Exchanging Best Practices in the Integration of Assyrians in Europe (EPIA) 2012 – 2014 ( PDF, 11 MB)
Exchanging Best Practices in the Integration of Assyrians in Europe (EPIA) 2012 – 2014 ( PDF, 11 MB) Abdulmesih BarAbraham, Soner Önder & Fatrus Gabriel (Eds.) July 2014
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Grundtvig Learning Partnership 'Exchanging Best Practices in the Integration of Assyrians in Europe' (EPIA) has aimed to exchange experiences of Assyrians in the field of integration in Europe, map problems and challenges, and promote best practices.
The partners represented institutions of Assyrians in four different European countries (NL, SE, DE, BE).
Since the 1960s, Assyrians have emigrated and established themselves in large numbers (about 300.000) in Europe. Already from the beginning their journey to Europe was a 'one-way ticket'; they burned their ships behind them to establish themselves for good in Europe. To a great extent, this first intention has influenced the way they have oriented and established themselves in Europe. Nevertheless, integration into modern Western societies led to a comprehensive societal transformation, and introduced new problems and challenges for the group.
This partnership project has aimed to evaluate the 50-years of settlement of Assyrians in Europe, develop more insight in the processes of the integration, to exchange experienced problem and challenges, and to map best practices in the field of integration. In order to realize the envisaged aims and objectives, the project has focused on educational activities. Three seminars, two workshops and a conference were organized in partner countries during the lifetime of the project. These are:
Promoting Active Citizenship: Upward Mobility of Assyrians in Europe (Seminar, Gothenburg)
An Intergenerational Approach to the Problems and Challenges of the Integration of Assyrians (Seminar, Augsburg)
Linguistic Diversity, Mother Tongue and Integration: The case of Surayt (Seminar, Liege)
The Integration and Empowerment of Assyrian Women in Europe (Workshop, Gothenburg)
Second Generation and Integration (Workshop, Hengelo)
Assyrian Diaspora in Europe: Past, Present, Future (Conference, Berlin)
The planned activities realized successfully, and attracted in total more than 500 participants (learners, public audience). Furthermore, all events were broadcast on Assyria TV and disseminated further to a broader public worldwide. Moreover, various articles were written about the project in local/national newspapers and internet magazines. Furthermore, all activity reports and selected presentations were collected in a final report which is available on the project partners' websites as an open educational resource.
Some of the main conclusions of the aforementioned partnership activities:
Education plays an essential role in upward mobility by giving opportunities for individuals to change their path within the broader society.
'Learning links' between generations do not function properly; this prevents a respectful and fruitful interaction between generations.
Intergenerational tensions are based upon the fear of assimilation and thus disappearance. The re-production of this fear paves the way for the inward-looking attitudes and tensions between parents and their children.
Among second generation who have grown up in European societies, gender equality has become a more central value. They do not differ so much from their native peers with regards to norms and values.
Assyrian women underwent a big transformation process after settlement in Europe. The change in the position of Assyrian women is very remarkable. However, they still face structural discrimination.
Bilingual children who can speak their mother tongue become more successful in school where their mother tongue functions as an asset for their personal and cultural development. The learning of the mother tongue is one of the most important points for successful integration.
Assyrians across generations have experienced a big transformation process; their norms and values have changed. They have accepted or incorporated many Western values and norms, but also kept their traditional norms and values, yet in a different context.
Second generation Assyrians perceives the European countries where they were born as their ‘home’, and they have all established themselves well.
This report consists of a short profiling of partner organizations, chronicle reports and articles published on the various activities. In few cases, activity reports other than in English language are included in order to demonstrate the linguistic diversity of the partnership. In the annex, the reader can find some of the speeches given during the partnership activities and activity posters.
We are thankful to the Assyria TV for their cooperation in this project.
Assyria
\ã-'sir-é-ä\ n (1998)
1: an ancient empire of Ashur
2: a democratic state in Bet-Nahren, Assyria (northern
Iraq, northwestern Iran, southeastern Turkey and eastern Syria.)
3:
a democratic state that fosters the social and political rights to all of
its inhabitants irrespective of their religion, race, or gender
4: a democratic state that believes in the freedom of
religion, conscience, language, education and culture in faithfulness to the
principles of the United Nations Charter —
Atour synonym
Ethnicity, Religion, Language
»
Israeli, Jewish, Hebrew
»
Assyrian, Christian, Aramaic
»
Saudi Arabian, Muslim, Arabic
Assyrian
\ã-'sir-é-an\ adj or n (1998)
1: descendants of the ancient empire of Ashur
2: the Assyrians, although representing but one single
nation as the direct heirs of the ancient Assyrian Empire, are now
doctrinally divided, inter sese, into five principle
ecclesiastically designated religious sects with their corresponding
hierarchies and distinct church governments, namely, Church of the
East, Chaldean, Maronite, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic.
These formal divisions had their origin in the 5th century of the
Christian Era. No one can coherently understand the Assyrians
as a whole until he can distinguish that which is religion or church
from that which is nation -- a matter which is particularly
difficult for the people from the western world to understand; for
in the East, by force of circumstances beyond their control,
religion has been made, from time immemorial, virtually into a
criterion of nationality.
3:
the Assyrians have been referred to as Aramaean, Aramaye, Ashuraya,
Ashureen, Ashuri, Ashuroyo, Assyrio-Chaldean, Aturaya, Chaldean,
Chaldo, ChaldoAssyrian, ChaldoAssyrio, Jacobite, Kaldany, Kaldu,
Kasdu, Malabar, Maronite, Maronaya, Nestorian, Nestornaye, Oromoye,
Suraya, Syriac, Syrian, Syriani, Suryoye, Suryoyo and Telkeffee. —
Assyrianism verb
Aramaic
\ar-é-'máik\
n (1998)
1: a Semitic language which became the lingua franca of
the Middle East during the ancient Assyrian empire.
2: has been referred to as Neo-Aramaic, Neo-Syriac, Classical
Syriac, Syriac, Suryoyo, Swadaya and Turoyo.
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