Author Archives: Ece Güler

Integration through Cultural Education

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Colorful multi-cultural integration concept tree set. Vector file layered for easy manipulation and custom coloring.

 

An individual’s social background is compounded partly by education and social interaction. Especially, cultural education is crucial in regards to integration into the society. Various programs, such as diverse arts and cultural workshops, within education have its importance in not only expanding the mind but also educating and supporting children and teenager.

Studies show that students who have attended workshops are three times more likely to graduate than those who do not. Workshops give children and teenager somehow to express themselves, if they do not have the support to do so at home. Also, it gets them to think creatively and inventively, and expanding their views and ways of thinking. Educating children with and without a migrant background is beneficial, since they learn more about other cultures, religions and lifestyles. Most importantly, it also helps fight discrimination and promotes awareness. Additionally, it is beneficial for children with migrant background to integrate fully into the society.

Due to the migration wave and the current refugee crisis in Europe, more cultural and educational programs are need to support the newcomers coming to Finland. However, also more workshops, dialogues and discussions are needed to educate Finnish citizens on the different lifestyles of the migrants and refugees. By enabling constructive communication between those two entities successful integration can be guaranteed.

PS: If a company or a person has caught your attention, click on their names and their LinkedIn profile or web-page will pop-up! 🙂

Panel Discussion: Integration Through Cultural Education

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In the light of current events regarding the refugee crisis and the huge immigration wave to Finland from all corners of the globe the question on integration is stronger than ever.

How to make the newcomers feel welcomed and that they belong to the Finnish community? How do these respective organizations see integration through culture and education? In other words, what does it mean to be integrated for each one of them? Is there a possibility to make everyone feel equal despite their country of origin, skin tone, mother tongue and religion? What role does education through culture of both children and adults play in this challenge? What are the issues in promoting interculturalism (multiculturalism) especially when it comes to integration?

The panelists are representatives of the public as well as the private sector. The fruitful discussion focused on integration through cultural education.

 

Panelists:

Ogechukwu Eneh, cultural producer from Caisa:

  • Mrs. Eneh is originally from Nigeria and came to Finland to study at the University of Helsinki approximately 30 years ago. She also worked at the University of Helsinki as a program manager for intercultural education.
  • Caisa is a multicultural center part of City of Helsinki Cultural Office which promotes development of cultural diversity and interaction between people in Helsinki through festivals, workshops, etc.

Margarita Sakilayan, project coordinator and project worker of Nicehearts of Vantaa:

  • Mrs. Sakilayan is originally from the Philippines and came to Finland around 10 years ago. She also has a master’s degree in Social Psychology from the University of Helsinki.
  • Nicehearts of Vantaa organizes various One current project called “Neighbourhood mothers” animates active immigrant women, who have been living in Finland for a long time already, educate and support other immigrant women in Finland.

Riitta Latvio, Project coordinator and executive director of Kulttuuri- ja uskontofoorumi FOKUS:

  • FOKUS builds bridges between cultures and religions via discussions, exhibitions, constructive dialogues, art and publications. Also, FOKUS promotes workshops during the World Interfaith Harmony Week, such as Islam and Fashion with the goal to educate children and teenager about the diversity of the Islam.

Eila Isotalus, Professional on intercultural competence development from Unidos:

  • Unidos supports customers when differences between cultures confuse or cause troubles, also supports people to benefit from cultural diversity. Unidos provides training and tools to understand multiculturality and to act smoothly in a multicultural environment.

 

Date and time: April 20th, 2016 at 10 AM in Think Corner Aleksi

If you are interested in watching our exciting panel discussion, check out the video on UniTube. 🙂

Place of Traineeship: Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki

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daria

ICE Student: Daria Pritup

Place of Traineeship: Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki

“During my two month internship at the Aleksanteri Institute I will be assigned different tasks. Firstly, I will be helping out in administration processes such as updating the Institute’s website, write emails for the mailing list, write course descriptions for the online course platform Weboodi, help out with the organization of lectures and visits, and so on.

Secondly, I will be involved in a Master’s level course on business cooperation with Russia. Part of the course is an excursion to St. Petersburg, during which I will aid a small group of students with their tasks and participate in the organization of events.

Thirdly, I will have the opportunity to travel to Stockholm for the Nordic Conference on Romani Studies and participate in the lectures. I will be given the task to write an article about it for the Institute’s newspaper Idäntutkimus. I can choose the topic I would like to focus on freely.

Fourthly, I will work as a research assistant and help out with collecting materials, some of which will be in Russian or other Slavic languages.

My goal for the internship is to get acquainted with the inner workings of university administration and how my studies in Intercultural Encounters and Area and Cultural Studies can aid me in practice. Academia is obviously a very intercultural environment, which focuses on the exchange of knowledge and experience, so I believe I can definitely use my theoretical expertise as well as intercultural competence skills. I would like to get more comfortable with independent work and creative writing as well as develop my organizational skills. I chose the Aleksanteri Institute specifically, because it is the hub of Balkan studies, which are my minor subject, and because my language skills (Russian and Bulgarian) are relevant for the job.”

Place of Traineeship: Metsälän Vastaanottokeskus

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ICE Student: Helmi Halonen

Place of Traineeship: Metsälän vastaanottokeskus (Metsälä reception centre for asylum seekers)

“Work description: To be specified; will include at least the basic office work of the reception centre, helping with the launching of a new family work programme, and assisting the inhabitants in dealings with Finnish authorities.

