EMILIE

“A European Approach to Multicultural Citizenship: Legal, Political and Educational Challenges” (project acronym EMILIE) is an interdisciplinary project which examines the migration and integration experiences of nine EU Member States and attempts to respond to the so-called ‘crisis of multiculturalism’ currently affecting Europe. 

EMILIE project is coordinated by the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (Greece). Project partners are University of Bristol Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship (United Kingdom), National Institute of Demographic Studies (France), European University Viadrina Faculty of Cultural Studies (Germany), University of Liege Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies (Belgium), Universitat Pompeu Fabra Department of Political and Social Sciences (Spain), Latvian Centre for Human Rights (Latvia), University of Aarhus Centre for University Studies in Journalism (Denmark) and Centre for International Relations (Polland).

Project funded by the European Commission, Research Directorate – General.

Project duration:  1 July 2006 – 1 July 2009.

The project has a twofold objective:

1. at the empirical an policy level it highlights some of the weaknesses, the ambivalence and the major challenges of immigrant integration policy in Europe today;

2. at the theoretical level it argues that the debate on integrating diversity, multiculturalism and citizenship has to be context-oriented and develop new theoretical insights related to the specific European context. 

EMILIE studies the challenges posed by migration-related diversity in three important areas – education, discrimination in the workplace and voting rights and civic participation. The project has five main research phases:

1. outlining migration;

2. developing of a critical review on current public debates on integration and multiculturalism;

3. studying three case studies in each country on:(a) educational challenges posed by migration related diversity, including multicultural education and faith schools, (b) legal challenges with special reference to discrimination protection in the workplace, (c) political challenges with special reference to voting rights and civic participation;

1. integration of the national case studies, critically reviewing the different types of challenges and how/if they are accommodated in each country;

2. comparison of the main value discourses and perceived value conflicts among the countries, identification of the European dimensions of integrating diversity (value discourses, points of tension, best practices) and elaboration of an empirically grounded European theoretical model of multiculturalism appropriate to the European experience.

Publicēts: 2007-03-28