Current issues of development of multicultural competence in conditions of global migration process (situation in Lithuania)

• Leidėjo tinklalapis: straipsnio tekstas

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Globalizacija; Migracija; Multikultūriškumas; Multikultūrinė kompetencija; Globalization; Migration; Interculturalism; Intercultural competence.

ENThe interest of politicians, scholars, media representatives and active citizens in various countries in the topic of multiculturalism1 during the recent decades has notably increased. One of the obvious reasons thereof is a more globalized nature of the world and an increase in international migration flows. In Lithuania the research on this topic, in particular on the analysis of problems of intercultural competence, does not have a long history, however, a number of scientific papers have already been published (Jucevičius, 2001; Pruskus, 2003; Petkevičiūtė, 2009). Nevertheless, the research has been conducted rather sporadically, and usually deals only with individual issues of intercultural competence. The article presents the approach of foreign and Lithuanian scholars and UNESCO to the phenomenon of interculturalism and trends of its expression in contemporary society and the results of an empirical study with 1,067 respondents. Based on the collected data the author provides assessment on the ‘weak spots’ of the intercultural competence characteristic of the Lithuanians and conclusions on further possible development of this competence. In most cases due to underdeveloped skills the acquired intercultural competence is loosely related with the level of education, besides, in the public sector this correlation is even lower than in the private sector. There can be drawn a conclusion that in Lithuania people perceive the importance of communication with people from other countries and positively evaluate the benefits of the development process of acquiring intercultural competence. [From the publication]