CULTURAL INTEGRATION, VALUES AND FORMS OF MULTICULTURALISM, pages: 121 - 130, 2018

Multiculturalism or Civic Integration. Daily Challenges and Founding Targets in the European Social Space

Abstract: The issue of national minorities and the so called „new minorities” are, in the process of European construction, one of the most important aspects that European countries have had to manage. Learning about and researching minorities, for them to transmit knowledge and experience to young people through education, have become an essential pillar of European values on the construction of an intercultural society based on direct and indiscriminate cooperation and collaboration between ethno-religious communities. It is known that European legislation and practice promote the idea of living together in the sense of social value consisting in accepting otherness, good understanding of the various ethnic groups within the same local communities and openness to communication and cooperation. Nowadays Europe is faced with the dilemma of multiculturalism versus civic integration aiming to examine which model would be the better choice in the given circumstances that European public space became a geopolitical environment that is experiencing a new institutional arrangement between nation states and a new paradigm of coexistence of the cultural differences. After a brief interpretation of the key terms, we will focus on the financial instruments, which aim is promote the integration of traditional and new minorities in the European society.