Euro-Mediterranean Youth Moot to Combat Racism, Xenophobia and Extremist Ideologies

Description

Racism, xenophobia and extremist ideologies are on the rise in Europe, demonstrated by several racially motivated hate crimes reported in connection to the arrival of refugees in Europe since early 2015. In Jordan, on the other hand, high youth unemployment rates especially in refugee hosting communities have led to dissatisfaction and frustration not only towards local economies but also towards the incoming population flows now seen as exhausters of local resources and competitors at the local labor market. In the World Value Survey 2013 Jordan was considered as one of the least racially tolerant countries in the world, raising additional concerns over the potential emergence of inter-group hostilities.

Communities faced by a sudden shift in their ethnic, cultural and language compositions are known to be a fertile soil for the emergence of racism, xenophobia and extremist ideologies. Welcoming a large number of ‘strangers’ to reside along with the locals challenge the local people to think about their identities and its continuity – exacerbated by the worries about the sufficiency of living space and local resources, most particularly employment. The incomers, who often fled war and persecution, on the other hand, feel extreme pressure to find a safe place to stay and start rebuilding their lives, and therefore might find it difficult to understand the locals’ reservations towards assisting and accepting them.

The project’s overall aim was to reduce the level of racism, xenophobia and extremism among young people in Jordan, Italy and Sweden through youth’s enhanced understanding of their root causes and capacitation of local active youth to advocate for tolerance and non-discrimination and to facilitate inter-ethnic, inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue especially among youth.

More specifically, the project aimed at:

1) Developing the participating youth’s skills to analyze the construction of racist, xenophobic and extremist discourses in their home communities.

2) Identifying measures to prevent the emergence of racism, xenophobia and extremist ideologies in their home communities in Jordan, Italy and Sweden.

3) Capacitating the participating youth to act as advocates for tolerance and non-discrimination in their communities and help facilitate inter-ethnic, inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue especially among youth.

As a result of the Moot and after profoundly understanding the process of radicalization, the participating youth decided to establish a “Euro-Mediterranean Network to Combat Extremism” as a framework for joint action and planning of online and offline prevention activities, which our youth participants as newly capacitated “change-makers” and with support of our partner NGOs will now jointly implement among their peers in their home communities.