Managing cultural diversity in modern Greek society : the impact of human rights education

Abstract

The enormous flow of immigrants and the repatriation of co-ethnic nationals the past ten-fifteen years have brought about considerable demographic alterations in the composition of the population in Greece. Local society has turned rapidly from a relatively homogeneous and compact unit into a multicultural human mix and is being called upon to manage the effects of cultural diversity. The present article starts off by acknowledging the emergence of xenophobic and discriminatory attitudes of the resident population at the expense of vulnerable (minority) groups and proceeds to explain such attitudes in (among other parameters of socio-cultural and politico-economic nature) the lack of systematic human rights education. A comprehensive look at the evidence of such education in all levels of Greek public schooling (primary, secondary, tertiary) is provided and the prospects of establishing a human rights culture through formal education are equally considered.