Despite the polarization in public and policy debates generated by the post-2014 fluxes of refugees, asylum applicants and migrants, European countries need to work out an evidence-based way to deal with migration and asylum rather than a prejudice-based one. The proposed project, SIRIUS, builds on a multi-dimensional conceptual framework in which host country or political-institutional, societal and individual-related conditions function either as enablers or as barriers to migrants’, refugees’ and asylum seekers’ integration via the labour market. SIRIUS has three main objectives: A descriptive objective: To provide systematic evidence on post-2014 migrants, refugees and asylum applicants especially women and young people and their potential for labour market employment and, more broadly, social integration. An explanatory objective: To advance knowledge on the complexity of labour market integration for post-2014 migrants, refugees and asylum applicants, and to explore their integration potential by looking into their spatial distribution (in relation to the distribution of labour demand across the labour market), while taking into account labour market characteristics and needs in different country and socio-economic contexts. A prescriptive objective: To advance a theoretical framework for an inclusive integration agenda, outlining an optimal mix of policy pathways for labour market integration including concrete steps that Member States and other European countries along with the EU can take to ensure that migrant-integration policies and the broader system of workforce-development, training, and employment programmes support new arrivals’ access to decent work opportunities and working conditions. SIRIUS has a mixed methods approach and innovative dissemination plan involving online priority action networks, film essays, festival, job fair and an applied game along with scientific and policy dialogue workshops and conferences.

"Third-country nationals’ (TCNs') employment rates remain below the average of host country citizens in most Member States, according to Eurostat News Release 110/2016 (2016). Entrepreneurship is identified as a tool for the social inclusion of TCNs in the Action Plan on the Integration of Third Country Nationals (European Commission, COM(2016) 377 final). In the Action Plan the European Commission encourages Member States to promote ""entrepreneurship through tailored business training and mentoring and by opening up to third country nationals mainstream entrepreneurship support structures"" (page 11). Our project focuses on the social inclusion of TCNs through entrepreneurship education. We will target 50 local youths and 50 TCNs from five different countries (aged from 17-30), for a total of 100 youths reached. The project will last 18 months and will be implemented among the below partners: Lead applicant: People for Change Foundation (Malta) Partners: AEQUITAS Ltd (Cyprus); SolidarityNow (Greece); Asociacion Llere (Spain); Centro Studi Formazione Orientamento (Italy) Our project objectives are: -Compiling research on the needs of young entrepreneurs and resources available in each participating country -Promoting youth entrepreneurship as a means of gainful employment -Promoting the social inclusion of TCN youths in five different countries To achieve these we will be undertaking research in each of our countries on the needs of young people (including TCNs) when it comes to entrepreneurship assistance and also the resources available for young people wishing to start their business (including registration process, how to manage a business, accessing external funding, etc). We will then compile a training course on business management for youths based on this research, and develop training resources needed to give this training. The training is envisaged as a mix of both formal and informal activities, to keep it interesting for youths, particularly vulnerable youths such as TCNs. At the end of the training participants will receive a certificate of completion. At the end of the project we will have a national multiplier event in each country with stakeholders; youth workers, youth organisations and decision-makers in the field of youth and entrepreneurship. We will also invite the youths who undertook the training to participate and address the attendees to express their opinions on the training and what they think needs to be done nationally to promote youth entrepreneurship, including to TCNs. A networking lunch is foreseen at the end of each multiplier event to promote networking among stakeholders on the topics relevant to this project. The project will result in: -125 hours of training on business management for youths -100 youths from 5 different countries receiving training -2 intellectual outputs including research, training and learning resources -5 multiplier events reaching 125 representatives from key stakeholders We also foresee the below intangible results: -Promotion of entrepreneurial spirit among youths in all five countries included in the project -Contribution to a reduction in youth unemployment -Entrepreneurial skills for youths -Enhanced possibilities for social inclusion of TCN youths and other youths with fewer opportunities"

