Saturday 12 July 2014

Migrants: the reasons of our choice.




About the topic « migrants », teachers of  French Lycée Wlérick chose to work with the gypsy community living in  Quartier du Rond ( it’s an unformal gypsy district) and travellers using a temporary camp ; they also worked with multiethnic association “ Manouche-Gadjé” and  social employees who work with gypsies.

There are several reasons. Fisrt we have no contact with associations or social services who take care of foreign migrants .But we were in contact with the Manouche-gadjé association and the social assistant of the temporary camp.

These persons, gypsies settled down or travelers, are numerous in Mont de Marsan and in all the South-West of France. Even if they are almost French, for a very long time, they have always been migrants, in their life or in their mind. The most settled down of them want to keep their freedom and possibility to go away when they want. Nomadism is a base of their culture even if their migrations have not the same reasons as foreigner migrants who search a refuge.

Manouche-Gadjé association would like do a memory work about Quartier du Rond before the moving of people in a new district next year. This multiethnic association found interesting to work with students.

Finally we observed that we lived near gypsies, sometimes we knew one of them personally, but we didn’t know their history, their culture, language or way of life.
This project is a very good opportunity to discover this people, for students and teachers. For young persons it’s also an excellent chance to open their mind, learn tolerance and create connections.

During the first meeting with the Manouche-Gadjé association and the social assistant, we talked about the final form of the project. Due to time and financial constraints, we decided to do an exhibition which would be used in different occasions.


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