15th year of activity for Integration and Migration Foundation Our People
MISA funded the activity of 87 ethnic cultural societies with a grant round
An active training month awaits the teachers of Sunday schools of ethnic minorities
Drafting development plan “Integrating Estonia 2020” is about to begin
15th year of activity for Integration and Migration Foundation Our People
On 31 March, the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) celebrated its 15th year of activity.
MISA was established on 31 March 1998 under the name of Non-Estonians Integration Foundation. The organisation was called Integration Foundation between spring 2008 and the end of 2009. On 1 January 2010, the Integration Foundation merged with the Estonian Migration Foundation, founded in 1992. Since then, the merged organisation has carried the name Integration and Migration Foundation Our People.
The functions of the Foundation are to facilitate integration processes in Estonian society, coordinate activities related to inbound and outbound migration, publish relevant information and draw up reviews.
We would like to publish here a short version of the speech by two long-serving employees of MISA, Ave Härsing and Eda Silberg, which was delivered at the reception organised to celebrate the anniversary of the Foundation on 11 April. Ave Härsing worked in MISA from 1998 to 2012 and Eda Silberg was employed by MISA in 1999.
Ave Härsing: “In addition to the remarkable weather conditions, 31 March 1998 was important for Estonia for several other reasons, because on that very same day the accession negotiations between Estonia and the European Union commenced, led by the current President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs.”
Eda Silberg: “The 1990s were characterised by the rapid development of Estonian state and society in various areas and by the middle of the 1990s it was clear that the time of illusions had come to an end – the hopes harboured by non-Estonians that the non-Estonians living in Estonia would be automatically granted Estonian citizenship and the bilingual state would continue to exist were crushed. As ended the hopes of Estonians that non-Estonians would leave Estonia or that they would learn the Estonian language quickly and this would resolve all problems.
A lot more attention was given to the topics related to teaching the Estonian language and integration at the beginning of the 1990s. The first Estonian language teaching programmes with the assistance of the EU Phare programme were implemented in the middle of the 1990s. Initiatives were many then but they lacked a common goal and it was difficult to coordinate them. A clear need for a systemic national integration policy emerged, i.e. the need for reform of Russian language schools to integrate them into the unified educational system in Estonia, the separation of Estonian and Russian language media, the complicated socioeconomic situation in the northeast of Estonia that ensued after extensive reorganisations, etc. Here are some numbers for comparison: in 1999, there were 120 general education schools with Russian as the language of instruction and around 200,000 people whose citizenship was unspecified in Estonia. Currently, there are around 80 Russian-language general education schools and 90,000 people with unspecified citizenship.
Ave Härsing: “March has always been a time for pivotal events throughout the history of the Foundation. In 1997, the expert committee established by the Government developed the principles of integration policy, which brought fourth the future Foundation. It took less than three quarters of a year for the Foundation to be established on 31 March 1998. A year later, in March 1999, the Foundation was assigned the task of preparing the national integration programme, which was approved by the Government in March 2000. That was our first integration strategy.
Today, it may sound light and blithe that “oh, it was assigned this task” and then “oh, it was prepared” and “see, then it was already approved”, but in reality it was a stressful and painful time when social agreements were made and different ministries were brought together to work as a team.
When looking back on these 15 years and the two integration strategies now, there is no area that the kind helping hand of the Foundation has not touched, no matter how hard you try to find one.
Our projects cover every stage of a generation; they have followed Estonian people from their birth. For example, our cooperation with Tallinn Maternity Hospital in providing information on early bilingualism. Our activity has touched Estonian crèches and kindergartens, basic schools and upper secondary schools, vocational schools, universities, workplaces and retiree language clubs. It is likely that there is a separate shelf to hold all the materials created by MISA at the National Library of Estonia.
With our activities we have conquered every location in Estonia from Valga on the boarder with Latvia to Kopli peninsula, from the western shore of Saaremaa to Lake Peipus.
Language camps and school trips have taken participants to underground caves and to the heights of Munamägi, the highest point in Estonia, although it is now one metre lower. We have brought people to Estonia from every corner of the world and sent our people all over the world. Once we had a plan to mark every cooperation partner on a Regio world map with pins, but our plan failed, because the map was not visible under all the pins.
We have entered into all areas of life in Estonia, except for animal husbandry and the production of alcohol.
With its projects and cooperation, the Foundation has warmed hearts at Eesti Raudtee, Kreenholm and Silmet, in aviation and electronics industry, schools, hospitals, prefectures, prisons and local authorities. As regards different spheres of culture, we have supported all types of media, national culture and physical fitness, visual arts and literature, singing, dancing and theatre.
We should not end the list of the Foundation’s achievements with the theatre, because people tend to remember only the last part of a long speech. Then what they will remember about MISA is that they are putting on a show! So what good has this hard work given us?!”
Eda Silberg: “I remember a speech by Paul-Eerik Rummo where he said that the key importance of the Foundation has been its role as a breeding ground and testing laboratory for integration ideas. Today we can say that most fields of our work such as language and citizenship training, support projects in the area of the labour market and supporting the identity of minorities have been expedient. While ministries or other foundations have continued with these activities on a larger scale, some of the activities have remained part of the Foundation’s activity programme. For example, the organisation of Estonian language camps, supporting the projects of the societies of ethnic minorities, projects to increase the mobility of labour market and many other tasks”.
Ave Härsing: “In our opinion, the Foundation has its place in the arena of integration as the main professional driver of bold and novel initiatives and this characteristic can be considered the strength of MISA, now and in the past. When we think about it, we have what we need to go forward.”
