Promotion of Intercultural and Refugee-specific Competence

The central concept of this research project is intercultural competence, which is understood as the ability to behave efficiently and appropriately in intercultural situations (Genkova, 2019). This is the ability to interact with people from other cultures, to respect differences, to pay attention to particularities, to be considerate, and to treat each other with respect. Intercultural literally means "between cultures."

An interculturally competent person recognizes and uses interaction situations characterized by cultural diversity more successfully (Malau-Aduli, Ross & Adu, 2019). When teaching intercultural competence, care must be taken to design it in a way that prevents discrimination (Krings, 2018).

Acculturative stress occurs when individuals of one culture are exposed to another culture and adaptation processes are initiated implicitly and explicitly. These acculturative stresses become particularly relevant in refugee experiences. After previous possible traumatic experiences, the already stronger need for security is not satisfied for a longer period of time, so that a reappraisal and treatment of the psychological stress is prevented (Berry, 2006).