The Integration Foundation is organising a conference entitled ‘30 Years of Integration: Success Stories, Challenges and Unused Opportunities’ to be held in Tallinn on 11 & 12 November. The event will bring together internationally recognised experts from Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and of course Estonia. Registration is now open online at integrationconference.ee. Attendance is upon presentation of a COVID certificate, but the conference will also be livestreamed.
The two-day conference will include speeches and discussions in which experts, researchers, policy-shapers and representatives of civil society organisations will be analysing the integration processes implemented in Estonia and other countries over the last 30 years, summarising achievements and setbacks and discussing what still needs to be done to foster a more cohesive society.
A total of 15 speakers will be presenting at the conference. They include:
- Adrian Favell, the Chair in Sociology and Social Theory at the University of Leeds and chercheur associé of the Centre for European Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, who will be discussing bias in integration research in the West and suggesting ways of avoiding it;
- Birgit Glorius, a Professor for Human Geography with a focus on European migration research at the EUROPA Institute of Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany, who will be analysing German reunification;
- Lithuanian Social Research Centre (Institute for Ethnic Studies) and NGO Diversity Development Group researcher Giedrė Blažytė, University of Latvia Doctor of Social Sciences Inese Šūpule and political scientist and City of Helsinki Urban Research and Statistics Unit Senior Researcher Pasi Saukkonen, who will be speaking about the experiences of neighbouring countries in the field of integration over the last 30 years; and
- Estonian researchers Marju Lauristin, Raivo Vetik, Kats Kivistik and Triin Vihalemm, who will be analysing 20 years of integration monitoring and discussing changes in Estonian society in recent decades.
The working language of the conference will be Estonian, with simultaneous interpreting into English and Russian. To register, and to access the full programme and list of speakers, go to the conference website. Participation is free of charge but requires advance registration.
Attendance is upon presentation of a COVID certificate. Rapid testing will be available at the venue from 8:30-10:30 on 11 November, for which you will be charged 10 euros.
The event is being held on 11 & 12 November in the conference centre at Sokos Hotel Viru. The 2021 conference is the eighth in the series.
The conference will be livestreamed on the integrationconference.ee website.
The event is being run by the Integration Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture.
