Empowerment of migrant and refugee women Erasmus Project

Project Title

Empowerment of migrant and refugee women

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Migrants’ issues; Integration of refugees; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

EMIRE (Empowerment of migrant and refugee women) aims to empower women with migrant/refugee background for integration to the labour market and foster social inclusion. EMIRE develops concepts and tools for social workers, employment advisers and volunteers to support the empowerment process enabling women to become self-effective in their own integration process. In addition, a positive perception of women with migration/refugee background in the labour market is supported and thus integration is promoted.

Since 2015, about 800.000 women have come to Europe as a result of the refugee crisis, 44.1% of these are 18-45 years old while half of this stated group is not in employment in the receiving country. The main obstacles for women with migration/refugee background when trying to enter the labour market are: recognition of qualifications and previous professional experiences; lower language skills than men from the same group (common reasons: lower schooling level in the countries of origin, less practice due to lacking social contacts in Europe due to predominant family structures); gender inequality.

For many women, Europe means a realistic chance of building up an own professional identity and adds to obtaining professional qualifications, as only 1/3 of them were in employment before migration. Furthermore, EMIRE helps to reflect on traditional family structures since women with migrant/refugee background mostly migrate with their families and remain in traditional family constellations.

EMIRE addresses two main target groups:
1) Women with migrant/refugee background between 18 and 45 years old who are currently not integrated to the labour market. This age group has high potential of establishing itself on the labour market in the long term and of gaining qualifications.
2) Social workers, employment advisers, consultants and volunteers who work with adult migrants and who accompany women in the integration process.

Both groups are actively involved in the EMIRE’s activities e.g. through participation in local activities, focus groups or training events. Furthermore, they contribute to the development of the project’s intellectual outputs to test and use them lastly.

EMIRE produces 3 intellectual outputs:

IO1 “Video platform: My personal pathway”
In IO1 personal stories of women with migrant/refugee background about e.g. their approaches to find a job, to integrate themselves to the labour market, will be shared. To see and to listen to a personal story has undeniably a different effect on human beings than just receiving this information by looking at data and statistics. By choosing this digital format, content can be shared easily on social media and also women with migrant/refugee background who might mainly be within their families and homes, being therefore rather difficult to reach, will have access to it and can start a self-discoverage and their own empowerment process.

IO2 “Toolkit: Support the creation of a female professional identity through empowerment of migrant or refugee women”
A toolkit for social workers/employment adviser and volunteers who work with women with migrant/refugee background. The toolkit will focus on their practical day to day work. It will especially help with how to handle challenging situations which can occur during the work processes with women with migrant/refugee background. The methodologies will be based on: 1) Theory of resilience 2) Theory of non-violent communication and 3) Theory of Emotional Intelligence.

IO3: “How the empowerment of migrant women will lead to the integration into the labour market”
Policy guideline in form of an interactive eBook especially designed for decision makers at local, national and European level. It builds upon the needs of decision makers and supports the local migrant initiatives when they reach out to decision makers.

The desired impact on women with a migration/refugee background will vary depending on the starting situation of the women when being involved in the project, e.g. whether they live with their family or have come to Europe alone, whether they have professional qualifications etc.

The main expected impact on women includes the following:
1) empowerment
2) ability to build an own professional identity
3) knowledge and awareness of different family structures and the role of women
4) image of women with migrant/refugee background in society will change
5) sensitisation of future female generations

Desired impact on social workers/employment advisers/volunteers:
1) ability to establish a trusting relationship with their clients more quickly
2) increased competencies of stress and emotion management, communication, better understanding of cultural diversity among families and the special role of women in the migrant/refugee group
3) ability to work in diverse cultural environments
4) ability to apply non-formal methods to formal environments to empower women with migrant/refugee background

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 246839 Eur

Project Coordinator

KulturLife gGmbH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• DRUSTVO ZA RAZVIJANJE PROSTOVOLJNEGA DELA NOVO MESTO
• MOBILIZING EXPERTISE AB
• Frontiera Lavoro
• InterAktion – Verein für ein interkulturelles Zusammenleben
• CSI CENTER FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION LTD