From 6 to 8 October 2022, an international diversity congress was held in Hamburg. The congress was attended by researchers and experts from many countries, starting with Finland and Norway, from Poland and Ukraine to England, Spain to Italy. The majority of participants came from the German-speaking countries, however (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg). The congress languages were German and English. Organiser was an academic network called “European Cultures in Business Communication”. The 22nd international conference of the research network was held under the leitmotif “Diversity”.
From the perspective of AGRAF, this was the ideal setting to present the REACT project to a large community of experts. The project goal was presented as well as research results from the first project phase. The focus was on dealing with people who have a migration background (refugees, migrants) as well as gender-dependent behaviour. What is the status of diversity in Germany? The AGRAF presentation made it clear that there are still difficulties with diversity in European societies. But it also became clear that the importance of diversity is basically accepted in the population of all European countries involved in the project. Therefore, we can undoubtedly speak of a European value space. Commonality dominates; the research in the partner countries shows that diversity is accepted by the majority in the respective countries.
It is now important to express and support this tolerance in different contexts, for example in the context of education.
Saarbrücken, 10 October 2022.