Supporting Refugees in Everyday Life- Intercultural Design Evaluation of an Application for Local Information

An unpreceded number of refugees have fled to Europe in the last years. When arriving in a new country, refugees need information on topics such as the asylum process, locations of language courses or opening hours of an Arabic speaking physician. However, refugees report an information deficit when arriving in the host countries. We address this information deficit by developing design principles for mobile applications that transmit local information to refugees with different cultural background. We develop a smart phone application that presents complex information in an understandable and intuitive manner to support refugees. To derive design principles, we applied a Design Science Research approach based on a requirements analysis via a survey among refugees. Subsequently, the mobile application’s design is iteratively improved based on the results of three user studies with 127 participants of Arabic, African, and Western background. With the improved design, users are faster and more successful in finding the required information. We use these insights to derive design principles for transmitting information to users with different cultural background. This contributes to literature on how IS can support refugees and how findings from Human-Computer-Interaction research can be applied in an intercultural settin

Cohesion, commonality and creativity: youth work across borders

No abstract available

Valuing All Languages in Europe

The VALEUR project (2004-2007) took as its focus the 'additional' languages of Europe. These are defined as all languages in use in contexts where they are not 'national', 'official', or 'dominant' languages. They include 'migrant' languages, 'regional/minority' languages, sign languages and 'non-territorial' languages of diasporas such as Yiddish and Romani. The project team brought together a range of expertise in sociolinguistics and language pedagogy, planning and research from Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. We took as our starting point Council of Europe policies on plurilingualism and the desirability of promoting linguistic diversity both for individual citizenship and for social cohesion in Europe. Our aim was to map provision for additional languages in Europe, in a more systematic and inclusive way than ever before. We looked at provision at school level for different languages in different contexts in order to identify good practices to be shared. In order to achieve our objectives we drew on the good will and enthusiasm of workshop participants, who provided a wealth of information and insights from 21 of the Council of Europe member states. Our work is not definitive: its purpose is awareness-raising and to stimulate further activity to support the learning of all Europe's languages

Learning from the World: Good Practices in Navigating Cultural Diversity. Bertelsmann Stiftung Study 2018

The Reinhard Mohn Prize 2018 “Living Diversity – Shaping Society” focuses on diversity in German society, that is the plurality of cultural, religious and linguistic identities found among the people who live in the country. With this focus, the RMP 2018 highlights a variety of successful strategies for living peacefully in diversity. In historical terms, cultural diversity is nothing new or unique for Germany. In fact, though we are often unaware of it, cultural diversity has been a feature of our daily life for a long time. Indeed, religious differences have shaped German society since the Reformation. And Judaism has always been present in the area we now call Germany

Supporting Parent Engagement in Linguistically Diverse Families to Promote Young Children’s Life Success

This paper examines research that can inform policies aimed at building the capacity of early care and education programs to promote parent engagement in linguistically diverse families. The key questions addressed include:1 )What factors affect linguistically diverse families’ access to early care and education programs?; 2)What do we know about linguistically diverse families and how parents in these families support their young children’s learning and development?; 3) What features of early care and education programs appear to contribute to high levels of parent engagement in linguistically diverse families?; and 4) What policies can help increase the capacity of early care and education programs to support parent engagement in linguistically diverse families

Understanding sexual health literacy, gender egalitarian perspectives, and access to SRHR-care among migrants in Sweden

Improving access to SRHR-information and care among refugees and migrants remain a central issue. Countries with strong integration policies have significant reductions in the inequities in sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Securing access to SRHR is linked to the extent to which gender equality is fulfilled, including equal rights for men and women to learn the language and participate in society. Sexual health literacy is based on the concept of health literacy. The conceptualization of sexual health is closely related to sexual agency. Lack of contact with the mainstream population distort opportunities for inter-cultural dialogue and opportunities for negotiating cultural norms regarding sexuality. Intercultural mediation may be a useful tool for reaching migrants with SRHR-information early during resettlement. The aim of this doctoral thesis was to conceptualise sexual health literacy among migrants resettling in Sweden, and to further our understanding concerning cultural, social, and contextual factors that influence the direct and indirect access to information on sexual and reproductive health and rights, to prevention, and care. A multifaceted approach was employed, including qualitative studies and quantitative cross-sectional studies. Data was obtained from four sources: in-depth interviews with newly arrived refugee women (Paper I); in-depth interviews with intercultural mediators (Paper II); Migration World Values Survey 2018 (MWVS) on non-European migrants (Paper III); MILSA 2.5 survey 2018 on Syrian and Iraqi migrants (Paper IV). The findings revealed that the conceptualisation of sexuality among refugee women was reflected in a discourse of shame, and hindered uptake of SRHR-information. Sexual health literacy was achieved by facilitating critical discussions about the influence of culture, gender, and power on SRHR, placed in the context of migration and integration. The findings acknowledged the need for investing in training of the intercultural mediators to assure sustainability in activities and take advantage of the potential embedded in the role (Paper I, II). Trust was closely related with gender egalitarian attitudes among migrants in Scania and increased with higher education. The influence of trust was more important for men’s attitudes, suggesting that men may be more sensitive to the perception of the social environment for their approach towards gender equality (Paper III). Education was also directly associated with a higher probability of STI/HIV testing among migrants. This pathway was partially mediated by language skills. The pathways between other predisposing variables (age, marital status, sexuality) were mediated by the indirect effect of exposure to sexual coercion and alcohol consumption, indicating a risk awareness (Paper IV). The findings from this thesis can contribute to improving the quality of implementation of activities aiming at reaching migrants with SRHR-information, to build sexual health literacy, and promote sexual agency. Interventions needs to be placed in a broader framework of gender equality, participation, and integration, with specific approaches for reaching vulnerable migrant subgroups

Policies and practices for teaching sociocultural diversity - A framework of teacher competences for engaging with diversity (2010)

Teacher education institutions have a crucial role in the process of developing competences for diversity in education. The Council of Europe Project “Policies and practices for teaching socio-cultural diversity” is intended as a response to certain key questions connected with initial teacher education and the introduction of common principles in relation to the management of school diversity. It is therefore addressed both to education policy-makers, and to teacher educators.This publication (Volume 3 in the project series) has key competences as a focal point, opening up for discussions about what is needed both at the level of teacher education institutions, schools and individual teachers. In this volume it has been equally important to give space for the process of developing competences for teaching socio-cultural diversity