WORKSHOP IN KAUNAS, LITHUANIA

Date: 8 November, 2016 (Tuesday) / 9:30 – 17:00

Place: KTU Aula, A. Mickevičiaus g. 37, Kaunas
Organised by the Municipal Training Centre (MTC) at Kaunas University of Technology

The main target of the workshop is to emphasize and to discuss migration tendencies and challenges in EU
countries, to share experiences and practices of integration in project partner countries, to reveal main
aspects and actions of successful integration more focusing on Lithuania.
Participants of the workshop: municipal officials of project partner countries (Finland, Italy, Lithuania,
Montenegro, and Sweden), non-governmental and public organisations working in the field of migrant
integration, local communities, universities.
It is expected confirming input and contribution from all project partners. To have broad view on the topic
all partners should delegate a representative to each discussion working group to present brief situation and
practices of their country and/or municipality. The instructions are described further in this document.
The workshop is a kick-off event of the project “Welcome to Europe: 3i – inclusion, integration &
internationalisation” which is implemented with the support of the Europe for Citizens Programme of the
European Union.

Framework agenda:
9:00 Registration & welcome coffee

9:30 Welcome speeches

Eglė Butkevičienė, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas
University of Technology
Rasa Šnapštienė, Chair of Management and Community Development Committee, Kaunas City
Council

Official opening of the project

William O'Gorman, International coordinator at Kalajoki Municipality (Finland), Coordinator of
the project “Welcome to Europe: 3i - inclusion, integration & internationalisation”

10:00 Panel discussion

Facts, statistics, and tendencies on extent of the migration
International Organisation of Migration, Vilnius Office (tbc)
Defining the philosophy of the response to refugee crisis
Prof. Egdūnas Račius, political scientist and Islam researcher, Vytautas Magnus University
The reality of being refugee
Redwan Eid, Syrian journalist and refugee in Lithuania

11:30 Presentation of community opinion polls and implications for local activity
Jolanta Vaičiūnienė, Director of the Municipal Training Centre at Kaunas University of
Technology

12:00 Lunch
 13:00 3 workgroups [ split into 3 rooms ]
1 – Preparing our municipal workforce for work with migrants – refugees
2 – Preparing our community for living with refugees
3 – Existing institutional and legislative developments (do they help or prevent successful
integration?)

Outputs:
What are the characteristics in ideal system in integrating refugees?
What are the existing resources available to develop those characteristics?
What are the trends, challenges and solutions?

14:30 – Coffee break

15:00
16:00 Presentation and synthesis of workgroup conclusions
Group moderators

18:00 Dinner

DISCUSSION WORKING GROUPS

The workgroups are designed to exchange best practices of participating countries and to discuss migration
tendencies, realities of migration with emphasis on integration processes at municipal level and in local
communities. Each workgroup will consist of up to 20 participants. Each participating country will share their
country/city experience and practices, and partners are invited to prepare short presentations (10 minutes)
for each discussion group.
The workgroups will be organised after the panel session on the topics:
1 – Preparing our municipal workforce for work with migrants – refugees
2 – Preparing our community for living with refugees
3 – Existing institutional and legislative developments (do they help or prevent successful integration?)

Outcomes. The workgroups will be organised in a way to share each participating country/city practices,
challenges and solutions, to reveal recommendations of successful integration at municipal level and in local
communities.
At the end of the conference, results (minutes) of the workgroups will be presented and shared with all the
participants of the conference.

Project partners are invited to prepare a short presentation for each working group (10 minutes) on
country/city context.

Presentation during the workgroups – the contents and format:

 Country/city background summary (incl. statistics)
 Trends & challenges on the workgroup topic
 Solutions & recommendations on the workgroup topic
 PowerPoint presentation slides (PPT file format)
 10 minutes long

Presentation during the workgroups – short annotation:

 A short speaker’s bionote (2-3 sentences; name, position, occupation, link with the topic)
 The title of the presentation
 An abstract of the presentation (very brief description, up to 5 sentences)

2
Below is more detailed description of the discussion working groups. They are developed to the migrant
integration experience and practices of Lithuania, and partners can include important questions in the context
of their country and/or city, too. Please, register your representatives in a certain workgroup, below in the
tables.

