What I feel about the project

“Immigrants- Past and Present” is a Comenius project with partners from 6 European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania and Turkey.
Each year, students from these countries participate in project meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to understand that even though we are living in different countries, with different traditions and customs, we are all equal.

Last project meeting took place here, in Romania. Students from ''Mihai Eminescu National College'' Baia Mare hosted students from the five partner countries.
I was very excited to participate in this project, together with my colleagues.
The meeting was very successful!

For 4 days, we had the opportunity to spend time with the foreign students. We made a lot of new friends and we were able to change some ideas with one another. I was very surprised to discover that they actually think as we do.
In fact they have a life of teenagers very similar to ours. The only things that make us seem different are the language and country of origin with its culture.

Communication between us was very good .We practiced speaking English with the others.
During the conference, we attended many interesting activities. Students from each country made a short presentation of their country and we found a lot of new interesting things about their cultures.
We also talked about our future plans and wishes.

We had the opportunity for several days to spend time with foreigners not only during the conference program. In our free time we visited the city and we shared each other opinions about various topics of teenager life.

The meeting was very successful! I am very happy because I had the opportunity to attend this conference.
I would like to attend the next meeting of the project which will take place in Germany.
Living together for 4 days meant a great experience for me! I gained a lot of new friends and I won the opportunity to understand better the ''foreign'' word that seems so weird.
Tania
Romania


Getting involved in this project was the most beautiful thing I did during these three years of high school.
I had never participated in this kind of conference before and I honestly say that I was astonished. I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful.
What I liked the most was that everyone was relaxed, we all felt good to be together in this project, both teachers and students. We met teenagers from other countries, we found out that we had the same preoccupations, the same interests, and we became friends.
I am very happy that I had the opportunity to be in the project..
I would also like to thank my form teacher because she offered me the chance to participate in the project meeting that will be held in Germany.
I am very happy because this opportunity is once in a lifetime.
I’ve seen other colleagues of mine who have participated in project meetings in other countries and they came back very changed.
This experience will certainly help me improve my English.
I’m sure I’ll never forget this experience.

Boga Petruta
Romania

Hy!
I'm Manuela Grigoruta from Romania.
I'm very glad each time we talk about our project which means a lot to me.
The meeting in Baia Mare was great, I felt a real communion between us all.
For me and for my classmates it was a start to be more united.
We did everything together as a family for that meeting to be perfect.
I think it helped us to communicate openly with one another.
We found new friends from the other countries that participated in the conference.
We learned how to make a business plan, how to express our feelings and we improved our English and enlarged our cultural background.
I liked everything and I want to thank my form teacher who gave us this chance to make her proud of us, because she trusted us.
Thank you all that you were receptive and friendly.
I truly hope there will be other opportunities to meet again, virtually if not physically. .

Manuela

Hello!

I'm Roxana from Romania and I'd like to share with you some impressions about this project, what it means for me.
It was my first time involving in this kind of project and I was a little bit nervous because I didn't know many things about what it really means to be involved in a project or about the immigration problem.
It was a nice opportunity for me to learn about how a project is made, how to do a good presentation and why immigration can be a problem. I also had the opportunity to host two students and we spent such nice moments together ,finding more about their countries and also, practicing my English skills.
What I liked most was the friendly atmosphere and I also liked where and how the conference was organized and the trip to Maramures.
I am happy that I have the opportunity to take part in the reunion organized in Germany and I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot.

Roxana

Preparation for the Project Reunion

We are looking forward to meeting our partners in Germany at the beginning of December.
The students are working on the film dedicated to the Conference held in Romania.
They also started to work on the film presenting the three interviews.

Memories... from Turkey

Dear Mariana ,

Unfortunately I haven't had time to write to you until now. I had some other project meetings after our meeting in Baia Mare. And when I came back it was the end of our school year and the most busiest week with exams, marks, reports and everything ...

First of all I want to thank you to all of your great efforts ! I still could not believe how a good organization can organize such a big meeting with approximately 120 participants from a lot of countries ! It was just great and very useful for us to meet people at the conference from other projects and countries.

On the other hand what I also wrote in my national report was that the way you connect the conference with not only our project but the others. So we could find a connection in all of the presentations during the conference. And it is not only the conference but the whole organization which has a big success at all ! The accommodation of us and our students, especially Enver, who stayed at your Headmaster's house , was really happy about their hospitality just like the others. And of course your project team ! The English Teachers ; Simone and Flavia and the students, all of them were very friendly and just paid close attention to feel ourselves like in our countries although they had still lessons during the project meeting.

The organization of our visit to Budesti is also another wonderful experience for all of us! And the wonderful monastery everything was very great , especially the museum which was the final point !

And especially the meals ! I couldn't forget how you could arrange everytime the most suitable for us ! thanks a lot !

So I have no idea how many thanks I could write to you :) I just wish to have another meeting in Baia Mare :)

We had a meeting at home when we turned back from Baia Mare and we evaluated the meeting. Everybody had the same idea of the well organization and the hospitality. And the great programme of course!


