Participation – Intercultural Experience 139mental changes^129 as well as for economic and political reasons, is clear-
ly a pressing concern. The role that politicians, community and business
leaders play is important and we need to ask what their agenda and re-
sponsibilities are in relation to the strangers who arrive and pitch their
tents and their lot unbidden at their door. Also to what extent internal
and international migrants should and can be integrated and to what de-
gree they can participate, in the community and in the political decision
making process as members of the host society.
The International Association for Public Participation has seven
core values for the practice of public participation^130. These values are
predicated on the idea that participation is linked to the public, a public
that is enabled to participate in all aspects of decision making processes.
The problem with migrants is that they are not, at least in the first in-
stance, recognised as being members of the public in an ordinary under-
standing of the word in as much as they are not integrated, they are for-
eign, outside of, not included, they do not belong. Participation as a val-
ue in itself is most often associated with political participation, with in-
clusion, integration, citizenship. Although it is not enough, considerable
effort is being expended by countries and multilateral institutions to in-
tegrate migrants in host countries. The European Union Agency for
Fundamental Rights has a project Social Inclusion and Migrant Partici-
pation in Society and the European Union co-funds the Migrant Partici-
pation Project to promote “participation of third country nationals in
political life, elections, in advisory bodies and in immigrant associa-
tions”^131. The NGO sector is also active and well-coordinated in cam-
129
Statement of the Global Migration Group on the Impact of Climate Change
on Migration 130 , Paris, 15 November 2011, http://www.unhcr.org/4eca7db72.html.
Core Values for the Practice of Public Participation, IAP2,
http://www.iap2.org/?page=A4 131.
See http://fra.europa.eu/en/project/2015/social-inclusion-and-migrant-
participation-s ociety-0 and http://www.migrant-participation.eu/