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CHAPTER 7: Conclusion
Europe is experiencing a refugee crisis on a scale that has never seen before, the number of immigrants coming to Europe is bigger than ever. It is also an experience that is new to Europe, as now it deals with it as one entity – the European Union. Asylum crisis are too much for states to deal with on their own and many countries refuse to share the burden, especially the Visegrad Group which consists of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Research calls for education to play an essential role in helping to ease the situation for states and lower xenophobia, however it does not play its role good enough. Hjerm believes that education might not make xenophobia disappear, however, it might be a good way to start (Hjerm, 2005) and that is where AIESEC in the Czech Republic steps in by organizing projects to enrich the education.
Populist parties are on the rise all over Europe, the Czech Republic included. These parties have, apart from other points, xenophobic and anti-immigration agendas and try to push for
‘CZEXIT’ and withdrawal from NATO. Despite the fact that the Czech Republic has never had any terrorist attack conducted by Muslims, never really had any ethnic conflict with Muslims and did not receive many refugees, they make up only 0.03% of the Czech population, the fear of Islam is present among the Czech people. Right-wing populist parties and media use events from abroad and through their rhetoric create the fear of Muslim immigrants and refugees to mobilize voters and consolidate power. As Oesch puts it, there is a higher chance that people who cast their vote for populist right-wing parties are those who perceive immigrants as threat to their culture (Oesch, 2008). According to European Islamophobia Report, Czech media, as well as right-wing populist parties, play role in creating the fear of immigrants (Dizdarevic, 2018). In 2017 AIESEC was a victim of accusation of spreading Islamist propaganda and
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Islamizing the Czech Republic. In a news story an angry parent of a student that was supposed to attend a project organized by AIESEC, called EDISON accused this NGO for suppressing the students’ sound judgement and for intentionally making Islam look like a peaceful and tolerant religion. AIESEC was accused of bringing Muslims into the Czech Republic and hiring a few other volunteers from other nations to cover the evidence and make it less suspicious.
In reaction a survey, through a form of a questionnaire, was conducted and interviews were carried out. The Hypothesis H1 of this thesis is: Despite the current situation and mood, AIESEC is successful in promoting tolerance. Czech students that took part in any of AIESEC projects (mostly EDISON and SPEAK!) were asked questions, such as whether AIESEC is an NGO that promotes tolerance, multiculturalism and diversity; if there was any foreign volunteer that tried to persuade them to accept any religion or if they feel that AIESEC itself intentionally promotes any religion. All 781 answers were in favor of AIESEC and that way confirming the hypothesis H1.
Does AIESEC mitigate the current situation? According to the former high AIESEC officials this NGO focuses on long term goal – creating a better, less xenophobic and more tolerant generation, thus immediate effects cannot be seen. One more problem is that there is no other NGO such as AIESEC in recent Czech history that would have any record of mitigating such situation, thus there is no example for comparison. AIESEC does have the approval of the Czech Ministry of Education and tries to reach out to as many young Czech students as possible, but AIESEC cannot do this alone. Other local domestic and international NGOs are needed to support the cause. AIESEC does try to mitigate the current situation but as of now it is impossible for us to measure to what extent it is successful. Therefore, the conclusion here is
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that currently AIESEC is successful in promoting tolerance but only partly mitigates the current situation. Longer period of time is needed to see the fruits of AIESEC’s work.
The recommendations to AIESEC are that it must pay much closer attention to collecting its data successfully and know how to put them to good use. It must use other approaches to measure the success of its products. As of now, mostly financial aspects and number of brought foreign volunteers is used as evaluation of the projects. If AIESEC’s project generates profit, that is right away stored in reserves of the organization, it is considered as successful. Once a project ends in loss twice – it gets cancelled. Other measurements therefore must be taken into consideration in the future for AIESEC to be able to defend itself better by presenting real useful data.
Future study could elaborate on this thesis by collecting longitudinal data and using a comparison between control and treatment groups, with AIESEC projects being the treatment.
For other literature, researchers must start paying closer attention to how populist politicians and such-minded people plus social media and other media cause the fear of multiculturalism.
A lot of focus is put on education; however, media are very powerful in influencing people’s opinions and this must be included in such researches. For this purpose, countries must agree on one universal definition of multiculturalism if they wish to tackle this issue. Another research on fear of multiculturalism should elaborate on a complicated history of isolation that some countries that are now democracies still carry with them. The Czech Republic can be used as an example of a country that experienced Communism and isolation for over four decades and now is part of a big complex integration – the European Union. Questions such as the following require academic attention: By the time countries joined the EU, did they really consider the
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identity struggle it will cause in the future? Are the citizens of each member state of the EU read or even willing to become European citizens?
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Are you older than 18? (18 included) - Yes
- No
Are you an AIESEC member that participated in any of AIESEC’s projects prior to becoming a member?
In which region of the Czech Republic is your school located (the one that hosted the AIESEC’s project)
Institution of where AIESEC’s project took place - Middle school
- High school - University
Please provide the whole name of your school + the name of the city
…
How many times have you participated in any of AIESEC’s projects?
- 1 - 2 - 3+
Which project did you participate in?
- Edison - Speak!