International Conference on Education: Diverse Talents for the Future of Europe

Mr. Thomas Huddleston from Migration Policy Group  presented  the third edition of  MIPEX, the Migrant Integration Policy Index research. He said that MIPEX is not only a research but also a policy 2tool. It measures integration policies and their implementation, and asks whether all residents have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities to become equal members of society and citizens. MIPEX has shown that political will counts over cultural traditions.This is evident from the fact that Scandinavian countries but also countries like Spain and Portugal are favourable for integration. MIPEX has also shown that policies are more diversified when there is no binding EU law. This applies especially to education, political participation and access to nationality. Education is one of the seven policy areas that MIPEX analyses. It is measured with four indicators: access to education, targeting needs, developing  new opportunities, and supporting  intercultural education. In general countries rarely see and address the needs and opportunities of new diverse generation in the field of education. Only in approximately half of the countries surveyed there is equal access to all levels of education and there are only few targeted measures in this regard.
There are also few systems to diversify schools and teachers, and uneven support for intercultural education. Hardly any formal systems exist to recognise children’s previous skills. In targeting specific needs there are few legal entitlements and standards, and little support in languages of instructionbut the Nordic countries make an exception in this regard. This, however, has not to do so much with the general stance to immigration but rather to education. Most education systems are missing out on opportunities the migrant pupils bring to classroom. There is some guidance on immigrant languages but less on cultures and segregation. One finding of MIPEX is that countries like Canadaand Australia, and the USA in some regards, have far more favourable integration policies in the field of education than the EU27 countries...Read more