Urban GArdens for the social INtegration of migrants Erasmus Project

Project Title

Urban GArdens for the social INtegration of migrants

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

Project Summary

Currently, Europe experiences the by far most extensive wave of migration since the aftermath of the Second World War. According to the latest data available (EUROSTAT, May 2016) a total of 3.8 million people immigrated to one of the EU-28 Member States during 2015, while at least 2.8 million emigrants were reported to have left an EU Member State. On 1 January 2015, the number of people living in the EU-28 who were citizens of non-member countries was 19.8 million while the number of people living in the EU-28 who had been born outside of the EU was 34.3 million.

For instance, for Germany alone, the newly arriving migrants and refugees in 2015 exceeded 1 million people and the number of asylum applicants per million inhabitants is nearly 3.000. The total number of arrivals to Europe by the end of December 2016 has been recorded as 387.739.

Even though the numbers of arrivals have decreased in 2016, we still have to seek permanent solutions to support and facilitate migrants’ and refugees’ integration. In 2015, 40.2% of the non-EU-born population in the EU was assessed to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) compared with 21.7% of the native-born population. The integration would allow migrants and refugees to become economically productive and it would lead to self-reliance, dignity and social interaction.

Socially integrated migrants may represent a resource for the whole society and especially for the labour market of the receiving countries: migrants may be part of the solution to the challenge of ageing and decrease of the European working population.

In this context a fundamental part of the integration process is the professional development of migrants. Career guidance is proven to provide migrant workers with better information, increased self-awareness, self-confidence, motivation and autonomy, increased enrolment in C-VET and general education, higher rates of completion of learning and better understanding of the receiving country’s society and culture (CEDEFOP, 2015).

Intercultural urban gardens have proven to be the perfect context for social integration: they gather natives and immigrants who work the soil together creating a field of learning and change that goes far beyond planting and harvesting garden produce.
UGAIN provide a comprehensive training system that allow promoters of urban gardens initiatives, both ongoing and not yet started, to convert the urban garden in a meeting point for social integration and guidance of migrants.

The primary target group of the project are NGOs, associations, municipalities, local governments involved in, or planning, an urban garden activity.

The training materials and resources we have developed are aimed at training trainers/advisors belonging to such organisations.

In this way, we want to make them able to provide refugees and migrants (especially the low-skilled and low-qualified ones) the basic training and guidance they need for social and labour integration.

The main objectives of the project were:

– To foster the use of urban garden initiatives as a meeting point for social integration and guidance of migrants;
– To share good practices in this domain;
– To provide a common ground for interaction between migrants and the local population thus improving the understanding of the receiving country’s society and culture and fostering an intercultural exchange;
– To improve the employability of migrants and their possibility to access the labour market and the social services of the receiving country thus making possible an effective social integration.

The main project product, which development followed the OER approach, is a web-based Training App compatible both with desktop and mobile devices.

The main elements of the training app are:

– A Summary Report about urban gardens for social integration and guidance of migrants;
– 16 case studies gathering best practices related to social integration activities in a urban garden context;
– Training modules providing the knowledge needed to turn an urban garden into a meeting point for social integration and 5 country information guides for career guidance and access to public services.

The training materials (in English, German, Spanish and Swedish) are available free of charges on the project training platform and are also uploaded on the EPALE resource centre.

The project partners are:

TUM (DE): A University participating with the Chair Economics of Horticulture and Landscaping.
SAEG (DE): The leading German networking platform and research foundation for Intercultural Community Gardens.
OnP (ES): A project managing and project evaluation consulting enterprise.
ACA (ES): An NGO which mission is the welcome and social integration of migrants.
VGP (AT): An association promoting the idea of intercultural community gardens.
FU (SE): An adult education provider.
SF&G (UK): A federation of city farms and community gardens.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 367360,54 Eur

Project Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Asociación Cantabria Acoge
• Gartenpolylog – GärtnerInnen der Welt kooperieren
• On Projects Advising SL
• anstiftung
• FOLKUNIVERSITETET STIFTELSEN VID LUNDS UNIVERSITET
• Social Farms & Gardens