Migrant integration is not new in the European policy agenda. There have been numerous measures passed throughout the years in the field of employment, social affairs, equal opportunities and anti-discrimination explicitly articulating the hope of furthering the integration of immigrants. However, research shows that Government-led supports of immigrant civil society can only achieve a limited increase in civic participation and integration. There are a number of key challenges facing new immigrants in host countries that government led initiatives to date have failed to overcome; including the Information Gap, Network Gap, Political Socialisation and Voter Motivation. Migrant populations are a growing reality in European society today. The ageing of the European population will ensure that net migration flows into Europe will continue apace for many years to come. Successful integration of these migrant communities into civic and political life is essential if a cohesive and inclusive society in Europe is to be achieved. ADMIRE recognises the need for a new approach to migrant integration supports. Central to this new approach is the provision of bespoke training to develop the competences of adult education staff working in this area. To achieve this the project proposes the design, testing and implementation of a new continuous professional development training course for adult education staff that is designed specifically for the purpose outlined and will support the development of key transferable digital skills for adult educators. The reason for our approach is that the ADMIRE project consortium believe that it is on the adult education sector and migrant support NGOs where the real onus for integration lies. While adult education is defined by its versatility, adaptability and widespread accessibility it is often regarded as the poor relation where investment in, and availability of, continuous professional development training supports for people working in the sector is concerned. As a sector, adult education provision is broad and expansive covering every possible conceivable formal, informal and non-formal learning environment and opportunity. Training adult education staff to keep up to date with the latest competence requirements is a real challenge and often more specialized areas for training are ignored. Despite the lack of training available for key staff a lot is still expected of adult education service providers. Working with some of societies most disadvantaged and excluded groups bespoke and targeted training is required if the key role played by adult educators is to achieve the required quality of output. Nowhere is this more evident than in the migrant integration educational arena. ADMIRE also proposes a completely new model for the civic and political engagement of migrant communities that requires the development of a new andragogic approach to education for migrant communities. ADMIRE partners are convinced that men and women drawn from the migrant communities themselves, if appropriately trained and supported, can be a considerable asset to support the work of existing service providers to foster the integration of migrant communities in civic and political life. With this in mind, any new curriculum intervention should afford members of the migrant community the opportunity to participate in the training to be provided. Migrant communities rely heavily on technology and social media as communication channels with distant friends and relations. They also display a high level of dependence on the Internet and social media channels as information sources. These ubiquitous technologies will be integrated into every step of the ADMIRE curriculum development process and will also act as a platform to aid in the dissemination and exploitation of project outputs and results. All education curricula and resources produced by the ADMIRE project team will ensure that adult education staff working in the sector, migrant support workers and migrant communities have the necessary skills to promote empowerment, participation and active citizenship of all migrant community members supporting enhanced social inclusion which is central to the EU policy agenda.
The background of the ADMIRE project relies upon the realization that successful integration of migrant communities into civic and political life is essential for a cohesive and inclusive society in Europe to be achieved. To this end, the project has developed a training program to harness the skills of migrant community experts in the areas of Information Gap, Network Gap, Political Socialisation and Voter Motivation. The reason for the aforementioned choices is that the ADMIRE project consortium believes that it is on the adult education sector and migrant support NGOs where the real onus for integration lies. ADMIRE partners are convinced that men and women drawn from the migrant communities themselves, appropriately trained and supported, are a considerable asset to support the work of existing service providers to foster the integration of migrant communities in civic and political life. With this in mind, the new curriculum intervention has provided members of the migrant community the opportunity to participate in the training to be provided. Migrant communities rely heavily on technology and social media as communication channels with distant friends and relations. They also display a high level of dependence on the Internet and social media channels as information sources. The project's objectives were the following: 1. The development of a Migrant Integration Expert Curriculum 2. The production of a digital toolbox relating to the curriculum 3. The on-line platform with the curriculum and the digital resources 4. The on-line political observatory with information regarding each partner country's political system 5. The scientific paper with the corresponding policy guidelines Each of the above objectives corresponded to an Intellectual Outpout and were fully achieved. The whole material was translated in all partner languages. The project also included an ex ante and ex post internal evaluation conducted by an academic faculty member. The project consortium consisted of the following partners: -The University of the Peloponnese, Greece as the project leader, through the Department of Social and Education Policy - Coopérative d'Activité et d'Emploi dans les Services A la Personne et la Silver Economie (CDE-SAP) from France - Meath Partnership, an NGO from Ireland - The European Learning Center (ELC) , an adult education center from Spain - Oxfam Italia, an NGO from Italy - The Center for Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology (CARDET), a research center from Cyprus The ADMIRE project was disseminated into an wide range of audiences. As the project progressed and the migration issue became a regular topic of discussion in public discourse, external audiences became cognizant of the project. These include: - adult trainers and educators, -migrant support workers, -representatives of organizations working with migrants, -local community members, -expert and professionals, -academic researchers, -policy makers at all levels, -NGOs' staff, -school units and teachers, -civil society practitioners, -asylum seekers, -stakeholders, -disadvantaged persons, -interested individuals as well as the wider public. Finally, the project's impact is evident by the audiences reached (1070 users in the website so far from 10 countries) as well as by the - Interest generated by the Regional Authorities of the Peloponnese, Greece regarding methods to address migration issues - Enrichment of existing post graduate curricula at the University of the Peloponnese with elements from the developed material - Improvement of adult education training material - Helping (directly or indirectly) asylum seekers, disadvantaged persons and vulnerable individuals in general