Dorota Gierszewski – författare

The intensified migration experienced in recent years in Europe has confronted the continent with numerous problems. It requires from it not only readiness to provide emergency help to migrants, but also to address the issue of their permanent presence in a world that was not prepared for it. This book considers migration in terms of a particular aspect, the question of what role adult civic education can play in the process of the integration of newcomers with host communities, as well as how it should change itself in order to meet the tasks set before it. The book presents papers that originate from three different countries: Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. In each of them, migration processes assumed different forms and revealed diverse reactions toward the same issue. The publication does not aim at diagnosing the situation in each country separately but rather at confronting different perspectives applied to problems that resemble each other even if they remain differentiated in many regards. The common trait of these statements is the conviction that successful integration should not be equated with a process that only assumes migrants' adjustment to existing, non-negotiable conditions. Conversely, its accomplishment is also determined by the locals' readiness for social change, their openness towards the new and the unpredictable. Indeed, democratic thought is imprinted in this kind of openness, therefore the following volume discusses the methods of transmission of democratic values that would not negate the freedom of the people for whom democracy remains a novelty.