Back to search

Seeking a New Life

2025-1-PT02-KA153-YOU-0003000512025Mobility of youth workersfinalized
Countries: PT|IT|ES|BE|TR|HU|UA · Grant: €32,461
Reception and integration of refugees and migrantsEqual access and transition to labour marketKey competences development

Objectives

The Training Course “Seeking a New LIFE” focused primarily on the inclusion of refugee women. Europe experienced a significant movement of incoming refugees and asylum seekers fleeing war, conflict, and persecution in their countries of origin. According to existing studies and research, women did not represent the majority of these flows; however, as they found themselves in particularly vulnerable situations due to their gender, there was a clear need for prompt and concrete intervention to support them. For this reason, gender considerations proved essential in developing and implementing measures and policies aimed at protecting and empowering refugee and asylum-seeking women, enabling them to become active contributors to the host society. To achieve this, their needs were recognised and addressed with reference to their backgrounds, the situations they had escaped from, and the experiences they had undergone during their journeys to the host country. Refugees represented one of the most vulnerable migrant groups within the European Union labour market. Their employment rate stood at 56%, only three percentage points higher than that of family migrants and nine percentage points lower than that of native-born individuals. In addition, one in five economically active refugees was unemployed, one in eight remained unemployed for twelve months or longer, and a significant proportion experienced long-term unemployment of two years or more. These figures suggested that, once unemployed, refugees faced considerable difficulties in re-entering the labour market. On average, it took refugees up to twenty years to reach employment levels comparable to those of the native-born population. During the first five years after arrival, only one in four refugees was employed, representing the lowest rate among all migrant groups. After ten years, their employment rate increased to 56%, yet it still remained below that of native-born individuals in most countries. These outcomes were partly explained by the fact that nearly half of refugees had low levels of education, a substantially higher proportion than that of other migrant groups. The situation also reflected the lower activity rates of refugee women compared to men, 57% versus 77%. Moreover, refugee women recorded the highest unemployment rate among all groups, at 21%, compared with 19% for refugee men and 17% for non-refugee migrant women from outside the EU. As the integration process was still at an early stage and limited information was available regarding the labour market outcomes of refugees, several key questions remained unanswered. Firstly, there was insufficient information concerning the quality of employment available to women asylum seekers or refugees. Their career prospects depended largely on whether their educational and professional backgrounds matched the occupations they held and whether they possessed the necessary skills to integrate sustainably into the labour market. Secondly, overall employment figures masked significant differences between men and women, with refugee women consistently experiencing lower employment rates in many OECD countries. With these challenges in mind, the project entitled “Seeking a New LIFE” aimed: to provide youth workers, particularly those active in NGOs supporting refugee and migrant women, with the knowledge, tools, and instruments required to train refugee women using the LifeComp framework; to raise awareness of the challenges faced by refugee women upon arrival in Europe; to foster more inclusive communities that were open to diversity. During the project, participants were introduced to LifeComp, a conceptual framework describing nine competences (P1–3, S1–3, L1–3) organised into three interconnected areas: personal, social, and learning to learn. Activities based on non-formal educational methods addressed all these competences, focusing on how they could be effectively taught and developed among young refugee women in order to reduce cultural shock upon arrival in a new country and to facilitate their integration into local communities. All activities were delivered through a non-formal learning approach, using participatory methodologies that enabled participants to learn in practical and reflective ways. The project contributed to the development of participants’ skills and knowledge regarding the application of the LifeComp framework to support the integration of refugee women into local communities. Participants also took part in creating a new tool intended for use by other organisations working with refugee women. In doing so, they became active agents for promoting more inclusive, diverse, and supportive communities.

Project partners (7)