Supporting the entrepreneurship of people with migrant background in collaboration with the social and business sectors.
Context
Since 2015, migration has risen high on the agendas of governments and development agencies, especially as a response to the large flows of migrants and refugees that have occurred in different parts of the world. In September 2016, governments adopted the New York Declaration, which calls for strengthening international cooperation on migration and forced displacement and for the development and adoption of two collaborative instruments – a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, and a global compact on refugees. Both compacts emphasize the issue of socioeconomic integration of both migrants and refugees, including through support to self-employment and entrepreneurship. They are based on the premise that migrants and refugees can contribute positively to the development of communities back at home or in their new places of residence, provided that their skills, capabilities and entrepreneurial spirit – often acquired in migration – are given sufficient support and recognition.
Objectives
- Supporting the entrepreneurship of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.
- Involving professionals from business and social areas in educational communities as volunteers/mentors for inclusive entrepreneurship.
- Identifying job opportunities for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.
- Designing a digital environment for business incubation and mentoring.
- Developing an application that facilitates the retrieval of financial and legal information by new migrant entrepreneurs.
Activities
- Mapping of entrepreneurial ecosystems in partner countries;
- Designing models for the involvement of volunteers/mentors;
- Organisation of workshops in each partner country to gather strategies for the labour inclusion of migrants;
- Focus groups with NGOs, incubators, and entrepreneurs.
Resources
- Methodological toolkit to recruit professionals from the entrepreneurial world as volunteers/mentors in incubation programmes
- Bank of ideas to identify and collect sustainable strategies for the inclusion of migrant people in the business world
- Digital environment to support sustainable incubation processes
- Application (BETA version) for easier access to financial and legal information by people with a migrant background new to entrepreneurship
- Newsletters
Impact
- Improving entrepreneurship programmes in adult education centres.
- Identification of new social and sustainable business models.
- At least 80 companies, NGOs and public administrations involved in 4 countries.
- 18 new entrepreneurs with a migrant background involved in the testing phase.
- At least 30 people with migrant background involved in 4 countries in the testing of the online platform dedicated to incubation programmes.
- At least 30 new entrepreneurs involved in testing the BETA version of the application.
Partners
- PRO SOCIAL – Pro Social Business e.V. (Germany, coordinator)
- MEATH – MEATH COMMUNITY RURAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP LIMITED (Ireland)
- CESIE (Italy)
- LEARNING WIZARD – Learning Wizard d.o.o.za savjetovanje (Croatia)
- ACV – EMPRESAS CON VALORES (Spain)
- AKMI KATARTISI EKPAIDEYSI ANONYMI ETAIREIA ( Greece)
