The German-Turkish Forum in Stuttgart is one of Germany’s largest intercultural associations. Founded in 1999 as a cultural institution to foster communication and dialogue between Turkish migrants and their host society in Germany, the Forum quickly opened to many other migrant communities. The Forum was one of the first intercultural institutions to start working with senior migrants in Germany. Many of them once came to Germany to eventually return home again after a full working life in Germany. Most of them stayed in Germany for good. Their children and grand children live in Germany.
The German-Turkish Forum offers working groups and cultural activities for senior migrants. Many senior migrants are active as volunteers in the fields of sports, language, culture, care, education or cultural heritage. SVMI learning materials are now used to better train and motivate senior migrants to accompany new arriving migrants to better integrate into their new host society. SVMI materials where presented and piloted with several groups of local seniors, migrant seniors, experts and interested adults.
SVMI training materials are and will be adapted to the special training needs of the German-Turkish Forum and other intercultural associations in Stuttgart and in Germany. This will ensure an integration of SVMI materials into mainstream service provision, adult education and integration policy programs.
Appr. 45 % of all people in Stuttgart are migrants. Stuttgart is Germany’s city with the largest percentage of migrant population. The “Stuttgart way to integration” has received UNESCO awards and was declared global best practice in studies of the Bertelsmann Foundation.
