Inclusion of Diversity. Through Bottom- Up Volunteering

Creating OpportunitieS for Migrant InClusion (COSMIC) is a Strategic Partnership lasting 24 months focused on promoting youth volunteering as an instrument to contrast discrimination against migrants and refugees among the youth categories and within the hosting societies at large.

The discrimination, stereotyping and attack (physical as well as verbal) are fuelled by and feed a sliding of public debate over migrants and migration towards a subalternity to the dichotomic categorizations and confrontational positions expressed by populist, extremist and generally far-right movements, which increasingly gain access to the mainstream public debate and realm of policies. Young people are particularly vulnerable to racist and discriminatory propaganda and messages, in particular considering their preferential use of Social Media, wherein this type of aggressive and discriminatory speech is ever more circulated. The necessity of setting the conditions for youth awareness about racism and discrimination as well as of the active contrast thereof in the field of youth is stressed by the European Youth Strategy, which sets the objective of supporting the development of cultural awareness and the contrast of prejudice among the youth.

COSMIC pursues these objectives by means of selecting and training a cluster of youth volunteers actively committed to contrasting feelings and practices of discrimination among young people as well as promoting the positive values of tolerance and respect of diversity enshrined in European identity and citizenship.

Publishers: JUBUK, MV International, Intercambia

Authors: JUBUK, Maria Ceraolo, Pedro Muñoz INTERCAMBIA

Design: MV International