Thank you very much again for everything what you did ,

kind regards ,


Huseyin OZTURK
Bursa Police College

Memories

Hello everybody!
With this notation we, the German team, just want to say thank you for the
wonderful time in Romania. We enjoyed the programme organized by Eminescu
College and we would especially like to thank all host families, students and
teachers from Romania. You have been very kind and we got the great chance to
get to know more about your culture, lifestyle and your school-life. Referring
to our common project we feel that we have made big progress during our meeting
and that we have found out much about Emigration and Europe. All the teams were
well prepared and working together on the subject of Immigration with people
from all over Europe was very interesting.
We thank you all for having made us feel welcome and we hope you enjoyed getting
to know us as much as we enjoyed to visit you in your homeland and to learn a
little more about Europe. In our opinion the whole trip was worth it and we had
an exciting and amazing time in Romania. Thank you for everything. We would like
to keep in touch with you and we are looking forward to our next meeting in
December, where we might hopefully see some of you again.
Best regards
Armin, Esther, Saskia and Sarah

Proposal of Interviewing Immigants

PROPOSAL of Interviewing Immigrants
made by Huseyin Ozturk and Wolfgang J. Mertens

Frame of Questions :

1) Presentation of Family / presentation of Immigrant himself/herself

- Give a survey of your family in your home country
- Give a portrait of yourself (age, job, education)

2) Procedure of emigrating (where from, why, how, when)

- Where did you live before emigrating
- When did you emigrate ?
- Why did you consider emigrating
- How and why did you choose the new country
- How did you travel ?
- How did you afford paying fort he trip ?
- Did you emigrate alone or with your family ?
- How was the idea of leaving your country considered by your parents (family)
- Did you face any problems when leaving home ?
- How did you imagine life in a new country ?
- How did you prepare yourself ? (language, culture)
- Was it easy or difficult to find a job in a new country?

3) Life in the new country (positive / Negative aspects)

- When did you arrive and what was your situation at the arrival ?
- Did someone come with you on the trip ?
- What did you do when you arrived ?
- Where and how did you live ?
- Did you get any support (government, neighbours, relatives)
- Did you have difficulty in finding a place to live in ?
- How were you accepted at work ?
- Did you know anybody in the new country or not ?
- Did you fave any prejudices by the population of your new country?
- Should you as an immigrant have the same political rights as native citizens ?
- Do immigrants who come from your home country have a good or bad reputation in your host country ?
- Are there a lot of immigrants in your community what is their relationship with you ?
- Did you face problems concerning your religion ?

4) Level of Integration according to himself/herself (Personal Impressions)

- How often do you go back to your home country ?
- Did you find it difficult to integrate in the new country ?
- What were your first impressions at work with your Collegues, with your neighbours ?
- Did you suffer problems because of people’s intolerance ?
- Did you have the same chances as natives ?
- Do you or your children keep your nationality or not ?
- What do you think of intermarriage ?
- How did you bring up your children ? (two cultures, two languages?)
- What is the level of education of your children ? (kindergarten, school, gymnasium)
- Do you believe in a parallel society (you retain your original culture, tradition and languages) or do you believe in a multicultural society where immigrants assimilate ?
- Did you have permanent work or did you depend on state allowances (social help) ?
- Have you become a citizen of the new country ?
- Do you feel part of the society in your new country ?
- Should there be cultural / language tests for immigrants ?
- Are immigration regulations too strict ? In what way should they be changes ?
- What is your contribution to your local community ?
- How is your community incorporating immigrants into the life of community ?
- Which of the two countries do you consider as your home country ?
- Did you have a conflict of identification between two cultures ?
- What is your suggestions for beter integration ?
- Have your diplomas / qualifications been accepted or not in your new country ?

5) Future plans for himself /herself and the children
- Do you intend some later time to return and spend the rest of your life in the country of birth ? (give reasons for your decisions)

Minutes of Project Meeting Baia Mare 29 May 2009

The second project meeting took place in Romania and was hosted by Mihai Eminescu National College, Baia Mare, Romania.
The participants at this meeting were teachers from the 6 schools taking part in the project:

1. Lycée du Granier, La Ravoire Cedex, France- Coordinating Institution
2. Georg Büchner-Gymnasium, Seelze, Germany
3. Polo Europeo della Conoscenza – Istituto Comprensivo Fumane “Lorenzi B.'' Fumane(Verona), Italy
4. Liceum Ogólnokształcące in Tarnów, Poland
5. Mihai Eminescu National College, Baia Mare, Romania
6. Bursa Polis Koleji / Bursa Police College, Bursa, Turkey

The main subject on the agenda was our third mobility programmed in Seelze.

Dates and Accommodation

We started by agreeing on the dates of the next mobility to be held in Seelze. We decided that teams would travel to Germany on Tuesday 1st December. The official programme will begin the following day (2nd December) and continue through until 4th December. Teams will return home on Saturday 5th or Sunday 6th December. As with the two mobilities held this school year, teachers will be accommodated in a hotel and pupils in host families. The German team suggested a hotel in the neighbouring city of Hannover offering easy access by public transport to the Gymnasium in Seelze.

