Bucharest new minorities

Project facts

Project promoter:
The Association Movement for European Action and Initiative
Project Number:
RO13-0054
Target groups
Minorities
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€192,088
Final project cost:
€182,805
From EEA Grants:
€ 139,659
The project is carried out in:
Bucureşti

Description

There is a lack of knowledge, awareness or interest in the minority groups that have come to Romania in over last two decades, although these groups - Chinese, Turkish, Moldavian, Italian, Lebanese, French, British, and Indian citizens, etc. – are changing the current social and cultural environment. The history and cultural particularities of these minorities are not known to the wide public. This project aims to change this state of affairs. The project will consist of eight creative workshops, six sessions per workshop and 160 participants. It will conduct research on the new minorities in Bucharest and carry out a mapping of the respective minorities. It will also include a short documentary film distributed to 150 educational and cultural organisations, together with set of instructions for its use in educational activities with teenagers; a forum for promoting cultural diversity gathering 100 persons from educational, cultural and youth domains and from local authorities; a website dedicated to the project attracting more than 20,000 users and a campaign in social media; and two press conferences held in relation to the project. The donor project partner (Telemark Research Institute (Norway)) will participate by undertaking the research on the new minorities of Bucharest.

Summary of project results

In the last 25 years, different minorities groups came to Romania. Before this project there was no knowledge, awareness and interest over them. The project changed this situation, by supporting the intercultural dialogue between Bucharest citizens and the groups of cultural minorities established (Chinese, Lebanese, Turks, Indians, French, British, Italian, Moldavian). During the implementation of the project, the project team documented the history and the cultural particularities of 8 minorities groups and the Romanian perceptions regarding their presence. Moreover, in order to promote the presence of the new minorities as a (re)source of cultural diversity for Bucharest city and its inhabitants, through a promotion campaign. This campaign included a documentary film, a forum, social media activities and photographic project. All the elements of the promotional campaign have contributed to the understanding and appreciation among people of Bucharest of the cultural diversity and its impact. The creative workshops used means of cultural and artistic education in order to facilitate the understanding of high-school students about cultural diversity. The main deliverables within the project were: 8 creative workshops, 6 sessions per workshops, 173 participants to the creative workshops, a research of the new minorities, consisting of 2 research reports and 3 thematic studies, a mapping of the minorities consisting of 8 communities charts, a documentary movie (89 minutes) distributed to 150 educational and cultural organizations, a forum for promoting cultural diversity gathering 127 persons; a website dedicated to the project attracting 25.328 users, a campaign in social media attracting 355.966 users, an event presenting the research results, an event presenting the documentary film. The mapping of immigrants’ communities recently formed in Bucharest, as well as a visual documentation of their relation with the city as place of their daily life, carried out within the project was the first step in supporting diversity. The information gathered by the research team, the documentary movie, the creative workshop results are re-collected on the web platform which www.newmoinorirties.com. The platform has a double purpose: to present and aggregate information about the new minorities living in Bucharest and to create a space for debate on ways in which cultural diversity manifests and enriches the community in its whole.

Summary of bilateral results

Taking into account the importance of carrying out research on the new minorities in Bucharest, the Norwegian partner was selected on the basis of his research expertise. Even though there have been research efforts on the impact of migrant groups on the socio-cultural development of Bucharest, this is the first research that brings together both immigrants from Western and eastern countries. Given the diversity of the target group surveyed, the Norwegian partner's expertise has been particularly important, contributing to the development of methodology and the development of research reports to cover different directions according to the groups analyzed. The partnership created within the project contributed to the need to know the effects of the new minorities on Bucharest through its research. The results of the research - 8 community papers, 3 thematic studies and 2 reports - were supervised by the Norwegian expert, who contributed his expertise to the results of the project. The visits of the Norwegian expert to Romania have contributed to a better understanding of the partner organizations, especially in terms of research.