On the 20th of December, LABRRI and GRITIM-UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) held – as a joint initiative – a videoconference between the city of Barcelona and the city of Montreal on the theme: «Shared Expectations About Intercultural Practice and Policy». Here’s an abstract of this first videoconference written by Rachel Boivin- Martin.
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In 2011 the city of Montreal was recognized by the Council of Europe as part of its “Intercultural Cities” program. It joins Barcelona and 38 other cities worldwide that, according to the COE and EU, deploy innovative and creative efforts for the promotion of intercultural practices and policies. (for more information on that subject, visit http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/culture/cities/default_fr.asp)
In September 2012, representatives from the city of Montreal were invited to participate in a conference on intercultural cities organized by the GRITIM-UPF, the Red de Ciudades Interculturales (RECI) and the Council of Europe. Informal discussions led participants from Montreal and Barcelona to think of the benefits to representatives of both cities (administrators, researchers, community workers) to create future collaborations (click here for more information: http://labrri.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/monitoring-intercultural-cities/).
As a first step, representatives of both cities offered to organize a series of videoconferences with the goal of comparing ideas and orientations on the elaboration of intercultural policies and practices.
After a brief presentation of Barcelona’s and Montreal’s demographic and social characteristics, the discussion focused on governance, searching to clarify the mechanism of implementation and early impacts of municipal intercultural policies. This cross perspective also enabled participants to see a similarity in certain issues that both cities face and to confirm their mutual interest in intercultural initiatives.
Here are the questions Barcelona had for the Montreal team:
- What is the role of teaching French?
- How do you work in neighbourhoods with a high immigrant population?
- How do you work with other municipal departments within the city of Montreal administration?
Here are the questions Montreal had for the Barcelona team:
- Who takes part in your “immigrant council”?
- What are the services provided by the “welcoming program”?
- How to you introduce the “intercultural” issue to the political level?
The meeting uncovered some pleasant surprises for both cities. For instance, for Barcelona, the Montreal municipal libraries program, intercultural training for managers and the language policies in Quebec. The Montreal team was also very impressed by many of the programs Barcelona had created, like the “anti-rumours” program, the immigrant welcoming program and the Immigrant Council.
The participants expressed interest to continue the exchanges between the two cities. This interest will not go unanswered as a second videoconference is scheduled for the spring of 2013. LABRRI would like to thank everyone for this initiative.
To see the full program of this first videoconference click here
List of participants:
- Ramon Sanahuja, Director d’Immigració i Interculturalitat
- Núria Pàmies, Coordinadora de la Xarxa d’entitats d’acollida de Barcelona
- Miriam Llenas, Espai Avinyó
- Nestor Navarro, Projectes d’interculturalitat amb entitats
- Maria Pastor, Projectes d’interculturalitat amb entitats
- Ricard Zapata Barrero, GRITIM de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- Patrice Allard, Direction de la diversité sociale de la Ville de Montréal
- Claudie Mompoint, Direction de la diversité sociale de la Ville de Montréal
- Claire Bradet, Direction de la diversité sociale de la Ville de Montréal
- Danielle Gratton, LABRRI de l’Université de Montréal
- Rachel Boivin-Martin, LABRRI de l’Université de Montréal
- Bob White, LABRRI de l’Université de Montréal
