prevent him or her from becoming a responsible citizen of Europe.

We will aim at a fusion of best practices from each country/school, to learn from the things that work well at the different schools and to better what is found lacking or unsuitable for the very specific needs of new students from foreign countries and backgrounds. We will develop new materials and new ways of dealing with new students, that will improve the concepts of all four schools from all four different countries.

Germany has experiences with the DaZ class and the translator system. We would like to share these ideas with the participating countries. So, the other countries can have a look at the existing project. On the one hand Germany gets a critical view on their own existing project. On the other hand, the concept of the DaZ class can serve as the basis of a reconsideration of the current concept as well as an improvement of it. Of course, it will be highly interesting to see, if a concept like the Daz class or direct involvement in the regular classes, like it is done in France, is favoured by immigrated students, the students involved in our project and the involved teachers. This project will not consider anything fixed and may even venture to overthrow set ways of action (within law and order of each country, of course).

The IGS school can offer a high degree of experience in the challenges of integrating students after they started their school life in the DaZ class, as particularly the transition from the DaZ to the regular classes is a challenge both for the DaZ pupils, the regular students and the involved teachers. The critical look at this by the visiting students in this project, and the input from DaZ students and involved teachers will be used to work on this concept.

France has many diverse groups in their classes and teachers are confronted to many different levels, especially in language classes. "Standard classes" (for example: B1 level expected in "Seconde") is no longer a reality. Thus, it has been necessary to develop alternative solutions for teaching languages. The school has developed partnerships with local associations and district charities. The experiences from these cooperations and the reality in school will be vital to the project, just as the experience from Germany with DaZ is. France also offers a different angle, as the immigrated students there are usually older than those in Germany, where are max. 13 years old in the DaZ class.

As Italy has no special or only a very low-key concept for the integration of new students, there is an enormous gap in the experience of integration and suitable concepts among the four partners of this project, with France and Germany with the most experience, yet very different approaches. This extreme difference will form a fertile and critical point in our goal to merge what works well and develop means to improve it for all four schools involved, which makes this project highly innovative.

From earlier talks with all partners, another crucial point emerged: as most new students, especially from Syria and Iran, only have had no or limited English lessons before they come to their new home, their integration into the running English curriculum proves especially difficult - a similarity all schools and their different concepts share. Thus, this already proofs to be one of the focus points of this project and we will aim at an innovative and completely new transnational concept to ease the start into regular English classes for new foreign students in all four schools, which could involve developing learning material, easy diagnostics for the new teachers, tutorials and games for the students.

For the creation of such a learning game, we can draw on previous experience with a game the French Erasmus+ group created for the last project.

The eTwinning platform will also be actively used, not only to communicate with our project partners and among the students, but it could also be the platform to bring our target groups together to share their experiences and ideas with each other, giving us an even deeper insight into common needs of new pupils throughout Europe.

Project partners In the first common contact talks, we realised the importance of the subject “The inclusion of immigrants and foreign students and refugees into our everyday life in Europe� and that it is an essential topic for and to all of us. All schools involved in this projected draft can draw on background knowledge regarding this topic and are very interested in improving the current programmes run in each school, as none of the four schools are satisfied with the way foreign students are integrated into their community so far.

From the previous Erasmus+ project, the IGS OsnabrĂźck has originated good friendships with Italy and France and the current project was planned together, as we realized that although the Italian school in Empoli has little to do with refugees, their problems with the inclusion of immigrants from Eastern Europe is closely linked to the issue of refugees. France on the other hand, is familiar with both sides of the problem, whereas Germany also has a long history of immigration, yet has had to overthink old ways of action especially within the last two years, as one of the main recipients of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan or Africa. Especially the immense gap in the way immigration is handled in those countries and schools, forms the basis for our work.

The contact with Portugal was received through one project member and was deemed especially useful since the Portuguese partner has already co-operated in Erasmus+ projects and can lend some new perspective to our long-standing cooperation.

The first contacts were made via email and on eTwinning and were felt to be very positive, allocated and warm-hearted from all sides. At all schools, several foreign languages are taught and tolerance and openness to other cultures is an important objective for everybody.

The support of the linguistic competence, above all in English, but also in four mother tongues, German, French, Italian and Portuguese, is an essential component of the cooperation. Yet, the inclusion of newly arrives students into the foreign language classes, especially English as a necessary second (third) language for most higher school diplomas, for example the Hochschulreife in Germany, has proven to be a commonly known issue in all four countries. The improvement of starter materials and ways to bring new students up to speed basically sets itself as one of the most important goals of our project.

As all four partners have the same pressing goal of improving the inclusion of immigrated students into their school communities, but all offer a distinctly different angle and level of experience, this partnership allows for multiple learning opportunities for all sides involved: As the German school is extremely experienced in working with new students in extra classes (DaZ) and allowing for a "soft" start into regular school life, but France works with a direct start and simultaneous tutoring and Italy does not have any set welcoming classes, but only afternoon courses, yet has specialized mentors among students, each school has different approaches which need to be tested by all our participating students and also closely researched, i.e. by conducting interviews with involved students and teachers. Only the partnership of these schools allows for a thorough analysis of the different ways of integration, which is the basis for our project.

Tasks and responsibilities distribution among the partners The success of a good cooperation and a common project decisively dependents on the communication and cooperation of the partners.

The German school functions as the main coordinator of the project and will be mainly responsible in monitoring the progress of it.

Four transnational meetings are planned in which merely the teachers take part. One of it at the beginning of the project to become personally acquainted on the one hand and, on the other hand, to specify and to organise the process in more detail. Also, the schedule, the expected results and a suitable evaluation will be checked here and amended and improved if necessary. This development of the project plan and simultaneous amendment possibilities serve as a prevention of disagreements.

