People with migration background tend to be marginalized and disadvantaged. Societal mainstream and politicians promote adaption (assimilation), which furthers these people’s problems as they are deprived of their roots. In the paper, first, a normative concept of integration is presented that permits people with migration background to participate actively in the society without denying their origin. Secondly, a teaching-learning approach is presented that permits to promote the necessary competences and attitudes for them to do so: Values and Knowledge Acquisition (VaKE). A pilot study with 8 young people with Turkish background is presented.

One’s roots, traditions, beliefs and language are key elements for one’s identity and well-being. From the perspective of the dominant society, however, integration means mostly assimilation to the detriment of the original culture. Here, a concept is proposed, based on the different spheres people live in, like the community of people with the same origin, the public sphere of the dominant society or institutions like school or public administration (Berry, 2005). Integration, then, can be based on principles on three levels:

(1) The first level is normative and imperative under all conditions and in all spheres: The human rights, for instance as stipulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) and subsequent resolutions. Expression of respect may differ between spheres, but the underlying principle remains the same for all.

(2) The second level is normative as well but can be applied differently in different spheres. Provided that (1) is fulfilled, the effective laws must be respected, and they have priority over, for instance, religion and tradition. This means, for instance, that within the community of people of the same origin or religion, one can practice one’s traditions and religions if the law is not broken.

(3) In different spheres, different practices are acceptable. Practicing one’s original culture within the sphere of like-minded people, but practicing the principles of the dominant culture in public spheres would then be the appropriate way of integration.

The concept of different practices in different spheres can be realized only if specific psychological conditions are satisfied. Behavior must be situation specific, as addressed in Patry (2019); cultural integration competence is necessary (Dai & Chen, 2020); authenticity requires particular attention (Molinsky, 2013); etc.

These psychological conditions are complex and difficult to reach through education. In particular, it should include both values education (e.g., the normative requirements mentioned above) and acquiring the necessary cultural integration competences. VaKE (Values and Knowledge Education; Weyringer et al., 2022a) is a teaching-learning concept that permits just this. It is based on the constructivist framework and combines values education according to a post-Kohlbergian framework (Patry & Weyringer, in press) with competence acquisition according to inquiry-based learning (Dobber et al., 2017); it has an impact on other dispositions such as the ones addressed in Dai and Chen (2020), as discussed in Weyringer et al. (2022a). The participants are confronted with a story in which the protagonist has a values conflict; they must collaboratively decide what the protagonist should do (Blatt & Kohlberg, 1975), but for a competent discussion, they need some knowledge, which they then search, for instance, on the internet. The collaborative learning process leads to a shared conceptual framework, critical thinking, creativity, tolerance, perspective taking, etc. (e.g., Weyringer & Pnevmatikos, 2022). This concept has been successfully used to train unaccompanied minor Muslim boys (Patry et al., 2016) and Muslim female asylum seekers (Weyringer et al., 2022b). In the present study, a small group of second generation young people is trained with VaKE.

The empirical study was done by Özbicerler (2023) in Austria. The study sample was a group of eight second-generation young people with at least one parent born in Turkey (8 males, 3 females), aged between 18 and 24 years. All were competent both in German and in Turkish languages. Assessment instruments were (1) a transcribed recording of the sessions, which was content analyzed; and (2) the Moral Competence Test (Lind, 2021) for the assessment of moral judgment competence in the sense of Kohlberg (1984). The procedure started with a short information of the participants and a session of 7 hours. The participants had their notebooks, and WLAN was available. The following steps were done: (1) The participants agreed that it should be a socially safe situation (free expression without sanctions) and about discussion rules (the arguments count, not the person who utters it; etc.). (2) The Moral Competence Test was given. (3) The VaKE conflict story was presented: Leyla, from Salzburg and with Turkish background, studies in Vienna; she has an Austrian boyfriend; her parents oppose to that. Leyla must decide whether to leave her boyfriend or to remain with him and then break with her family. (4) Key values at stake were addressed and discussed. (5) A first voting yielded five votes pro boyfriend and three votes pro family. (6) Two sub-groups were formed, and each formulated arguments in favor and against Leyla’s possible actions. (7) In the full group, the sub-groups presented their results, and they discussed what knowledge they would need for further discussion and formulated research questions. (8) Two working groups of three and one working group of two looked for answers on the internet. (9) Meeting again, the results were shared. (10) Back in the sub-groups, the participants discussed again what the Leyla should do, now considering the newly acquired knowledge. (11) The full group shared the results, and the sub-groups rated the arguments of the respective other sub-group for appropriateness of justification. (12) In a brain storming, the full group imagined how the story could continue. (13) The participants were encouraged to discuss related topics. (14) The Moral Competence Test was given again.

The results focus on the process of VaKE, while the summative results are reported elsewhere. For each of the VaKE discussion steps (4) to (13), key statements are presented and analyzed with respect to the issues presented in the theory part: the normative bases and the psychological conditions. The focus of the analysis is not on the decision what Leyla should do (stay with the family or leave it), but on the justification of the arguments and on the process of VaKE itself. In step (4), the first discussion step, the first statement was: “Logically, Leyla’s only option is to leave the family, because if she accepts the decision of the parents, she will be even more limited, even if she doesn’t live with her boyfriend in the future. Her life would be drastically restricted and controlled.” The idea here is not to actively leave the family, but to aim for different spheres with different rules, and require the parents to do the same; since the parents seem not able or willing to do so, Leyla must leave. Would the parents accept the concept of different spheres, there would be no problem. Maybe Leyla could convince the parents through logical arguments, as promoted by VaKE. This example shows that training only some stakeholders (here: the young people) will not suffice to lead to an integration in the sense described above. However, it is a first step. Further, experience shows that participants in VaKE processes transfer the discussions in their families and hence can have an impact within this sphere. On the other hand, in order to achieve such integration, a similar education needs to be done with the members of the dominant society. This is currently being done in other studies using VaKE.

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