1 – Preparing our municipal workforce for work with migrants – refugees

Lithuania never faced huge numbers of immigrants. Stereotypes of “others” and stigmatisation is still
common among local residents and public institutions, too. Municipalities have not much experience to
provide services for newcomers. Officials are not sufficient in multicultural competences, partnerships,
language, and other technical and soft/relational skills to effectively build trusting relationships with
the migrant community and partnerships with nongovernment organizations for responsive service
delivery.

How do we prepare our municipal workforce for responsive interactions with migrants and refugees,
particularly in such case that many if not most will only remain in Lithuania until an opportunity allows
for movement to another country with greater perceived opportunity?

If prepared, is it possible municipal officials can create an environment that would encourage migrants
and refugees to stay, and particularly those that have skills that can benefit society?

What are the benefits or drawbacks appointing responsible coordinator or creating a separate unit
within municipal offices for meeting the needs of migrants or refugees, compared to preparing all units
of the municipality to interact with this newcomer population? Models and practices in EU countries.

Output:

What are the characteristics in ideal system in integrating refugees?

What are the existing resources available to develop those characteristics?
What are the trends, challenges and solutions?

Workgroup speakers (please, register your group member for the workgroup):
Finland:
Italy:
Montenegro:
Sweden:
Lithuania: Gintarė Edintaitė, lecturer at the department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Social
Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, PhD in Social Sciences (Educational
Studies). Professional interests: social inclusion, multicultural competence development, educator
competence.

2 – Preparing our community for living with refugees

Lithuania never faced huge numbers of immigrants. Stereotypes of “others” and stigmatisation is still
common among local residents and public institutions, too. Newcomers are what we can call “included-
out” citizens. They have a right to be living in the community, but they are not granted the same legal
rights as full citizens, nor are they necessarily made to feel comfortable participating in such activities
as volunteering, cultural sharing, or religious expression.

If prepared, is it possible local residents can create an environment that would encourage migrants
and refugees to stay, and particularly those that have skills that can benefit society?

What kinds of shared activities can existing residents and newcomers join together that can promote
the development of trust and mutual understanding?

What are the resources available in our communities to make refugees feel welcome? What are the
cultural, financial, or political barriers to using these resources?

3
Output:

What are the characteristics in ideal system in integrating refugees?

What are the existing resources available to develop those characteristics?
What are the trends, challenges and solutions?

Workgroup speakers (please, register your group member for the workgroup):
Finland:
Italy:
Montenegro:
Sweden:
Lithuania:

3 – Existing institutional and legislative developments (do they help or prevent successful
integration?)
Entering a new society with an assortment of rules and regulations can be stressful for any foreigner
and perhaps more for an individual or family seeking stability. European, national, and local
policymaking bodies are considering new laws and regulations regularly that can alternately make
integration successful or erect barriers to integration.

What are existing laws and rules that either facilitate or restrict refugee movement and integration?
Are government and NGO service producers provided necessary resources to implement these laws?

What laws and rules are possible to develop and implement across countries?

How are laws and rules being evaluated with respect to refugee integration?

Output:

What are the characteristics in ideal system in integrating refugees?

What are the existing resources available to develop those characteristics?
What are the trends, challenges and solutions?

Workgroup speakers (please, register your group member for the workgroup):
Finland:
Italy:
Montenegro:
Sweden:
Lithuania: Ramunė Miežanskienė, lecturer at the Institute of Public Policy and Administration, Faculty
of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology. Professional interests: public
law, civil law, legal and political relationship between the theoretical and practical aspects, practical
issues of international students’ adaptability.