MIGREMPOWER: Itineraries and resources for migrants and refugees’ empowerment and integration Erasmus Project

Project Title

MIGREMPOWER: Itineraries and resources for migrants and refugees’ empowerment and integration

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: Inclusion – equity; Integration of refugees; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

Migration and asylum seekers represent nowadays a great challenge for the whole Europe, where the migrants’ integration and refugees’ flow have become topic of a lively debate across the enlarged Europe. The “MigrEmpower: Itineraries and resources for migrants and refugees’ empowerment and integration” project, was aimed to contribute to migrants/refugees’ social and labour integration in the hosting societies, involving 8 partner organizations from 6 EU countries: Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Germany, Austria and France. These 8 organizations attempted to promote equal opportunities and social inclusion by designing the MigrEmpower itinerary, a 3-phase path embodying intervention tools for orientation, assessment of competences, self-evaluation and empowerment aimed at promoting migrants and/or refugees’ integration, making them immediately usable by professionals and social workers. More in concrete, as a starting point for the MigrEmpower itinerary, a Study on integration policies and good practices (IO1) was elaborated by partners, offering the insights of the state-of-the-art of migrants and refugees both at European and partner countries level, selected Good Practices of social and labour integration and policy recommendations. On the basis of the carried out research, the MigrEmpower itinerary was designed by partners encompassing 3 phases: 1) the Orientation and Counselling phase (IO2), focused on participants’ first needs analysis, self-evaluation and balance of competences and qualifications; 2) the Training Package (IO3), with five modules in relation to the subjects of Computer Literacy, Linguistic Literacy, Citizenship and Social Skills, Communication and Personal Brand and Self-Employment; 3) the Guidelines for Employment Support (IO4), focused on the organization of meetings with local employers, networking sessions and other employment supporting activities addressed to improve participants’ employability and entrepreneurship. The itinerary was tested by project partners in the 6 EU countries during the 2nd project year by involving a total of 342 participants and 26 professionals. Evaluation activities demonstrated that participants benefitted from the itinerary, as they gained knowledge and information about local labour markets and job search strategies, improved or acquired key skills such as communication and language, empathy, solidarity, tolerance, creativity, open-mindedness, a sense of respect, equality and diversity through interculturality, dialogue, exchanges, informal moments and debates, gaining self-confidence and motivation. The successful piloting of the itinerary demonstrated that social and labour integration paths for migrants/refugees are possible: this requests a strong commitment and responsibility of all entities involved: policy makers, administrations, bodies/services working with these beneficiaries, employers, etc. Moreover, the itinerary has been considered as useful path for professionals as it provides a framework and tools that can be applied to all kinds of local and personal circumstances, thanks to its openness and high degree of flexibility. As well, by undertaking the piloting phase, partner organizations’ staff members and professionals working with migrants/refugees could enrich their knowledge and competences, acquiring new skills for supporting the beneficiaries, finally expanding their local networks in the sector. Through accurate dissemination and exploitation campaigns carried out through the production and distribution of brochure, 4 newsletters, creation of the project web page, a Facebook page and LinkedIn group, 2 press releases, organization of 6 final conferences in each partner country, publication of articles and participation in related events, a total number of 190,431 stakeholders was reached. Project sustainability is ensured by the adoption of the created tools in partners’ and stakeholders’ daily work, as the project Outputs can be part of future activities related to education and training of migrants/refugees, or be adapted and used to meet migrants/refugees’ needs as well as other disadvantaged groups around Europe, thanks to the high flexibility of the MigrEmpower methodology.
The MigrEmpower materials are available in English, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek and French and freely accessible and downloadable from the project web site (www.migrempower.eu).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 284763 Eur

Project Coordinator

RED 2 RED CONSULTORES SL & Country: ES

Project Partners

• SUDWIND VEREIN FUR ENTWICKLUNGSPOLITIK UND GLOBALE GERECHTIGKEIT
• FUNDACION ACCION CONTRA EL HAMBRE
• WISAMAR BILDUNGSGESELLSCHAFT GEMEINNUTZIGE GMBH
• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET
• Associazione Nuovi Lavori
• Cooperativa Sociale San saturnino onlus
• ASSOCIATION MIGRATION SOLIDARITE & ECHANGE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT