The origin of the VEITH foundation goes back fifteen years, to the year 2000, when the founder, Dr. Daniel Veith wrote, during his studies, the thesis project "Italians in Rio de la Plata". His field work led him to Argentina, where he intensively investigated the peculiarities of the European emigration flow to South America during the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

Veith conducted this research particularly in the German colonies in southern Brazil, Argentina and Chile, giving emphasis to the various waves of mass emigration from Italy  to Argentina, where he focuses on the analysis of the linguistic and socio-cultural aspects of languages, cultures and the contact of people.

 

Veith started pointing out then, while he was deeply immersed in the thought and perspective of migrants, that integration can only be successfully implemented if the education or immigration movements are fully understood by the host country society. And in a precise and convincing way he points out that the basic condition for the success of any integrating company is to overcome the language barrier, which is why he urges host countries to take concrete measures in order to support the new active citizens.

 

From this moment, Veith endorsed the objective of working towards the establishment of an international platform for the scientific study of migration and ethnic, linguistic and cultural minorities. This project finally took place in Madrid, Spain, with the creation of the "Documentation and Interpretation of Minority Languages and Cultures Center”.

 

Through the VEITH foundation he seeks to encourage social, linguistic and cultural scientists to engage a serious analysis of global migration, in order for new compelling means to appear and make a lasting contribution that will work to optimize public and private efforts towards a full integration.

 

In the wake of this, the Johann Martin Schleyer prize for linguistic research is established.