Personal goals: As the place that provides asylum seekers with housing and counselling, the reception centre is an excellent vantage point to the day to day reality of humanitarian migration. I expect to learn about the workings of the Finnish asylum process as well as about the experiences of refugees themselves. The internship thus provides a very practical perspective on some of the themes discussed during the ICE studies – migration, refugees, minority policies, and interculturality – and will hopefully deepen my understanding of humanitarian migration as a whole.”

 

Place of Traineeship: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Helsinki

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ICE Student: Mariam Tokmazishvili

Place of Traineeship: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Helsinki

“I will assist in implementation of activities related Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) projects from Sweden and Finland. Under the supervision, I will support the project team in preparing voluntary returns and planning the reintegration of returnees, including coordination and communication with authority counterparts.

Tasks include:

  • To assist in all phase of the AVRR process, from application registration to return logistics;
  • Assist in compiling statistics for internal and external use;
  • Prepare background papers and analytical texts for internal and external use on topics related to AVRR\CT;
  • Communicate effectively and clearly and with cultural sensitivity with colleagues, clients and third parties;
  • Assist in project communications and outreach to migrants and return stakeholders in Finland or Sweden;
  • Assist in organizing project meetings and etc.

International organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organization in the field of migration. It counts 155 member states and each IOM office employs staff from various nationalities. Consequently, multicultural environment is an integral part of execution of IOM mandates. IOM Finland is just an example where majority of staff members are from different countries of origin. The core principles of IOM are based on effective communication, raising intercultural competence and sensitivity. Under the section of IOM standards of conduct, core values and guiding principles put emphasis on “promotion and practice of tolerance, understanding and respect for all, without distinction as to race, gender, religion, color, national, marital status, sexual orientation, age, physical disability or political conviction”. IOM names its employees international civil servants. Coming from that, one of fundamental requirements to be met by international civil servants is an international outlook.

IOM largely deals with migrants and work on everything related to this broader phenomenon that logically implies communication with people coming from all over the world. Being part of IOM team automatically equips with intercultural sensitivity, and teaches the best possible ways to get along with the people with diverse backgrounds.

Internship period at IOM will be a practical experience, namely specializing on migrants who are willing to return voluntarily to their homelands. IOM Finland currently implements four projects, thus I will be concerned how the on-going project-related activities are carried out. Furthermore, the central direction of IOM Finland`s mission is more project-oriented. For instance, making project proposals, creating project budget, scheduling project activities for the long term period, searching relevant donor organizations, promoting and successfully providing service whenever it is requested, broaden communication networks with governmental counterparts and elsewhere. All in all, I will carefully follow the steps related to designing project from very beginning (e.g. having a project idea) to more advance level (e.g. developing an idea and implementation phase).”

 

Management Events

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What are the challenges to work in an international work environment? Additionally, what are the benefits to work with people from all over the world? What is it like to work in a professional field, such as international business? Those were the questions that I asked myself, since I will start my internship in an international company called Management Events in Helsinki. Thus, to get answers to my questions and learn more about this field and the working environment, I decided to interview my future employer Wouter Goedkoop.

Wouter Goedkoop is currently a Dutch team leader delegate operations service center and project manager for Management Events. At first, Wouter studied Hospitality Management in the Netherlands and later came to Helsinki 4 years ago for private as well as educational reasons. Currently, he works for Management Events, where he started off as an intern and continued after his internship, which he described as a fun learning experience, hard-work but also rewarding. During the internship as a research intern for the Dutch market Wouter learned a lot about customer services, events management, communication and gained cultural knowledge. Wouter did not only want to develop himself as a person, but by working in a highly international work environment he also gained a lot of cultural knowledge and people’s skills. For the future, he wishes to continue to develop himself as a person rather than develop his career. Also, he wishes to return to his initial field hospitality and dreams of having a small restaurant somewhere warmer like Australia.

Wouter described the work life in Management Events as “Americanized”, it is very social, where everybody talks to each other. However, it is also very target driven and fast paced. Working with diverse people is fun, he developed a lot of cultural knowledge and he joked that German and Finns are similar in a way. However, he also faced some cultural difficulties by working with Philippines, where the work ethics are different compared to the Western ethics.

Management Events started around 25 years ago as a convention service office with the former CEO Olli Muurainen. Later, the events started to be more invitations based only. Through the growth of the company more tasks and division have developed, and also the company expended in Finland, then Nordic countries, Europe and then also Singapore. It still plans on expending globally such as Japan and Dubai.

The interview with Wouter was definitely fun and engaging, and I am really looking forward to the coming internship! 🙂

INTERKULTfest 2016 by Interkult Kassandra

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Hey fellow friends! 🙂

Interkult Kassandra is organizing a fascinating festival called “INTERKULTfest” promoting diverse performers and artists! This is a description on their amazing up-coming festival:

“INTERKULTfest, a performative art festival focusing on interculturalism, will be organized in 2016 in cooperation with cultural centers Stoa and Vuotalo during 21.–24.9.2016. The festival will be international, which means that there will also be invited performances from abroad in addition to national ones. Through the open call we’re looking for performances which deal with the thematic of the festival from a new perspective, fearless of taking a stand. We value forms of expression which are appealing to youngsters as well as urbanity. The main target groups are youngsters and young adults, but we are also looking for performances for children to meet the INTERKULTkids concept. The performance for children should be directed to children between 5 and 8 years of age.”

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Check out their web-page for more information here!