Alternative narratives for tolerance and intercultural dialogue to overcome stereotypes and spread equality

Project abstract

In today’s Europe, the extremist or populist movements regularly stigmatize migrants and minorities in their political discourse, amalgamating distinct concepts as well as crisis and migration or terrorism and migration, in order to polarize public opinion. This trend stands in stark contrast to the EU values and aims dedicated to the spread of inter-cultural dialogue by bringing together people of different cultures by giving them the opportunity to participate in common activities. The Europe is experiencing the most significant influxes of migrants in its history. The migration brings diversity and the inter-cultural dialogue is an effective antidote to the spreading of the stereotypes and polarization of the public opinion. These backgrounds create a breeding ground for intolerance and discrimination. It is necessary to act in order to promote diversity, tolerance and the respect of EU values.  Against this, ANTIDOTE’s mission is to take action against regular stigmatization of the migrants and minorities, answering to the need to establish a common ground between different cultures and communities by promoting understanding and interaction. Our Network, consisting of local authorities, citizens and recognized NGO’s committed to supporting integration, puts great emphasis on education as the antidote to polarization of the public opinion with the aim to teach citizens the value of tolerance with ambition to actively foster the intercultural dialogue so help in avoiding conflict and the marginalization of migrants and minorities. ANTIDOTE project, with its powerful alternative narratives, will encourage inter-cultural dialogue between EU citizens and migrants, will help to overcome stereotypes by de-constructing processes of stigmatization. It will raise awareness on the richness of the cultural and linguistic environment in EU and promote tolerance, thereby contributing to the development of a respectful, dynamic and multifaceted EU identity. Focusing on the detection and exposure of trending narratives, disinformation channels and disinformation techniques, the ambitious aim of this project is to try to channel criticism of the EU into positive driver for the European integration in the long run and to help the EU to come closer to its citizen and to increase their resilience.

 

Work Programme

The project foresees five international events as follow:

• 1st Pristina (Kosovo): Kick-off meeting
• 2nd Bucharest (Romania): International training course
• 3rd Demir Kapija (Republic of North Macedonia): Public debates, international conference
• 4th Capannori (Italy): Open debates, international conference
• 5th Rijeka (Croatia): Final Conference, presentation of results, twinning ceremony

 

The project foresees 5 local activities related to international meeting with propaedeutic and subsequent function:

• The desk research aiming at analysing how political discourse can hide implicit prejudices that leads to polarization of the public opinion
• Local workshops aiming to dismantle prejudices and replace political narratives with alternative narratives
• ANTIDOTE Campaign” allowing social/youth workers and front-line actors to be involved in the fight against extremist or populist movements that regularly stigmatize others, minorities and migrants
• The production of the “ANTIDOTE toolkit”, collecting practical tools aiming at improving citizens’ knowledge and understanding of the EU, to support migrants” and “others” to facilitate their integration process.
• Final conference and presentation of the ANTIDOTE toolkit and launch of ANTIDOTE Network
• The project manual development.

The raising awareness purpose will be pursued through conferences where cross-cutting thematic will be addressed. These conferences will take place during international meetings. The number of conferences, their related events and their topics may be subject to change.

 

International conference list:

International Conference: “Towards a more Inclusive Labour Market for Migrants: Seizing the Potential by Addressing the Challenges” “Concrete solutions for better cooperation at the local level tackling discrimination and promoting diversity at the workplace”

International Conference “Equality, diversity and inclusion” – How Europe’s towns and regions can move towards more diverse, equal and inclusive societies”

International conference “Restarting EU Cities: immigration and inter-cultural dialogue, from the global to the local” – Immigration situation in partner countries and causes of local polarization patterns”

International conference “Migrant women as builders of social cohesion: bodies, relations and jobs”

International Conference “Working together for the local integration of migrants” – Which efforts to promote more effective integration of migrants”

International conference: “Immigration and inter-cultural dialogue, from the global to the local” – How to identify conflicting areas in partner cities”

International conference: “Reconstructing bridges within EU cities: civic participation against socio-spatial stigmatisation and boundaries” – The role of community-based organisation in building inter-cultural dialogue”

International Conference: “Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion: Maintaining Momentum and Creating Lasting Change – New approaches to support the social and economic inclusion of migrants”

International conference: “Reactivating European urban citizenship: a network of inclusive towns”