Research and reports suggest that refugee and migrant women are crucial facilitators in the societal integration process, and that they are often multipliers in the areas of education and employment and play an important role as agents for the transfer of values, particularly when they have children. The positive impact of migrant women’ employment on the social outcomes of their children is well documented. The 2018 OECD report "Triple Disadvantage? A first overview of the integration of refugee women" highlights that the integration of refugee women tends to be crucial for the integration of refugees’ children, and in turn, the integration of refugee and migrant communities in the long term. There is a strong link between refugees’ employment and their social network, especially contacts with the native-born; but women have far fewer networks than men, and mentorship schemes can help to create and sustain such networks. Within this context, the INFORMER project objectives are: - support the economic and social integration of migrant women - support the capacity of migrant women to interact and feel at ease in their social environment and their participation to social and political life at local level and/ or - support migrant women moving into work and facilitate their sustainable labour market integration In addition, the project aims to: - raise awareness among migrant women of their rights, including access to education and work, participation in social, economic and cultural life, protection against gender based violence and access to justice; - raise awareness among public officials and professionals of specific needs and situation of migrant women in access to services; - facilitate the transfer of experience, knowledge and practices within the partners of the project to develop effective actions; - facilitate the dissemination of experience, knowledge and practices beyond the partners of the project, in particular at local and regional level, to develop more effective action targeting migrant women, including those from vulnerable groups; - improve knowledge on how to better support the social and economic integration of migrant women. The targets groups of the project are: Direct: Refugee, asylum seeker and vulnerable migrant (RAV) women Indirect 1: Long-term, settled and integrated female migrants and refugees Indirect 2: Local/grassroots level NGOs and charities which provide support and services to RAV women Through the five intellectual outputs, the project will produce the following key deliverables: 1. Best Practice Handbook on Social Integration of RAV Women (IO1) 2. The Informer Digital Platform (IO2) 3. Matching Tool for RAV Women and Mentors (Part of IO2) 4. Database of Mentors (Part of IO2) 5. Repository of Best Practices (Part of IO2) 5. Social Integration Mentoring Supporter MOOC (IO3) 6. Intercultural Mentoring and Support Network (IO4) 7. Impact Assessment and Policy Recommendation Report (IO5)
The INFORMER project had numerous objectives which have been achieved: to support the economic and social integration of migrant women, to support the capacity of migrant women to interact and feel at ease in their social environment and their participation to social and political life at local level, to support migrant women moving into work and facilitate their sustainable labour market integration, to raise awareness among migrant women of their rights, including access to education and work, participation in social, economic and cultural life, protection against gender-based violence and access to justice, to raise awareness among public officials and professionals of specific needs and situation of migrant women in access to services, to facilitate the transfer of experience, knowledge and practices within the partners of the project to develop effective actions, to facilitate the dissemination of experience, knowledge and practices beyond the partners of the project, in particular at local and regional level, to develop more effective action targeting migrant women, including those from vulnerable groups and to improve knowledge on how to better support the social and economic integration of migrant women.
The reason the consortium created the concept and aims of the INFORMER project were based on research and reports reviewed at the time which made clear that refugee and migrant women are crucial facilitators in the societal integration process, and that they are often multipliers in the areas of education and employment and play an important role as agents for the transfer of values. The positive impact of migrant women’ employment on the social outcomes of their children is well documented. The 2018 OECD report "Triple Disadvantage? A first overview of the integration of refugee women" highlights that the integration of refugee women tends to be crucial for the integration of refugees’ children, and in turn, the integration of refugee and migrant communities in the long term. There is a strong link between refugees’ employment and their social network, especially contacts with the native-born; but women have far fewer networks than men, and mentorship schemes can help to create and sustain such networks. The relevance of the rationale was actually reinforced by the impact of the pandemic, when lockdown restricted social engagement and made the quality and accessibility of the on-line resources even more important.