Teresa Bean notes, “….it is apparent that the creative arts as a vehicle for the promotion of intercultural awareness align with citizens’ attitudes towards multiculturalism and social cohesion…”

Bean goes on to discuss in detail Italian respondents having a rising number of cross-cultural interactions with southern and eastern Mediterraneans due to large numbers of migrants and rescued people applying for political asylum in Italy, and integrating into the Italian civil fabric. Percentages of cross-cultural encounters are shown at 65% in 2016 versus 44% in 2012; encounters are occurring mainly in public places, around the neighbourhood and in business.

When looking at countries individually, Finland and France, at 56% and 50%, respectively, felt intercultural schools were imperative for teaching children how to live in diversity in a multi-cultural environment. Portugal had a higher response at 79%. Conversely, we see only four countries where less than half of the respondents answered favourably; Palestine at 32%, Jordan at 36%, Poland at 37% and Israel at 43%.

Aliki Moschis-Gauguet notes that it is crucial to work towards increasing artistic mobility for not only artists, but cultural artworks in an effort to enhance diversity, transfer knowledge, and broaden access and participation in intercultural projects in public spaces for better living in multi-cultural societies. This can then be used to facilitate integration, teach acceptance of diversity, and even help to heal post-war trauma for refugees and immigrants.

Nayla Tabbara suggests a series of recommendations for the promotion of intercultural education, stating that “it is imperative today to include in intercultural education the current world situation that explains why refugees are fleeing their homes, as well as accurate numbers about the impact of refugees and immigrants on local stability, economy and culture… including the fact-checking of speeches of demagogues who tend to falsify numbers and stories, aiming to increase xenophobia, victimisation and sectarianism, or far-right extremism. Including figures from this and other surveys and educating the youth on analysing them is also a tool to let them reflect on their own positions and perceptions”. She further recommends promoting a new model of inclusive citizenship “to take into consideration the fact that citizens have multiple cultural, ethnic, and religious belongings or philosophical positions, and that they have the right to express these belongings in the public sphere”