November conference 2017

The discursive-normative and political transformation of the Federal Republic of Germany into a country of immigration and the associated concern for successful coexistence in the face of increasing diversity of origin, tradition, culture and religion in our community are currently a central political challenge for our country.

With this in mind, 80 participants* accepted the invitation to reflect together on the problem of the visibility of young people in public and semi-public spaces and the question of whether interculturality makes a significant contribution to the sustainable self-controlling power of a region - in new German: resilience - or whether interculturality rather endangers the cohesion of a region.

In three parallel regional forums in the afternoon, the conference participants discussed with experts and representatives of civil society: What is the situation with cross-border neighborhoods in the border triangle? Where do we stand in terms of refugees and integration and their cultural aspects two years after the fall of 2015? And how can socio-cultural integration succeed in our urban societies?

Moderation: Alexander Smoltczyk, Freiburg

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, TU Dresden

• Moderation: Prof. Dr. Anton Sterbling, Rothenburg i.S.
• Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Świder, University of Opole
• Lecturer Dr. habil. Huszár Zoltán, PhD, University of Pécs

Upper Lusatia has a German and a Polish part. Liberec is developing into a workplace center for the Zittau region. In Görlitz, a good 5 % of the inhabitants come from Poland. But are we really already neighbors in more than a geographical sense? Have we been able to overcome the mutual stereotypes on all three sides of the border in the 25 years since Poland's Round Table, the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall?

The discussion was stimulated by

•  Dr. Regina Gellrich from the Saxon State Office for Early Post-National Education (LaNa for short) in the Görlitz Regional Council and 
• Michaela Janyska, Manager for International Cooperation at Zittau City Council
  
  
  

• Moderation: Prof. Dr. Oliver Reisner, Ilia University Tbilisi
• Prof. Dr. Sabine Asmus, University of Leipzig
• Prof. Dr. Matthias Theodor Vogt, IKS and Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences

Many refugees from the Syrian and other civil wars found a temporary home in Upper Lusatia, as did many refugees and displaced persons from the eastern territories after 1945. Citizens, authorities and churches have done a great deal. Two years after the fall of 2015, what is the status of the integration of those who have come to us? Are they already part of our "we"?

Experiences from their work were reported by 

• Marika Vetter from the contact point for asylum at the Rothenburg multigenerational house run by the Martinshof social welfare organization and
• Astrid Riechmann from Willkommen in Bautzen e.V., sponsor of the "House of Resources" project.
  
  
  

• Moderation: Alexander Smoltczyk, Freiburg
• Prof. Dr. David Paichadze, Tbilisi
• Dr. Rebecca Gutwald LMU Munich

Social cohesion begins at the community level and does not end there. Disintegration tendencies, particularly in the smaller communities, are the visible result of 25 years of metropolis-focused state policy. But how can a country grow and thrive in which the socio-cultural integration of rural districts and centers is written small and ever smaller? And what does the situation look like inside our cities?
This was reported by

• Bernd Stracke, co-founder ofLöbau lebt e.V.  and Managing Director of B3 Institut für Beratung, Begleitung und Bildung e. V. in Dresden and 
• Valentin Hacke, cyrcus educator from Kulturbrücken e.V. in Görlitz.