Today, Friday 16 November, marks the second day of the international integration conference ‘My Home, Our Home: What Unites Us in a Multicultural Community’ in Tallinn. The highlight of today’s programme is a debate between well-known Estonian politicians.
Irene Käosaar, the director of the Integration Foundation, says that the first day of the conference focussed on unified national identity, the opportunities of a multilingual education system and the inclusion of people from different backgrounds on the labour market. “There will be more discussions today, including a debate between our politicians that’s not to be missed!” she added. “Relations between people from different ethnic backgrounds is always a hot topic in the media in the lead-up to elections. In the debate, we’ll be asking the politicians for their views on how much they think raising the issue ahead of elections actually contributes to integration and to everyone who lives in Estonia considering the country their home.”
The debate, entitled ‘The Influence of Media Blitzes on Integration and How to Cope with It’, is scheduled to start at 14:05. It will be moderated by television journalist Urmas Vaino.
The politicians taking part in the debate are:
– Mihhail Kõlvart, Centre Party
– Jaak Madison, Conservative People’s Party
– Laine Randjärv, Reform Party
– Neeme Kuningas, Free Party
– Jevgeni Ossinovski, Social Democratic Party
– Viktoria Ladõnskaja-Kubits, Pro Patria Party
– Züleyxa Izmailova, Greens
– Helen Lemming, Elurikkuse Erakond
– Kristina Kallas, Eesti 200
The debate will be held in Estonian.
The conference is being held at the Radisson Blu Sky Hotel (Rävala pst 3). The programme can be found online at www.integrationconference.ee
You can follow the conference live in Estonian via the Postimees portal www.postimees.ee, in Russian via rus.postimees.ee and in English on the conference website at www.integrationconference.ee. Delfi will be live-blogging the event at www.delfi.ee
