MATE is an Erasmus+ project (2018-1-CY01-KA203-046923) coordinated by M.M.C. – Mediterranean Management Centre from Cyprus and supported by partners from Greece, France, Spain, Austria, and Sweden. The project targets local students and young migrants with the aim to improve their intercultural skills during the lifetime of the project as well as after its completion. Through MATE, participants realise what hate speech and racism are, how common these phenomena are, and learn how to identify them, react to them, and report them. Also, their intercultural skills are evaluated before the project activities on hate speech, racism, and the concept of human universals and then reevaluated for the impact of the project to be appraised. Meanwhile, young locals and migrants meet and get to know each other.
The MATE partnership has been led to important findings regarding common forms of hate speech online (via social media) and offline (through face to face communication), analysed in its titular European report (“Common Forms of Hate Speech Online and Offline”) conducted in all 6 countries of the consortium among young people of both backgrounds. The research addressed two dimensions of the phenomenon and took place in three phases: offline/online and from the point of view of the victim/the offender (dimensions) and through desk research, mixed focus groups (of both locals and migrants), and survey (phases). This holistic approach could allow the partnership to result on conclusions for different dimensions of the phenomenon and by resources providing different kind of data. Additionally, comparison could be done on inter-national level, based on the results from each country.
The comparison of national results showed many similarities among the 6 countries as well as some significant differences, due to cultural, historical, and demographic disparities, geographical particularities, and the economic and political conjuncture in each of them.
On the twofold dimensions’ level, important conclusions were also drawn. The majority of respondents answered that, either as victims or as offenders, their experience with hate speech had taken place offline, while those that were addressees of hate speech were more than those expressing it. As for the aspect of the respondents’ identity that had been targeted by hate speech or that they have targeted while expressing hate speech, physical appearance came first, both for online and for offline cases, when referring to victims, while political orientation took the lead, both for online and for offline cases, when referring to offenders. The real intention of the offender when expressing hate speech against the respondent appeared to be the reproduction of racist bias and prejudice, both for offline and for online cases. Interestingly, when the respondent was the one expressing hate speech, his/her intention, both online and offline, was, on majority basis, to simply express his/her beliefs. The research also focused on the legal protection of victims and sanctions towards offenders. As for these questions, most of the respondents answered that they were not sure if hate speech is sanctioned in their respective countries and, consequently, that they didn’t know what such sanctions are. Also, when asked about their attitude towards hate speech’s punishment, the majority answered that punishment should be strict and not limited to cases that lead to criminal actions as well as that freedom of expression should not apply in cases that the ideas expressed offend others.
Based on the above important findings, MATE partners will soon implement anti-racism workshops on 5 thematic areas as well as activities bringing together local students and young migrants by introducing them to the concept of human commonalities, which reveal how many things people from different cultural backgrounds have in common. In the meantime, partners assess students on their current intercultural skills to consequently check the impact of these activities on the same individuals.