Educational Projects for Social Integration and Shaping Attitudes of Tolerance and Understanding

• Main Authors: Marta Kluszczyńska, Izabella Main
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze 2020-11-01
• Series: Łódzkie Studia Etnograficzne
• Subjects: edukacja; antropologia publiczna; antropologia zaangażowana; migracje przymusowe
• Online Access: https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/LSE/article/view/31885
• ISSN: 0076-0382; 2450-5544

<p>In response to the „refugee crisis” of 2015 – resulting in the arrival in Europe of many thousands of people fleeing the armed conflict in Syria – the Polish Law and Justice party and the Polish government adopted negative attitudes towards refugees. The Polish mass media promoted anti-refugee narratives focused on terrorism and „threats of Islamisation”<br />of Europe. However, these anti-refugee narratives have been countered by local antihate campaigns, including activities undertaken by local ethnologists and anthropologists. This article offers an analysis of educational activities undertaken in 2017 by the Centre for Migration Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. These activities took a form of two initiatives: „Adopt a vest” and „Let’s talk about refugees”. Both projects aimed at shaping attitudes of openness towards refugees and increasing awareness of refugees among the residents of Poznan, including school children. Additionally, these activities aimed to increase and support the people willing to disseminate knowledge about refugees and impart openness and respect for forced migrants. Such activism is<br />guided by the idea that it is essential not only to get to know the world better, but also to imagine it differently and create an alternative vision of the world where solidarity with refugees and migrants prevails (cf. Fischman, McLaren 2005).</p>