The general background

Europe's educational institutions are very diverse (differences between educational systems, different scholastic cycle lengths, educational qualifications and training offers); despite this we can many common features, multiculturalism being an example.. The migration phenomenon touches Europe in different ways but it is nevertheless possible to identify very specific common connotations that make it possible to identify strong similarities between the different contexts and, consequently, to draw common lines for the different European states.

In Europe, we witness the con-presence of young foreigners who share a common origin from migratory contexts but with completely different statuses: there are those who have just landed in Europe from the country in which they were born, second-generation migrants but whose family and social context does not make them perfectly integrated and language in the family is still a serious problem, unaccompanied minors.

Language as an inclusive factor in the school community

The project, while taking into account the diversity of motivations behind the migration phenomenon, intends to focus on language and inter-linguistic communication as a unifying factor for different types of subjects and contexts and as an "enabling" element for inclusion, a sense of belonging and active participation in the multicultural community. Implicit in the migration phenomenon is the transitive idea: country of origin, journey and country of destination. The project, on the other hand, starts from the assumption of the existence of a multicultural community in existence and our task of discovering and revealing it to all those who are part of it: language and communication represent the transitive means of discovering this community and the school is the strategic place of this discovery: in the school there is in fact a stratified community made up of teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils and families of different origins; a community in the making whose aim is not only didactic but formative and participatory in general. This is an ideal context for reversing dynamics of exclusion and marginalisation to build a collaborative community. Can the problems arising from the migratory context (new country, new language, new rules and traditions, etc.) be read as resources in a project of cooperative activation of the school community's resources to improve didactics through language and inclusion by reducing marginalising drives? We are convinced that they can.

Language as a barrier

In such situations language barriers are among the main obstacles that can lead to dramatic consequences.  

Here are just a few of them:

- they do not allow foreign families to be active participants in their children's social/school life

- they do not allow teachers to teach and disseminate information fluently and effectively

- do not allow parents to be fully autonomous in dealing with day-to-day school matters (and, for example, have to rely on the help of children who are learning the language or who, unlike their parents, already speak it)

- lead to misunderstandings or misunderstandings that can compromise the relationship between families and school operators

- generate inequalities between pupils

- increase stress in secretarial and management tasks for school operators

- they lead to a sense of unease and frustration both within the teaching staff and in families with a migrant background (e.g. who are forced to ask for the same information several times or who renounce active contact with school staff, thus intensifying the marginalising pressures already existing in the social context)

The potential of the project

Language is proposed and managed as an enabling and unifying element, for the activation of the school community, for the involvement of all the stakeholders belonging to the school community within the project and, above all, beyond the temporal and spatial limits of the project as another of its characteristics is its easy replicability in any context where language barriers are present.

Language barriers, in fact, to a greater or lesser degree, are common to all schools in Europe or, in any case, in all areas where the migration phenomenon is alive. For this reason we believe that the European context provides fertile soil for the action of Partnership for Cooperation with a project on linguistic integration in schools and boost cooperation between different countries for identifying appropriate combinations for achieving a common goal. Furthermore, proper analytical activities on common problems and needs (though there are different nuances in them depending on the countries involved) and the creation of universal models can guarantee ease of dissemination and therefore also good results in other countries that are not directly involved in the project partnerships.