SOFIE-Support for empowerment and integration of refugee families Erasmus Project

Project Title

SOFIE-Support for empowerment and integration of refugee families

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social dialogue; Integration of refugees; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The aim of the SOFIE project is to face the actual European need of integrating refugee families, as one of the most vulnerable targets to the host societies. The main objective is to create a holistic set of tools, guides of best practice and curricula for trainings to support the inclusion process the most effectively.

Through the geographic location of partners, according to the current routes of refugees through Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, Austria and Sweden, the SOFIE project covers most of related important partners. Therefore, the content of the online tool will be developed according to their needs in these regions. Especially in some of them like in Turkey, there are not any this kind of tools.

The project thus contributes to the social inclusion of refugees by provision of educational trainings targeting women and children on the one hand, and on the other hand by training trainers and volunteers in order to better prepare them for the needs of the refugee families coming to their country or newly have arrived.

Trainings will be adressed on the one hand to the targets themselves by an innovative method of including mother & child interaction for the learning process of second language (L2) and important host society knowledge acquisition. Through targeting mother&children, the whole family will be involved and empowered. Direct support will also be provided by the “Sofie” Online Tool and platform, which will inform on services and locations in their region living in the host country.

Trainers and especially the many voluntaries involved in activities targeting refugees will be prepared by the project measures in a much better way to their daily tasks. For organizations there will be even a Guide developed giving recommendation on how to prepare voluntaries best for her support in the service provision to refugees.

The project is therefore important for the partner countries and there is a good mix of different national situations. Austria and Italy are important transit and reception points for migrants, the first through the Balcan route to Germany the second especially through the island of Lampedusa. In Austria in 2016 there were 42073requests for asylum. According to IOM data from 01 January to 31 May 2016, an estimated 46856 migrants and asylum seekers were registered arriving in Italy by sea and overall 13,110 arrived in between January and February 2016, out of which 8,534 to Sicily in 2016- 15% are children and 9%are women. Cyprus as country located in the Eastern Mediterranean sea is very close to countries that are experiencing socio-political transformations that may result to severe domestic crises that affect people’s welfare or may be in a state or war, such as Syria or Lebanon. For this reason it is important to find lasting solutions for refugees in terms of their integration in the host society by allowing them to be fully accepted, find opportunities to resettle and offer them a place where they can feel safe and protected. Sweden having the most severe refugee crisis since World War II. More people than ever before are seeking asylum in Sweden. Government Offices and other agencies are working intensively to increase the capacity of the reception and the establishment of new arrivals and solve the great challenges that exist. The government’s focus is to create more jobs, reduce disparities and increase integration in Sweden. The project will be a big contribution to this process.
Recently, Turkey became known as a country of transit to the European Union for irregular migrants from various countries. Turkey now hosts the world’s largest community of Syrians displaced by the ongoing conflict in their country. According to United Nations estimates, Turkey’s Syrian refugee population was more than 1.7 million as of mid-March 2015 (unregistered refugee population may be even larger) and still more and more refugees are crossing into Turkey. Turkey has been trying to cope with this issue, although limited tools and the lack of awareness in the society.

CONCLUDING for all countries we may say that a quick inclusion and settlement is very important for refugee families. On mean for this is host country language (L2) acquisition to be able to communicate and act in daily life. Next very important issues for families are health and education. Therefore trainings will not exclusively focus on language learning but provide a mixture of L2 and provision of information on refugee relevant issues in an cultural appropriate and understandable way, such as where to get help and how to deal with services and administration in host country as well as orientation how social system, education and labor market are working. By better prepared volunteers and trainers service provision in host countries can be improved and this will serve again for a better inclusion of the main target groups in european societies.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 177488,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

VEREIN MULTIKULTURELL & Country: AT

Project Partners

• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET
• CESIE
• MOZAIK INSAN KAYNAKLARI GELISTIRME DERNEGI
• STIFTELSEN KURSVERKSAMHETEN VID U-AUNIVERSITET