Oldenburg involves its young students in the consultation process
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02 October 2018On June 12th, Oldenburg school students of 5th to 11th grade discussed integration of immigrants and refugees and how to make it work.
Invited by the Oldenburg ULG, around 60 school class representatives of grades 5 to 11 (ranging from 10 – 17 years of age) came together at the Kulturetage cultural center for a workshop on integration of immigrants and refugees.
The students attend the IGS Kreyenbrück comprehensive school, which is part of the Oldenburg ULG. Mrs. Heike Schaadt, head of didactics at IGS Kreyenbrück, says: “Our school is situated in a very multicultural area of Oldenburg and so are our students. We know that living and learning in big diversity doesn’t work out well automatically. Therefore we are very proud of our students who put a lot of dedication into making our school and our city a welcoming place to everyone!”.
After a reception and introduction into the workshop program, the students split in mixed work groups, discussing which in their opinion are the best practices at local level for integration of immigrants and refugees and where improvement is needed. The students worked in a very constructive and professional way, but also did not shy away from making critical remarks. In the next work steps they developed their ideal of living in a diverse and multicultural society and then worked out tools and measures to reach those ideal goals. All the results were documented and, in the final assembly, presented to the other work groups.
“I am very impressed by the multi-facetted results the young people worked out and how committed they are. They really are experts for diversity and integration, just from their everyday experience. We should not leave out their experience in our Integrated Action Plan!” said Mr. Nils Padberg from the municipal Office for Integration Issues – also member of the Oldenburg ULG.
The workshop took place as part of the public participation process that the Oldenburg ULG initiated. The results of this process will form the basis of the municipal Integrated Action Plan for integration of immigrants and refugees.
Nils Padberg (Local Coordinator, Oldenburg)
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