The Integration Foundation held a conference entitled ‘30 Years of Integration: Success Stories, Challenges and Unused Opportunities’ in Tallinn on 11 & 12 November, 2021. The two-day conference included speeches and discussions in which experts, researchers, policy-shapers and representatives of civil society organisations were analyzing 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.

Conference presentations are available on The Integration Foundation Youtube channel:

• In Estonian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWXBhjhBhUo&list=PL5C1FzK7UafmktU5QhIIR…
• In English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_uZgW_o-dA&list=PL5C1FzK7UafnluU-KMZRA…
• In Russian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbrx4HVUfaY&list=PL5C1FzK7UafmvDONbqRff…

The conference recording is available in the Worksup environment until February 12, 2022: https://worksup.com/app#id=INTEGRATION

Conference photos are visible here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jH2msy8sqsKLKuMG7

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.

Today, on May 10th, the Ministry of Culture presented the results of “Estonian Integration Monitoring 2020”. The full version of the report and materials related to the monitoring can be found at: www.kul.ee/EIM2020.

“Based on the monitoring carried out during the last 20 years, we can say that the integration of Estonian society has been a consistent and positive process. However, there are still concerns that need to be addressed, such as how to create and support a common space where people of different nationalities could have greater contact with each other, and establish stronger ties with Estonia.” said Anneli Ott, Minister of Culture. 

The results of the monitoring show:

• There are many people in Estonia with strong state identities;
• Estonian language proficiency has increased and the Estonian language is seen as being important;
• Returnees and new-immigrants adapt well in Estonia; 
• The trust in Estonian Russian-language media has increased;  
• Awareness among people living in Estonia about what is happening locally and in Estonia generally has grown steadily over the last 12 years;
• There is a difference between Estonians and people of other nationalities in labour market participation as well as socio-economic status. The aforementioned gaps widen during economic recessions.

The press conference can be viewed in Estonian here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5k9CHBA9E0 

Over the past 20 years, eight monitoring studies have been carried out to analyse the field of integration. Independent in-depth studies in the field of integration have been conducted every two or three years, and the results help to comprehend the developments in Estonian society and to plan assimilation, integration and other sectoral policies. 

The research assignment was based on the sectoral development plan called “Integrating Estonia 2020”. The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, and it was conducted by Praxis and the Baltic Research Institute, Tallinn University, University of Tartu and Turu-uuringute AS.  

April saw the end of a work placement programmed offered by the Integration Foundation whose aim was to showcase employment opportunities in state agencies to students with mother tongues other than Estonian and to encourage them to apply for positions in the public sector in the future. As part of the programme, a total of 13 students discovered what it is like to work in the Government Office, the Office of the Chancellor of Justice and a variety of ministries.

“It’s important to us that everyone who lives in Estonia has the chance to make something of themselves,” remarked Piret Hartman, the Deputy Secretary-General for Cultural Diversity at the Ministry of Culture. “The more varied the backgrounds of everyone who works in the public sector, the more broad-ranging our policies will be, and the more they’ll be in line with society’s needs. There are people of lots of different ethnicities in Estonia, but they only account for 2% of the staff in our ministries. We’re planning to continue with the programme to encourage young people who have all the skills they need to come in and see for themselves what working for the state is like, and to apply for positions.”

In cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance, the Integration Foundation launched a programme in the course of which a variety of state agencies offered work placements to students with mother tongues other than Estonian who were in their final year of Bachelor’s studies or undertaking Master’s studies. Opening their doors to the students were the Government Office, the Office of the Chancellor of Justice and seven ministries: the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Social Affairs.

“I’m sure the programme has given the students a real boost and broadened their outlook in terms of what they can make of themselves,” said Integration Foundation director Irene Käosaar. “In planning their futures they can now add the public sector to the career opportunities that are open to them. The organisations that took them on have no doubt gained an outsider’s view into what they do, which can be very beneficial, as well as new ideas and a broader understanding of what different target groups expect of the work they do.”

