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23.12.2009 |
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At the beginning of Advent – the perfect time to tackle something new – Bildungshaus Wernberg started its five-part series of seminars on Integration and Dialogue: how best to approach foreign people and foreign culture. The course is based on the premise that integration is necessary and can be successful.
The first module introduced the basics of the various fields linked to this topic: basic legal practices in Austria regarding residency, nationality and asylum law; the demographic situation, and finally Christian anthropology, to make sure participants knew their own roots. The question discussed was "Where do we stand and where do we want to go?" The course is based on the premise that integration is necessary and can be successful. The vehicle to achieve it is dialogue, as integration is a process which affects all those involved, changing them. It is very important not to confuse integration with assimilation – or even with the term currently en vogue among educational scientists: “inclusion”, meaning schools being open to all children. Society still does not agree about what is meant by integration. The Christian churches use the word as a firm dismissal of both assimilation, on the one hand, and multiculturalism, on the other. When migrants adapt, it is believed, Germany’s immigration society is robbed of a major resource they bring with them, as part of their culture. The other extreme is when both first- and second-generation migrants withdraw into their own traditional identities (or perhaps just what they believe is traditional), often splitting off into separate groups and thus, eventually, forming ghettos, in an attempt to find safety and support. Through lack of interest and indifference, the host society then risks encouraging the development of parallel societies with which communication is minimal or difficult. In Austria, this phenomenon has in fact spread, as have attempts at assimilation. The Roman Catholic church’s understanding of integration is in a state of further flux. In November 2009, at the Sixth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees held in Rome, Archbishop Marchetto, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, pointed the way to interculturalism. Integration is not just a matter for migrants, but for both sides. It is an interaction which must be sustained by dialogue; a reciprocal relationship. The series of seminars on Integration and Dialogue deliberately aims to look beyond its own horizon; to go further than the specific problems in Carinthia. Ideas and projects for migrants and better mutual understanding in Carinthia are certainly considered, yet the aim is also to bring in European and global points of view. Migration is related to globalisation; it already affects everyone in one way or another. It cannot be stopped or reversed: moreover, it is a human right. The course is being run by various Protestant and Catholic church institutions in Carinthia: an ecumenical venture has deliberately been selected; something which will be commonplace in future. The way a society deals with people, especially when they are in situations of hardship – ill, on the run, under oppression – shows how that society sees humankind and thus, indirectly, how it sees God, whether consciously or not. This link was made clear during the first module. The first unit presented four main points illustrating how the Christian tradition has contributed to the complex topic of integration and migration. In the next units the Protestant bishop Dr Michael Bunker and the Catholic bishop Dr Helmut Krätzl will describe, among other things, how they see integration, interculturalism and the relationship between variety and unity in the Church. One particular focus will be on the Christian ecumenical movement and its relationship to other religions, especially that of Muslims. Other topics covered are the experiences of bicultural and interfaith couples, the dark chapter of human trafficking, and forced prostitution and the trade in transplant organs: both forms of modern slavery. |
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Practice => Intercultural learning
Practice => Project
intercultural;dialogue;project;course;Carinthia;Catholic;
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