CENTRE PLUS NEWS Social issues
No. 9, 2013
PUBLIC ACTIVITIES FOR A SUCCESSFUL INTEGRATION What to do for not feeling a stranger in a new country and to understand the culture of the society of host country, to learn rules, regulations and all the duties? One of the most effective ways is participation in public activities. It can help more easily to adapt in a new country and it will be a particularly important motive, if you want to be recognized and accepted. So, in this article I will try to give a brief overview of the importance of public activities, as well as provide more information on the activities carried out by community-based organizations, where you can participate and not to feel alone and also you should be able to share your life experiences in Lithuania, to find out more about the norms prevailing in Lithuania, culture, refight against discrimination, racism sponsibilities, laws and others. and xenophobia. This can help you In particular, participation in to keep your national identity, to public activities is useful in build- maintain the prestige of your peoing up new contacts that could be ple and promote their culture. useful for business or personal In order to expand the opportucareer. In addition, participation nities for social interaction with loin public activities creates social networks which demonstrate their cals, cherish their cultural and probenefits in the face of various dif- fessional life. Also it is very useful ficulties. Similar problems unify to learn the host country’s language. community members and strength- Language skills are particularly en their sense of solidarity. Moreo- important for immigrants in social ver, public activities are important interaction, integration and adaptain order to change the traditional tion in a new society. It would be prejudices and stereotypes about too bold to say, that the inability to other countries, peoples, and in a communicate in local language of
the host country leads to the social exclusion, because it is important not only to speak language, but also to be able to deal with the language issue, that means not to be afraid to ask questions and seek clarification in the cases of uncertainty. A lot of non-governmental organizations and ethnic communities actively work in Lithuania seeking to guarantee the more successful integration of foreigners in Lithuania and to encourage the contribution of different cultures in building and development of interaction between foreigners and Lithuanians.