POLICIES RECOMMENDATION

BUILDING A CREATIVE INTERCULTURAL EUROPE, POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TO FOSTER MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES’ PARTICIPATION IN EUROPEAN ARTISTIC CREATIONS (Policy Recommendation)

An investigation about promoting an encounter between migrants and refugees and live arts based on the respect and promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity. This work includes the drawing up and implementation of monitoring and assessment tools for the whole project in terms of scientific usefulness.

A document addressing politicians, as well as public and private bodies, to advise them on their decision-making about the construction of an inclusive and innovative Europe where arts become a means of inclusion.

Contemporary Europe is extremely complex. The increasingly articulated division of work requires a very high level of specialization. Public and private agents develop their activities in a multiplicity of fields, more or less interconnected with each other. Knowledge splits up in diverse areas of specialization and different types of hard and soft skills. People’s movements augment exponentially and different cultures, languages and worldviews live side by side. Cultural and linguistic gaps intersect social and gender disparities, increasing social intricacy. Managing this complexity requires a high level of specialization and segmentation of the different areas of political intervention. At the same time, communication and cooperation between different areas and transversal interventions are necessary to provide a consistent management of the diverse aspects of social, economic and cultural life. La Langue des Oiseaux deals with migration and refugees’ issues, linguistic and cultural diversity, individual development and creativity, culture and arts: fields that are often managed separately. It intends to reassemble different pieces of society that have been segregated by historical, often violent, processes: on the one hand, people from different origins and experiences, speakers of different languages and practitioners of different cultures, on the other hand, the world of the arts, its agents, techniques, skills, knowledge and dynamics. From a political point of view, such an objective requires a dialogue between managers of different fields: immigration, languages and interculturality, social intervention, arts and culture. Political interventions consistent with this objective must move across these fields and involve each of them at the local, regional, national and European level, in a common effort towards the integration of unfairly segregated sectors of European society and towards a real intercultural Europe where all people fit and where all of them build the common society. This is the rationale of one of the project’s result: a document of Policy Recommendations to Foster Migrants and Refugees’ Participation in European Artistic Creations addressed to politicians, as well as to public and private bodies, to guide them in their decision-making about the construction of an inclusive and innovative Europe, where arts are not exclusive any more, but become a factor and a mean of inclusion, and where linguistic and cultural diversity is not seen as a problem but is valued and promoted as a vehicle of social cohesion and peace. This work will be realized through the intersectional coperation of Experts with different backgrounds, this being a major element of innovation compared to the conventional compartmentalization of disciplines. Given its necessarily transversal character, the Policy Recommendations to Foster Migrants and Refugees’ Participation in European Artistic Creations will be drawn up by a team of Experts in different areas: migration public policies, research methods and project evaluation and assessment, and linguistic diversity and interculturality, selected and provided by Linguapax. Among them, a member of Linguapax will lead the work, ensuring coherence with the aim of the project and being responsible for the synthesis of the different contributions in the final document. The same Team will realize the Research Study Obstacles and Opportunities for Migrants and Refugees’ Artistic Development, so that their Recommendations will be based on solid scientific arguments and evidence (see result 7). Inside this Team, a major role will be played by the Expert on public policies. The Team will work in constant contact and communication with the Trainers and Learners: at least one of its members will participate in the LTTAs, in order to observe and record real practices of linguistic and cultural diversity and the inclusion of the migratory factor in artistic environments. They will submit their progress to the other project partners, who will examine and comment on them from their artistic background. Finally, this Team of Experts will also take part in the international meetings and events, where they will share their work and get feedback from the partners as well an other visitor experts.