One of the four common EU objectives of the Education and training 2020 (ET 2020) framework to address challenges in education and training systems by 2020 is to enhance creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training.The recent refugee’s wave has brought over one million refugees to Europe, and the influx will continue also in the years to come. Apart from political questions concerning the distribution of refugees and asylum seekers, the most urgent aspects are their integration into our societand their employment. A refugee entrepreneur, like any entrepreneur, brings many potential benefits to their host community. First of all, an entrepreneur creates at least one job for her-/himself. In addition they can employ other refugees and/or host country nationals. The kind of businesses opened by refugees often reflect innovative solutions to local problems and are therefore more effective at addressing the needs of specific target groups than large, donor-driven programmes. Having a (social) enterprise can also help to create normality in a difficult surrounding. Providing familiar food or wedding dresses not only brings employment, but also ways to unite communities, preserve traditions and a sense of normality. Overall, it can be said that entrepreneurship improves the psychological well-being of individuals and the overall atmosphere.Becoming an entrepreneur is always a challenge and often not the most obvious choice for a refugee. He/she needs, above all, information provision, networking (with both other refugees/migrants and members of the host community), mentoring, training, and finally also investment and funding. All of these are equally relevant in the refugee context.Therefore, the overall objective of our strategic partnership is to provide an overview about projects, initiatives and methods which support and facilitate refugee entrepreneurship.In order to reach this objective, the specific objectives are• to implement an e-platform with access to initiatives and learning information materials that have been identified and collected in the course of the project, especially concerning market conditions, policies and administrational settings, entrepreneurship skills and initiatives, the mind-set, skills and knowledge to generate creative ideas; and finally about support programmes for immigrant entrepreneurs; • to summarize the findings in a “Catalogue for Immigrant Entrepreneurs” that will give an overview about the current situation of the specific project environment in the partners’ countries, and present the initiatives, projects and materials with explanations in all languages of the partnership; • to implement also an online interactive forum for networking, exchange of experience and good practice that makes use of Skype’s real-time translation in 8 spoken and 50 written languages, thus breaking down language barriers between users from different countries, and supporting ideas, foster exchange and assist initiatives that build both livelihoods and a sense of normality.The project fits into the common underlying strategy of the partners insofar that the identification and selection of initiatives, materials and approaches for intercultural communication is in line with their operational strategies; and it will provide solutions to the needs of the associated public sector partners.
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.