140 Global Ethics for Leadership
paigning for the rights and participation of migrants in Europe.^132 At the
international level the interagency Global Migration Group^133 works
within the United Nations human rights frameworks, promoting the par-
ticipation of young migrants among others and the United Nations Insti-
tute for Training and Research assists with policy discussions in its Hu-
man Mobility Programme and its research projects.
9.5 Concluding Thoughts and Wishes
When thinking of the reality and praxis of intercultural experience,
participation and inclusiveness, ‘Rituals for Our Times’^134 was a book
that opened my eyes to the possibilities of identifying and reinventing
our customs and redefining our values in response to life cycle stages
and changes in circumstances. It revealed to me that our lives are not
governed by monocultures, that our non-traditional families, extended
networks and interrelationships are of their nature dynamic and diverse
and that it is within our power and even in some ways it is incumbent
upon us to create new patterns, to reinvent and bring together the dispar-
ate threads of our family and community ties. When we are faced by the
distinctly other in a new culture we can see ourselves more acutely in
the mirror that their expression, behaviour and eyes betray. Our differ-
entness is in sharp relief, our very person and presence begs the ques-
tion, “Am I acceptable, alien as I am, or not?” And when the answer is
132
See for example the Policy Briefing on the Civic and Political Participation
of Refugees and Migrants in Europe, NGO Network of Integration Focal Points,
2007, 133 http://www.ecre.org/component/downloads/downloads/171.html
See http://www.globalmigrationgroup.org/, http://www.unitar.org/thematic-
areas/promote-economic-development-and-social-inclusion/human-mobility-
programme and UNITAR seminar ‘Facilitating migrants’ participation in socie-
ty’, 3 May 2007, https://www.unitar.org/ny/node/73 for a collection of resources
and links 134
Evan Imber-Black and Janine Roberts, Rituals for Our Times: Celebrating,
Healing, and Changing Our Lives and Our Relationships, Maryland, Rowman
& Littlefield, 1998.