Project ANTURA : Creating Better Immigrant Integration and Greater Social Responsibility

Abstract

Immigration in Europe has been a hot topic. In both 2015 and 2016, Europe received twice as many annual asylum applicants than during the previous peak year. The practical effects of immigration have been many. There have been many positive examples of inclusion and cooperation, but also unfortunately many negative examples of adversity, and even violence. A voluntarily citizen participation group, the Greater Leppävaara Citizen Forum (GLCF) receives it funding from the city of Espoo, Finland. GLCF has arranged immigration themed open discussion events, and project ANTURA, by Laurea University of Applied Sciences, studied and evaluated these immigration themed discussions. This paper builds on two separate, mutually co-creative layers of study: 1) co-creation together with active stakeholders and 2) student integration. This paper notes that there is a need to develop positive co creative working models to facilitate mutual understanding in order to soften the effects of immigration, and promote positive integration. Open communication and active citizen participation are needed to build trust and understanding to reach greater social responsibility. Factors and activities that facilitate immigration challenges are promoted in the guide book, published by the project: Many Cultures, One Home Town (Ruoslahti, et al., 2017).