ReEntry – Supports for Refugee Entrepreneurs to Create Normality in a Difficult Surrounding Erasmus Project

Project Title

ReEntry – Supports for Refugee Entrepreneurs to Create Normality in a Difficult Surrounding

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Integration of refugees

Project Summary

The ReEntry project aimed to support refugees and migrants living across Europe into self-employment by developing an online catalogue where VET staff and career advisors could access a list of quality best practices and innovative solutions aimed at encouraging migrant entrepreneurship.

This project was conceived by the partner organisations involved based on the premise that supporting migrant entrepreneurs in Europe is an effective means of improving their social and economic integration; by providing them with equal opportunities to become economically self-sufficient in their host countries and therefore creating a more secure life for them and their families. Migrant entrepreneurs also provide services and products to migrant communities across Europe which originate in their home countries; adding to the diversity of the European market, and providing a sense of familiarity to migrants who are far from home. With this rationale in mind, the ReEntry project was planned, developed and delivered by all participating partner organisations so as to try and improve the social, civic and ecomonic well-being of migrants and refugees in Europe.

The ReEntry project was delivered by a project team of six organisations from across Europe with vast experience of collaborating in EU funded projects, and in working directly with the project target group. These organisations come from Ireland, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Portugal – six European countries each with differing experiences of receiving and integrating migrants.

As project coordinator, Meath Partnership endeavoured to bring together partners from countries at different stages of development relevant to the project target groups. This diversity within the partnership facilitated the exchange of best practices and learning from others which is an important added value of EU-funded projects especially Erasmus+ Key Activity 2. The consortium had all the skills necessary to support the successful development, implementation and dissemination of this project.

The main target groups addressed by the ReEntry project included
• Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Adult Education organisations and professionals working to support the socio-economic integration of migrants.
• Career guidance counsellors and job coaches working directly with migrants to improve their access to employment.

Over the course of the project, ReEntry project partners worked with these target groups to undertake relevant State of the Art research and to use the findings from this research to identify and promote quality best practices in supporting migrants into entrepreneurship from across Europe.

As well as these target groups, the project team also worked with a range of stakeholders in their countries including migrant research organisations and networks, social partners and business support agencies. The end-users of the ReEntry project’s results included migrants and refugees with an interest in becoming self-employed.
The development and implementation activities of this project consortium focussed on the main project resources to be delivered; namely the state of the art research report and the online catalogue of best practice. Through the use of the online catalogue of best practices collected from across Europe, ReEntry aimed to upskill and improve information provision to guidance and VET professionals who work directly with migrants and refugees as career advisors and coaches.

In consultation with these professionals across Europe, the project team undertook the following core project activities;
• Completed a state-of-the-art research process to identify current supports for migrants and refugees;
• Identified and promoted best practice in supporting migrants into entrepreneurship;
• Piloted an online portal with discussion forum for networking and exchange of good practice between professionals and migrants.

Overall, these actions have helped to address the information gap for migrants who would like to start their own business in their host country.

The ReEntry project commenced in September 2016 and ran until February 2018.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 40952,77 Eur

Project Coordinator

MEATH COMMUNITY RURAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP LIMITED & Country: IE

Project Partners

• KTP – Spolecnost pro kvalifikaci na trhu prace
• E-C-C Verein fuer interdisziplinaere Bildung und Beratung
• INTEGRA INSTITUT, Institut za razvoj clovekovih potentialov
• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DO PORTO
• QUALED obcianske zdruzenie pre kvalifikáciu a vzdelávanje