Multicultural local policy and multilevel approach to the Intercultural Education Platforms: practical aspects and researches of the Bologna University

This chapter analyses as first national policy on immigration, identifyng in Italy at least two models: the multicultural model, emphasising immigrant organisations’ inclusion and group recognition, and the assimilationist model, that aims at individual integration and assistance to particularly disadvantaged categories. Bologna represents an example of the first one. In a second step, it illustrates the situation in Bologna that has traditionally had an open, pro-immigrant attitude as immigration has been defined as a resource since the very beginning of the migration flows. Therefore, public policy has aimed at building a multicultural society where cultural diversity should be not just tolerated, but also positively integrated. To this end, particular emphasis was set on policies supporting intercultural education, community mediation and immigrants’ participation in the running of social services. It concluded with some reflections on how these policies could be transferred through the Intercultural Education Platforms to the civil society and migrants representatives of the multicultural Tatarstan Republic.