Work to be prepared before the Seelze Mobility

It was agreed that, in accordance with our Comenius application, activities in the second year would focus on interviews between pupils in each country and immigrants. We discussed the form these interviews would take. The following were suggested; short films with English subtitles similar to the one presented by the French team during the Baia Mare conference, recorded interviews, written scripts presented in direct speech, reports using indirect speech, newspaper-style articles etc. All documents will obviously need to be translated into English so as to be understood by all. Teams from each country will arrive in Germany with these ‘products’ which will be presented to the other groups during one of our meetings.

Website, Blog and Communication

The Romanian team explained that, as stipulated in our Comenius application, they would produce a website so that these interviews could be posted and consulted, whatever the form (video, script, digital recording, newspaper-style article etc.)
All present expressed satisfaction with the existing blog;
http://immigrants-past-and-present.blogspot.com
We also concluded that the initial e-group immigrants_CMP@yahoogroups.com had functioned successfully, enabling all teams to communicate with each other and be informed concerning developments. It will therefore continue to be used next year.

Activities while in Seelze

We then moved on to discuss suitable activities while in Seelze. Time will obviously be set aside for pupil presentations. The German team also agreed that, as initially planned, a round table discussion with immigrants would be organized, possibly with several immigrants addressing the assembled teams one after the other and/or addressing groups of pupils and teachers, thereby offering more opportunity for interaction.
Another proposal was to invite an ‘expert’ on immigration to explain the German context. Other ideas included screening a film such as ‘Auf der Anderen Seite’ on German-Turkish relations to be followed by a debate similar to that organized at the cinema in Challes-les-Eaux. Some teachers expressed the desire to observe at least one class at the Gymnasium.
The German team offered a range of possible excursions (Hannover, the Christmas market in a nearby medieval town, the Museum of Emigration in Hamburg or Bremerhaven etc.)
The German team will build their programme around these activities but in the meantime welcome suggestions from all teams.

Conclusion

All present thought that the first year had been a resounding success.
Activities had been stimulating and corresponded to expectations. Both mobilities had offered pupils and teachers the opportunity to work on a common theme, meet people from other countries, share experiences and learn about other European cultures. On this basis, all expressed pleasure at the prospect of continuing our work next year.

Questionnaire Results Immigration May 2009

Before coming to France, pupils from each country were asked to prepare in class the draft of a questionnaire on immigration. During our first meeting in La Ravoire four mixed-nationality groups were formed and asked to take the most interesting questions to create a common questionnaire. The final questionnaire was a synthesis of these four questionnaires. In each of our countries, a hundred of these final questionnaires were printed, people were questioned and the results collected. Graphs were produced and conclusions drawn. During the second meeting in Baia Mare, pupils from each country came forward to present their findings to the assembled pupils and teachers. A table with six columns was prepared to illustrate the results for each question and each country. Finally, using this table, pupils from the six countries present in Baia Mare worked in groups to make comparisons and draw conclusions. The comments below outline these findings.

Students found some answers were predictable while others were more surprising. Unsurprisingly the two countries having the largest number of immigrants or people with immigrant backgrounds among respondents are France and Germany. Fewer than one in six Italian, Polish, Turkish or Romanian respondents come themselves or have parents or grandparents coming from another country. There would seem to be hardly any immigrants (first or second generation) living in Baia Mare.

The ones arriving in France and Turkey found it easier to integrate than those settling in Italy and Germany. The desire to earn more money and improve living standards appears in all countries to be the strongest motivating factor for immigrants leaving their homeland. The second most popular reason was joining a family member.

When it comes to deciding if they intend to return to their homeland, the vast majority in all countries say no. This suggests that most immigrants in all six countries have succeeded in making a fresh start and putting down roots.

An amazing 72% of Romanian respondents say that they would envisage emigrating. Over 50% of French, German and Polish respondents also replied positively to this question. On the other hand only one in four Italians think this likely. The fear of missing friends and family is stated as being the main reason for not moving.

A majority of all those interviewed in each country think a multicultural society desirable. However nearly half the respondents in Germany and Italy would like immigrants in their countries to make a greater effort to become better integrated.

A clear majority of Germans and Italians suggest there are too many foreigners, while respondents in other countries do not. Paradoxically two thirds of Germans are in favour of letting in more immigrants which clearly contradicts the previous finding. Turks, Romanians and Poles are not hostile to allowing more immigrants into their countries.

Racism and discrimination are perceived as major problems in France, Italy and Germany but much less so in Poland, Romania and Turkey. Two thirds of Italians say these problems are getting worse. In the three countries where immigrants face the worst problems of racism and discrimination, few people are aware of the programmes which exist to facilitate integration. This suggests that people are badly informed or that governments in these countries are not doing enough to combat racism and promote integration.