Diana Drobat, who completed her work placement at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and who speaks Russian as her first language, says that she never even considered the possibility of working in the public sector. “It just didn’t seem feasible at all, given my lack of qualifications, but as things turned out it was quite the reverse,” she said. “During my placement we tackled issues affecting Ida-Viru County, so my first-hand experience proved really useful to the ministry. It meant my supervisor looked at me as something of an expert, and we worked really well together. My time at the ministry underscored the fact that speaking Russian can really work in your favour in Estonia, since in our unique little cultural and linguistic sphere, if you also speak good Estonian, it opens up all sorts of opportunities to you.”

Turkish-speaking Berk Erdem, who completed his work placement at the Ministry of Finance, says that since so much of what is taught at university is theoretical in nature, he was feeling the lack of practical experience. “The programme gave me the chance to see what things are like and how things are done in real life,” he said. “Working in the public sector makes you feel good, too, since you’re doing something for the country.”

The programme was offered in cooperation with Tallinn University, TalTech, the Estonian Academy of Arts and the University of Tartu. A total of 36 students with seven different mother tongues applied to take part, among whom the 13 available placements were filled by 10 Russian-speaking students, one Estonian-Russian bilingual student, one German-speaking student and one Turkish-speaking student.

The programme began in June 2020 with the mapping of work placement opportunities. Ahead of the placements, the students had the chance to take part in self-development courses preparing them for their future careers, while the state agencies offering the placements had the chance to attend workshops on designing the work placement journey, one aspect of which was team diversity. The supervised placements took place from January to April this year. Due to coronavirus restrictions, the programme was run online and the work placements themselves were largely completed remotely.

Watch the video about the internship program here:

Today marks the opening of registration for the international conference on integration entitled ‘Communication in a Diverse Society: Listening to One Another Despite Our Differences’ that will be taking place in Tallinn on 12 & 13 November. It will bring together internationally recognised experts from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Spain, the United Kingdom and of course Estonia. Should restrictions be in place at the time of the conference due to the health risks posed by coronavirus, the event will take place online.

The two-day conference will feature discussion panels and workshops in which experts, researchers, policy-shapers and participants will debate a range of topics, including cross-cultural communication, media use and shared information space.

To view the programme and register for the conference, go to the event’s website. Attendance is free of charge but requires advance registration.

The guest speakers at the event will include:

• Autonomous University of Barcelona Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies ‘Serra Hunter’ programme lecturer Gema Rubio Carbonero, who will be focussing in her presentation on the promotion of integration and the shaping of attitudes touching on diversity through public debate;
• Uppsala University Department of Business Studies PhD candidate and University of Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law ‘Organising Integration’ research programme associated researcher Sarah Glännefors, whose presentation will examine communication and integration in the workplace, focussing on the role of language and discourse in recruiting talent for organisations;
• Tampere University Professor of Media and Communication Research Kaarina Nikunen, who will be discussing ways in which the media can promote social solidarity in the context of immigration;
• Charles University Faculty of Arts Assistant Director of International Programmes Sasha Hlozek, who will be showcasing experiences of organising communication with different groups in international higher education;
• Charles University Faculty of Arts Operations Manager Martina Provázková, who will be talking about the management of information exchange at her university during the coronavirus crisis in spring;
• University of Oxford political scientist Dr William Allen, who will be discussing information exchange in the West during the coronavirus crisis and examining initial studies from the perspective of the United Kingdom; and
• University of Copenhagen Saxo Department ethnology postdoc and Advanced Migration Studies research centre member Nina Grønlykke Mollerup, who will be looking at the changing meaning and overall issue of national borders through the eyes of travellers who are residing in a country without a legal basis to do so.
   

In addition to the foreign speakers, representatives of the University of Tartu, Tallinn University and the Government Office of Estonia will also be making presentations at the conference. More information about all of the speakers can be found on the conference website.

Some of the presentations are planned to be given virtually. Should the health risks associated with coronavirus lead to restrictions on gatherings being imposed that affect the conference, the event in its entirety will take place online. Information in this regard will be sent to registered attendees at least one week in advance.

This year’s event is scheduled to take place on 12 & 13 November at the conference centre at Tallinn’s Song Festival Grounds. It is the seventh conference in the series.

The working language of the conference will be Estonian, with simultaneous interpreting into English and Russian.

The event is being run by the Integration Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture.