From June to December 2019, Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Network of the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the German organisation Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) carried out the ‘Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants (LIAM) – Dissemination and Implementation’ project in Greece, using the LIAM toolkit and methodology. ASB is responsible for site management support in the four northern Greece refugee camps (Diavata, Katsikas, Doliana, Filipiada), including non-formal education, servicing a total of about 3.500 asylum seekers.
2019 – Dissemination and Implementation Project in Greece
View the dissemination video produced by Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece
The project included two 2-day capacity-building workshops: 1-2 July 2019 in Thessaloniki and 3-4 July 2019 in Ioannina, for the 50 teachers and soft skills/creative engagement personnel working in the four sites, as well as for interested staff of IOM and DRC. Following these trainings, the LIAM methodology has been used in the teaching of Greek language to teenagers and adults residing in facilities in Epirus and Diavata, as well as in the life skills sections of the weekly educational programme, resulting in potential scalability of LIAM as a methodology for the linguistic integration of the refugee and migrant adult population in Greece. Monitoring of the implementation of the language instruction and the impact took place, as the integration of refugees and migrants and the impact on it of their acquisition of competence in the language of the host country are a focus for political debate and policy initiatives in the Council of Europe.
1 - 2 July 2019, Thessaloniki Seminar
3 - 4 July 2019, Ioannina Seminar
Finally, this project led to the invitation to Symbiosis by the Croatian organization “Are you Syrious?” to undertake trainings focusing on the LIAM methodology for their volunteer teachers providing Croatian language instruction to refugees in Croatia, as support for the education of adult refugees is absent. Symbiosis trainer, with the assistance of the Council of Europe, provided this Seminar in Zagreb, a most fortunate follow up to the project in Greece, demonstrating the usefulness of LIAM, yet also the sustainability of Symbiosis-School of Political studies in Greece approach regarding migrants and refugees linguistic integration.
Symbiosis & Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants (LIAM)
Activities
2021 – LILaLI: LIAM Labour Linguistic Integration
Aiming to foster migrants and refugees' integration to the labour market and society through linguistic integration and following the successful dissemination of the Council of Europe Linguistic Integration for Adult Migrant (LIAM) toolkit in 2018-19-20, Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network of Schools, implemented the project ‘LIAM Labour [...]
2020 – Visibility & Dissemination Activities
During 2020, Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece carried out visibility and dissemination activities of the Council of Europe Linguistic Integration for Migrants and Refugees programme, including promotional videos and infographics, based on results, statistics and material collected during the 2018 and 2019 training seminars, two online events, namely a showcasing LIAM capacity-building webinar and [...]
2018 – Seminars in Greece
The ‘Language support for Adult Migrants and refugees (LIAM): a Council of Europe Toolkit’ seminars, organised during 2018 in Athens and Thessaloniki by Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network, provided to teachers and educationists the necessary space to interact and familiarise themselves with the Toolkit in order to [...]