"From June 2019 to June 2021 The “Not Alone in Europe” project pursues the double aim of educating and training youth workers who are meeting young LGBTQ+ migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Initially, “Not Alone in Europe” will offer a train-the-trainer course for youth workers meeting young LGBTQ+ migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in order to make them more confident with intersectional approaches in their work and how to include LGBTQ+ perspectives in their work. The aim of the train-the-trainer course is to enable the participants to implement the “Not alone in Europe” workshops in their own cities. This will ultimately result in the creation of a network for support and visibility for young LGBTQ+migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. In order to further disseminate the educational tools, a supporting online platform will be established.Objectives 1. To empower, engage, inspire and support young LGBTQI+ migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in European countries. 2. To develop training competencies and support youth workers, educators, community mediators and social workers who are meeting young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers on how to better include intersectionality and LGBTQI+ perspectives in their activities.3. To generate synergies for networking and cooperation strategies among youth organisations working with young refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in Europe.4. To create innovative youth work and intersectional methodological tools that can be disseminated to associated partners and other organisations in order to share the outputs and experiences of the project.Target groups1. Youth workers, educators, community mediators, ​and social workers in Europe who are working with young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and want to become ""Not alone in Europe"" workshop leaders.2. Young LGBTQI+ migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (YLMRA) in Europe. Expected results 1. Thirty-four practitioners and YLMRA have developed training competencies in the Capacity Building (train-the-trainer course) as a certified multiplier of the ""Not Alone in Europe"" workshop. 2. Fourteen Multiplier events taking place in each partner country and 140 YLMRA reached by ""Not Alone in Europe Workshop"".3. Intellectual Output on Intersectionality in youth work produced and​ ready to disseminate to the rest of the multiplier network and others.4. Synergies for networking and cooperation strategy among the youth organisations working with young refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in Europe.ActivitiesPreparation1) ""Not Alone in Europe"" workshop for LGBTQI+ youth, train-the-trainer course for multipliers and create online tools for sharing documents and ongoing communication and follow-up webinars. Training activity2 ) Arrange disseminate ​train-the-trainer course. The venue​for the training course will be provided by RFSL Ungdom as co-founders​ of the project. Multiplier events3 ) The trainers from the partner organisations are carrying out the “Not alone in Europe” workshops in their cities, two workshops per organisation/country. The first workshop will be arranged by the whole coordinator group in one of the countries. Training activity4 ) Innovation development training activity with exchange and evaluation of practices, and develop the Intellectual output with partners.Methodology and Methods:The course will take a Non-Formal education methodology, working methods will be varied and interactive in order to ensure a balance between theory and practice. The participants will be introduced to ​discourse and terms (LGBTQI+) that will be used in order to meet participants learning preferences and the training learning objectives.Opportunities:-Increase in Social Inclusion-Increase in Public Awareness-An increase of Youth Independence-An increase of LGBTQ+ Knowledge-An increase of Education for Youth Workers-Rich resources of information, Methods"

REWIP: Refugee empowerment and work integration programme, is an Erasmus+ “Strategic Partnership for youth” project that aims to foster the inclusion and employability of young refugees by building their competences, supporting their socio-educational and personal development and enhancing their participation in civic and work life through the creation of employability bridges with the host society. The project also aims to promote quality youth work and particularly support youth work organisations in developing and sharing effective methods in reaching out to young migrants and refugees. The idea behind this project lies in the fewer opportunities that newly arrived young refugees have for entering the labour market and integrating effectively in the host societies (Rambaree, Berg & Thomson, 2017). A wide range of different factors makes the road to the job market lengthy and difficult. Such factors relate to the difficulties they face in navigating to the system of the host country, the lack of sufficient knowledge of the job market, little professional experience and intercultural differences and the most important lack of relevant social networks. As a result, young refugees spent a long period out of work (and in some cases out of education), which makes their potential to find a work even harder. In this context, REWIP aims to transform this crucial but “unexploited” period that young refugees look for work, into a substantial opportunity for developing their competences and create networks and contacts that will enable them to enter the job market more quickly. The project aims to achieve this goal not only by providing support, training and guidance but also well granted opportunities to connect with the local ecosystem. Particularly, the project will develop an innovative action based “Refugee empowerment and work integration programme” that will have at its core the development of volunteering and internship opportunities for connecting young refugees with the local communities and the local labor market. By participating in volunteering and internship placements young refugees will increase their employability potential by practicing their skills and developing new ones; they will gain professional experience, build contacts and networks with local citizens and organisations and learn more quickly the language of the host country and understand national systems, culture and history and thus participate more effectively in the local community. The project will be implemented in Greece, Italy and the Netherlands and will involve