The second meeting for the teacher will serve to exchange the status quo. Furthermore, the time will be used to optimise the running project and (maybe) to extend it, if possible.

The third transnational meeting will be influenced by the sign of the evaluation of the project. Here course, results and experiences will be reflected, and the final report will be written together. Furthermore, space for arrangements will be given e.g. to discuss a possible and potentially subsequent project.

In addition to those meetings, four transnational teaching and learning meetings are planned (one to take part in every country) in which pupils, as well as teachers, take an

active part in. Especially here, the responsibility for the project is clearly distributed between all partners: Each country will prepare a specific part of the whole topic: During the first transnational meeting in Germany, we will concentrate on „creating awareness”. The IGS needs to provide for a broad range of opportunities for the students to learn about the different stories and fates immigrants of all times, and especially today, bring with them. Utmost focus needs to be put on immersion of all students into the daily life of foreign students at a school, as if they would have to start school at the IGS, like refugees from Syria, for example.

At the second meeting in Italy, the students and teachers will deal with the analysis of the current situation in each country and focus on the results the experiences in Germany brought forth. They are mainly responsible for providing ways in which all partners and students of the project can share their results, experiences and their researched data so far, to channel it into the task until the third meeting in France. There we will work on a new concept based in the conducted research and the first-hand experience of three different systems so far. Especially during this visit, work on the common programme and new materials must be done, checked and edited, so that a final concept can be tested in the fourth and last LTT meeting in Portugal, which will serve to have a look at the success of your new project and for doing a first test-run of the new concept and materials.

Already during the preparation phase, an active and productive email exchange existed.

Every country has determined a responsible coordinator who organises the transnational exchange and takes care to distribute information equally to all sides involved.

Among the pupils, there will be also a regular exchange (once a month via email or Skype) in which they report about their work and results. Thus, on the one hand, they already become acquainted before their first real meeting, on the other hand, they must communicate in a foreign language. Additionally, they must present their work in progress and thus get the chance to reflect on it regularly.

The colleagues of the partner schools are informed regularly in conferences about the course of the project and they will receive access to topical information on the schoolinternal networks.

The wide school public of every country is informed about results and upcoming or carried out actions via the school homepage of the respective school. Here there is a comment function which allows an active exchange. Every school establishes a strategically well visible “Erasmus corner” in which results of working and information about the project and the partner schools are exhibited/issued. Thus, the work of the involved pupils is accessible to the whole school public.

For the successful cooperation of the partner schools it is necessary that every school makes sure that the defined duties are done on time and until the fixed deadline, so that (among other things) an effective cooperation is possible at the international meetings.

Results during the project and on its completion From step one, "creating awareness", the students will be challenged in the way they see newly arrived students and their start in school. Student from a very unimpeded and safe background will be faced by stories of immense loss and hardship, and students who have immigration backgrounds themselves will have the chance to extend their own experiences by those of others with yet different stories. Thus, all students are

expected to benefit immensely in terms of understanding of different ways and biographies. We hope to kindle a new level of solidarity in all students involved and a new perspective towards the "foreigners".

Through the close interaction with the classes, tutor groups and mentors of newly arrived students throughout the project, we will work towards better inclusion of those students into the community, because they get the chance to really get to know each other, work together, like they usually can't in a normal school day.

By improving the ways integration is handled now, this project will try to make inclusion of those disadvantaged students easier and make equity of chances more accessible.

Only when students are properly integrated into their school community, they can use the chances school offers and usually have more stamina to face the educational challenges, which is key in reducing the risk of early school leaving or finishing with lower diplomas than what might be possible for them. Especially their level of competence in English as a second or third language, which is necessary for most higher diplomas in Europe, is crucial to tackle disadvantage and ensure the possibility of higher and better vocational training.

Thus, this project will develop a broad range of materials to tackle the issue of integrating new students with inadequate education in English: the students will create tutoring videos, that offer easily accessible information on vocabulary or grammar from home or in school. They will develop easy self-explanatory games and devices to make vocabulary work easier, like pairs, or put together word banks for the most important word fields for beginners English, which students can carry with them in their lessons.

Also, little computer games, which can be played in a tablet, will be created. All the materials will be shared with the partner schools, via eTwinning, YouTube and by distribution through the local school authorities.

By using the grant, each school could also improve their general stock of materials to make life easier for the students and the teachers, like a stock of tablets to allow for selforganized studying, or dictionaries.

Apart from the focus on English, the welcome in general will be the second spotlight of this project: students will create a "survival kit" for students from different countries, which gives them the most basic information on their new school and how it works, and also offers helpful material, like useful words and phrases for a new start in their motherand the target-tongue. Depending on the results of the diagnosis of the different systems which are in place in all schools, the students might develop a tutoring system, a mentorship or several events for the school community to help new students and maybe even their families connect and take part in their new school community.

Selection of participants in the different activities of your project Before the project starts, a kind of announcement is carried out at the schools.

According to the number of applicants, pupils are selected from different age groups.

The age of the participant pupils will be 12 - 16 years.

In every partner school, there will be a small group of pupils which will intensely deal with the project "The inclusion of immigrants and refugees into our everyday life in Europe – Ideas, concepts and opportunities in school and its environment".

Students will be selected so that they represent the whole scope of diversity each school has to offer, with a specific focus on children with immigration backgrounds, and if

possible even former DaZ students in case of the IGS, as they form the main target group of this project.

As the second goal of this project is increased awareness and solidarity towards new and foreign students, it is vital to the project to open it to students from all social levels, from poorer, disadvantaged to the average middle-class student to those from highly educated and wealthier backgrounds.

Yours, Erasmus+ team