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Living Abroad: Experiencing Culture Shock
“When you arrive in a city, you see streets in perspective. A series of buildings without meaning. Everything is unknown, blank. Later on, you will have walked along these streets, you will have been to the end of the perspectives, you will have known these buildings, you will have lived stories with people. When you will have lived in this city, you will have taken this street ten, twenty, a thousand times. At the end of the day, it belongs to you because you have lived there.” L’Auberge espagnole (Pot Luck / The Spanish Apartment), Xavier. The art of being a foreigner abroad and in your own country…
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What Is the Integration of Migrants? – Acculturation Strategies
The “integration” of migrants. Here is an expression we hear almost everywhere. Initially a sociological phenomenon, it has become a commonplace. It is sometimes used indiscriminately in the media and in political discourse. Overused. Emptied of its meaning. Integration. It is one of the issues that come up most often when we talk about migration. This is the mission of the Maltese NGO in which I was involved for some time. Its mission is reflected in its own name: Integra Foundation. Public opinion seems to agree that the “migrant” must “integrate”, whether it is “pro” or “anti” migration. But, in the end, what is integration? Is it…
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Why We Should All Socialize with People from Other Cultures
“If you differ from me, my brother, far from hurting me, you enrich me” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry When we were born, we have been linked to a certain culture, country, ethnic group and social group. Later on, during our education, we were more or less put in contact with other cultural and social groups. Or, rather, we didn’t all have the opportunity to socialize with people from different cultural and social backgrounds since our childhood. On one hand, curiosity and desire to discover. On the other hand, fear from other’s differences. When it comes to socializing with people from other cultures, the human being is torn between those two…
Dépassons les frontières – Let’s go beyond borders