directly 300 young refugees as the main beneficiaries of the REWIP activities. The choice of the countries was not done by chance since the participating organisations wanted to emphasize on the cross-national analysis and research regarding the professional inclusion of young refugees not all in the Mediterranean refugee receiving countries (Greece 46,381 and Italy 147,302 received refugees in 2016 according to World Bank) but also in Northern countries such as the Netherlands (101,702 received refugees in 2016 according to World Bank) where the strategies adopted by the stakeholders of the country seem to be more evolved and more individualized in comparison with the Southern Europe. In relation to youth work organisations, significant results are foreseen since the project will improve the knowledge and capacities of youth workers in fostering labour inclusion of refugees. In qualitative terms, the project will improve the capacities of at least 30 youth workers that will be directly involved in the project activities and of at least 200 that will be reached through international trainings and exploitation activities. Finally, it should be highlighted that the project has a strong innovation potential that lies in its intersectoral approach and high applicability. In particular, REWIP creates a unique opportunity to enforce labor market integration efforts by offering a digital tool and a flexible methodology that can be applicable by the different sectors of the economy. In particular, REWIP could be exploited by other youth work organizations and by relevant public authorities as a complementary way to labor market integration which can improve both the capacities and the performance of youth work organizations and competent public agencies in the specific domain.

„Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples.“ (Ernesto Che Guevara) About 60 million people are currently refuging all over the world. They flee from war, political, religious and sexual persecution, hunger, nature catastrophes, risks due to climate change … Only after hundreds of thousands of people – particularly war refugees from Syria and the Arabic republics – started their way via the “Balkan route” to Europe, the subject “refugees” has been moving into the entire social focus and needs urgently a European solution. Even more, if we do not want to leave the field to the (right-wing) demagogues. However, a European solution requires transnational co-operation. According to the Geneva Convention for Refugees, each refugee has a free and unhindered access to courts, is free in the choice of his religion, shall receive access to lessons or studies, to medical treatment, social security and a passport and must not be discriminated in searching for a flat and a job. This means nothing else than the right for and the duty of integration, particularly for the refugees who have a perspective to stay in Europe. The challenges in the social integration of refugees are often the same. However, according researches that we did in advance of our project together with our partners showed that the biggest challenge is their integration into the labour market. According to that, the biggest thresholds are:- language barriers- psychological limits due to traumatic refuge experiences- generally difficult labour market situation (BG, ES, IT, TR)- work placement linked with a permanent address (HU)- labour market requirements strongly focussed on formal qualifications (DE, ES)- missing proofs for or non-recognition of Vocational Trainings or University degrees- decreasing employability due to a professional inactivity during the asylum procedure.This is completed by - cultural differences, different religions, diverging understanding of values- expectations, fears, prejudices and nescience – both of refugees and the majority- formalities, bureaucracy, duration of registration and asylum procedures The recording, assessing and recognition of competences relating to the integration of refugees in vocational training and employment is indispensable because with that they obtain tools for their professional orientation, career planning and increasing of their employability. Apart from the validation of competences, there is the need for additional basic integration offers that need to take effect after the recognition of asylum applications latest, such as language, alphabetisation and integration courses.This exactly was the starting point of our project! In the 16 months project duration, the partners from Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Turkey examined which integration offers are provided and successfully used in their countries.Besides, the partners detected what needs to be considered in the validation of the competences of refugees and which instruments are appropriate for the target group in order to make a quick integration in vocational training or employment possible. Last but not least, it was analysed in the frame of the Strategic Partnership how integration offers that are proven in practise depend on each other, which stakeholders need to be involved and in how far the offers obtain a European transfer potential. Refugees WelComB! aimed at: - analysing the actual situation of the social integration, particularly their integration in vocational training and employment through targeted researches, surveys and interviews with refugees in the partner countries- detecting how the competences of refugees are validated, if the French model of Competence Balance meets the special needs of refugees and how it must be modified for this purpose- identifying best practise examples with potential of European transfer- determining together with refugees, refugee organisations, experts and stakeholders the most urgent needs for action that can be covered with existing resources and targeted activities in the frame of European projects The results were recorded in a project booklet.