Managing Integration - European efforts and German project on Democracy Learning

Werner Weidenfeld at the 4th Galilee Colloquium in Israel

22.06.2009 · Akademie Führung & Kompetenz

The 4th Galilee Colloquium has been devoted to Immigration, Asylum-Seeking and Citizenship: Entitlements, Individual Rights and Collective Identities.  It took place from  June 11-14, 2009 at Kibbutz Kfar Blum Pastoral Resort in the Galilee in Northern Israel. The Colloquium has been organized by the Swiss-Israel Philosophy Foundation.

The Galilee Colloquia on Social, Moral and Legal Philosophy have at their aim to bring together a select number of internationally renowned thinkers to address, on a comparative level, some of the salient and vexing contemporary social, legal and moral issues. In order to confront these considerations with the practical consequences arising from them, some practitioners from relevant fields will also be invited. The venue, not far from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River, is rich in historical associations and conducive to contemplation. The previous Colloquia were as follows: The Justification and Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Normative and Practical Aspects (2006); Religion and Public Space: Cross-Cultural Dimensions (2007); and the 3rd Colloquium, on The Politics of Distributive Justice: Norms and Implementation Modalities, took place in 2008.

Issues of immigration and asylum have become central to the political discourse in many countries: in these debates, human rights considerations are countered by concerns about cultural and national identities. While ugly voices, verging on blatant racism, have sometimes accompanied these debates, some legitimate aspects of the meaning of pluralism and maintenance of a democratic culture have equally been raised. It is the complex web of this multi-faceted debate which was being addressed.

Managing Integration - European Experiences and prospects

After questions of identity and diversity as well as moral aspects with respect to the issue had been discussed, C·A·P's director Werner Weidenfeld opened a section on exploring the case of the European Union. he showed the current situation of migration and migration in quantitative and qualitative aspects, showing that attitudes towards foreigners are present on different tolerance levels that have to be taken into consideration when planning integration policies that aim at strengthening "actively tolerant" positions. Weidenfeld analyzed the increasing attempts of the European Union of achieving a greater coherence in the field of integration policy by adopting a two-way-concept of integration and binding together different fields of policies. He presented a common European framework on integration consisting of important fields like family, education, labour market, social security, citizenship, political participation, religion and culture. This fields have to implemented  by creating new coordination bodies in the European Union, increasing transparency betwwen various organizations of the EU an NGOs and strengthening the coherence between various levels of integration policies within the European Union.

Werner Weidenfeld also chaired a panel at the Colloquium on specific European dilemmas in which  security issues, the case of Turkey and the intersection between immigration and nationality were taken up.

Download: The full paper as well as the program of the colloquium

New project on professionalization of Democracy Learning in German immigrant society

On the German level, the  Center for Applied Policy Research is taking the issues of integration by focussing on democracy learning as a prerequisite for migrants as well as the German society. The Academy Leadership & Competence has been chosen by the EU- and national funded program XENOS - Diversity and Integration to run a three-year project called "Demo-Credit". The project will develop concepts for a professionalization of democracy learning with respect to German immigration society and adopt certification systems for civic education to give trainers better credit and reputation when performing at the labour market. Further information can be found in the English description as  a download.

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