Eda Silberg: “The value of the Foundation has not been and is not in beautiful premises and modern laptops, but in the people who have been working and will continue to work to improve our society, so that it is more tolerant and offers equal opportunities.”
Ave Härsing: “We feel that it has been a privilege and an honour to be fellow travellers to exceptional people who have worked and are working at the Foundation. It has been a rare opportunity to know you, the people in the audience, to learn from you and together be of benefit to others. Without the years spent in MISA and the people, we would not be who we are today.”
Eda Silberg: “We believe that none of us will stop half way. Thank you and more power to all of us!”
MISA funded the activity of 87 ethnic cultural societies with a grant round
According to the decision adopted by the assessment committee, the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) granted aid to a total of 87 ethnic cultural societies via 9 umbrella organisations. The total amount granted was 135,740 euro.
The results of the application round for base financing of cultural societies of ethnic minorities can be found on the MISA homepage.
The goal of the application round is to strengthen the activity of cultural societies of ethnic minorities as well as support the preservation and promotion of their ethnic cultural heritage and language in Estonia. An additional goal of supporting the activity of cultural societies of ethnic minorities is to draw attention to the multicultural aspect of Estonian society, introduce the specific features of traditional national cultures and inform Estonian society about the activities of the cultural societies of ethnic minorities. The grant round also helps to develop cooperation between the cultural societies of ethnic minorities and with Estonian cultural societies.
MISA will organise the second round of base financing of ethnic cultural societies in May. To keep track of MISA project competitions, please visit the homepage of the foundation http://www.meis.ee/konkursid.
The project competition is financed by the Ministry of Culture within the framework of “Estonian Integration Strategy 2008–2013”.
For more information, please contact: Kristina Pirgop, Coordinator, MISA Multicultural Education Unit, tel 659 9024, e-mail kristina.pirgop@meis.ee
An active training month awaits the teachers of Sunday schools of ethnic minorities
Two counselling meetings of the European Language Portfolio for the teachers of Sunday schools of ethnic minorities will be held on 8 and 11 May in Tallinn. In addition, training entitled “How to captivate a student?” will be held on 24 and 25 May.
The participants of the counselling meeting can recollect what they learned last autumn with the help of active learning methods, as well as exchange experiences and learn some new methods.
The European Language Portfolio includes generally accepted international standards for measuring and comparing the competence of different languages. The European Language Portfolio enables students to adequately assess their language skills, language learning needs and motivation.
The aim of the European Language Portfolio is to motivate students to expand and diversify their language skills and register their obtained language and cultural skills.
The participants of the counselling meeting will be the teachers that underwent the training introducing European Language Portfolio last autumn. The lecturers were Evelin Müüripeal, Leili Sägi and Merle Taggu. Altogether, 46 teachers can participate in the training.
A four-hour long training session entitled “How to captivate a student?” for 30 teachers will be held on 24 and 25 May in Tallinn. During the training, a sample language class will be given and the participants will be learn how to involve students in the learning process and command their attention. The training will be held by Evelin Müüripeal. Teachers of Sunday schools registered as hobby schools in the Estonian Education Information System are being primarily sought as participants in the training.
The deadline for registration for the training is 15 May. The organisation of the training is financed by the Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of “Estonian Integration Strategy 2008–2013”.
For more information and registration, please contact: Kristina Pirgop, Coordinator, MISA Multicultural Education Unit, tel 659 9024, e-mail kristina.pirgop@meis.ee
Drafting development plan “Integrating Estonia 2020” is about to begin
The working party of the development plan “Integrating Estonia 2020” has completed the first stage of drafting the plan, i.e. mapping the situation, and is about to start drafting the development plan. The summaries of working parties addressing specific topics that mapped the situation can be found at www.integratsioon.ee.
“In February and March, 15 working parties gathered, the objective of which was to get an overview of the problems in the area, possible solutions and connections with other policy areas,” said Anne-Ly Reimaa, Undersecretary of Cultural Diversity of the Ministry of Culture. According to Anne-Ly Reimaa, the steering group now has an overview of the current situation and problem areas, based on which the focal points of the new development plan for the period of 2014–2020 will be defined.
The summaries of all working parties are posted on integratsioon.ee, a page that introduces the drafting process of the development plan. Overviews about integration indicators in Estonia, the European Union and selected member states; integration terminology; target groups and stakeholders in the field of integration; the situation of Roma people in Estonia; the practice of integration contracts in Europe; and studies and surveys conducted in the field of integration in 1998–2012 in Estonia have been freshly posted to the page.
Most of the mentioned surveys and studies have been carried out by the Institute of Baltic Studies, together with one by SA Poliitikauuringute Keskus Praxis. A working document that supports preparing the new integration plan, entitled “Theoretical assumptions of and current conceptual trends in the integration process” written by the politics professor Raivo Vetik, is also made available on the webpage.
All surveys can be found on the webpage and summaries of working parties addressing specific topics can be found here.
The steering group of the integration plan consists of representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, State Chancellery, SA Innove, the Police and Boarder Guard Board, the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People. The “Integrating Estonia 2020” development plan will be completed by the end of this year.
The government approved the proposal for drafting the development plan in autumn 2012. The drafting of the development plan is coordinated by the Ministry of Culture.
For more information, please contact: Anne-Ly Reimaa, Undersecretary on Cultural Diversity of the Ministry of Culture, tel 628 2217, GSM 522 3305, e-mail anne.ly.reimaa@kul.ee
