The MiCare project strongly encourages migrant women's integration into the job market. According to the European Economic and Social Committee, participating in the labour market is one of the most effective and practical ways of integrating migrant women into society. On the other hand, the EU researches shows that migrant women represent an untapped and under-utilised source of skills, and that their potential is not fully exploited. The gap between the share of employed non-EU-28-born women and native women is 8 percentage points larger than the gap among men. Data confirms that migrant women face double disadvantage as as both migrants and women. They often have limited language proficiency and do not benefit as frequently from skills assessment, re-training measures and other integration programmes. Moreover the recent arrival of large refugee populations in Europe adds to the urgency of integrating migrant woman, who receive less integration support than men, both in terms of language training and active labour market measures. Cedefop Skills Panorama highlighted that caregivers will be called to respond to opportunities for new services that an older society will create. There is a rising need of such soft skills as: communication skills, active listening, clear speaking, tact, empathy and negotiation skills. Personal carers will also need observation skills to check physical and mental health on a daily basis, and the “ability to follow set rules" in order to avoid potential risks for the older people. The MiCare project focuses on the empowerment of female migrants as well as their integration into the labour market. Project's comprehensive approach fosters the access to employment, including training and assessment of (formal and informal) skills. Health care, services to families and domestic work - these sectors are considered as an opportunity to integrate migrant women in the labour market by policy makers. The current demographic trend implies that more and more older people will need assistance and home care to facilitate their life during the day, to keep them company or to help them in life inside and outside the home. What is most needed is training professionals who take care of older people at home. These professionals require as any others specific training as a caregiver on the fundamental aspects of assistance, such as day-to-day support (meal preparation, shopping, cooking, cleaning, going to external appointments, etc.) and active ageing support (good health routines, physical and social activities, etc.). On the other hand, it is also important that those professionals own the necessary soft skills to develop their job – especially considering that the most of them come from foreign countries, with a different culture, language, habits, etc. Households are a particular workplace and the personal contact with the older person is a key factor. Moreover, as a matter of fact, the migrant workers have sometimes a limited knowledge about the country, language and culture they are hosted in, mainly as regards specific situations linked to home care and home employment. In this context, the project intends to pursue the following objectives and activities: • Development of a European benchmark research to understand how migrant home caregivers are provided with basic and personal skills • Identification of the needs of migrant caregivers, especially those who just arrived in a foreign country and require some basic training to start working • Recognition of the elder’s needs: which are the challenges that families usually face as regards day-to-day support and soft skills? For instance, in terms of language skills, cultural knowledge, personal capacities, home management (meal preparation, shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry care, personal and hygiene support), but also empathy, creation of mutual trust, communication, listening skills, etc. • Facilitation of the migrant workers integration in the hosting country by upskilling their hard and soft skills related to homecare, helping them to find an employment in the Personal and Household Service sector • Recognition of workers’ skills and competencies with self-evaluation tools – and also the self-recognition of their skills and capacities, as well as professionalisation • Development and adaptation of learning modules to improve workers’ homecare hard and soft skills • Meeting the French National priorities about “development of competences (transversal and key competences) and prevention of illiteracy”. The MiCare project meets the Council Recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning: "Europe should address the challenges in implementing competence-oriented training and learning. Supporting people across Europe in gaining the skills and competences needed for personal fulfilment, health, employability and social inclusion helps to strengthen Europe’s resilience in a time of rapid and profound change".
L’idée sous-jacente à MiCare était de proposer un projet gagnant-gagnant : 1. En s’adressant aux femmes migrantes car il a été démontré que le fait d’être femme et issue de la migration sont deux facteurs qui se cumulent et peuvent expliquer des difficultés d’intégration, à la fois professionnelles, mais aussi sociales. MiCare a été conçu avec l’ambition de proposer des outils pour améliorer la reconnaissance et l’insertion professionnelle des femmes issues de la migration dans le secteur des PHS, et plus spécifiquement pour celles qui souhaiteraient travailler en tant que professionnelles de l’accompagnement auprès des personnes âgées. Le projet propose un ensemble d’outils spécifiquement adaptés à leurs besoins. Par effet de levier, MiCare souhaite les aider à s’insérer davantage dans la société. 2. En améliorant la qualité des soins apportés aux personnes âgées en Europe, en accompagnant la montée en compétences des salariés et futurs salariés qui travaillent à leurs côtés. Les métiers de l’aide aux personnes âgées nécessitent en effet la maitrise d’un ensemble de compétences et connaissances spécifiques, à la fois techniques et transversales.
Le secteur des soins aux familles et aux ménages (« PHS », Personal and household service sector) regroupe plus de 9 millions de travailleurs (chiffre CE) en Europe. C’est un secteur en pleine mutation en raison de l’évolution démographique et de la tendance confirmée du vieillissement de la population, qui nécessite l’adaptation des services de soins dans tous les pays membres. On observe également une évolution des souhaits des ménages, avec une volonté accrue du maintien à domicile pour les personnes âgées. En parallèle, le secteur PHS est caractérisé par la présence marquée de travailleurs migrants – on estime que 20 % des travailleurs du secteur (chiffre OCDE) sont issus de la migration, et ces chiffres ne concernent que les données officielles. Le projet MiCare a été déposé avant la pandémie de COVID 19 qui a eu un effet accélérateur sur cette tendance. Le secteur des PHS est par ailleurs très féminisé, avec un taux de 91% de femmes en moyenne (chiffre EFFE). MiCare souhaite répondre à un double enjeu : accompagner l’évolution des besoins des personnes âgées en Ue, et répondre aux besoins spécifiques des femmes issues de la migration qui travaillent comme professionnelles du secteur PHS, ou souhaiteraient l’intégrer.