DATE: Wednesday, 26 April 2023

MORNING SESSION: Project presentation conference at Norway House, Rue Archimède 17, Brussels (09.00 to 14.00)

AFTERNOON SESSION: High-level roundtable at the European Parliament (Room ASP 5G1) (16.30 - 18.30)

PROGRAMME: Accessible here.

REGISTRATIONS: Open until Tuesday 25 April and accessible here.

Europe is built on a diverse and vibrant mosaic of cultures, languages, and traditions. The motto of the European Union "United in Diversity" encapsulates its commitment to celebrating this diversity, while fostering a sense of shared identity and common purpose.

Yet, we live in a time where political forces combine pro-EU policies with critical stances towards immigration and social integration. A growing number of European governments point to multiculturalism as a negative phenomenon that leads to economic inequality, social fragmentation, and a loss of cultural identity.

Identity on the Line (I-ON) is a large-scale cooperation project, co-funded by the European Union, conducted by six cultural history museums and one university from seven European countries between 2019 and 2023. It aimed to explore the long-term consequences of traumatic experiences that follow war, forced migration, and the search for a new life and identity in a foreign land. And it studied how these experiences also shape the lives of the second and third generation of migrants.

The project findings are summarized in publications, a joint travel exhibition that has toured Europe, and now also as a series of recommendations for policymakers.

These recommendations aim to contribute to long-term solutions for an issue that is often seen as a short-term urgency. I-ON provides ideas for initiatives that are designed to foster societal cohesion and to avoid critical pitfalls on the way to more sustainable societies. In this regard, museums and academia can make a real difference in the communities they operate in –by providing a safe space where unheard voices can be heard, by facilitating a unique access to information on sensitive experiences, and by creating an arena for participation and intercultural dialogue. These are crucial components in the healing of collective trauma.

We invite you to attend a high-level conference (taking place at Norway House) and a policy roundtable (taking place in the European Parliament) where relevant policymaker sand stakeholders will discuss our project findings and recommendations.

You will also have the opportunity to hear directly from the leaders of the seven research projects conducted across Europe, and attend a screening of a short documentary on the experience of Crimean Tatars in Ukraine.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Valter Flego, Member of the European Parliament
• Irena Joveva, Member of the European Parliament
• Magdalena Adamowicz, Member of the European Parliament 
• Walter Zampieri Head of Unit (Culture) European Education and Culture Executive Agency
• Dr. Wiebke Sievers, Senior Researcher from the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna

See the programme of the full-day event at this link.