Written by Social Hackers Academy
The Social and Cultural Integration of displaced people can be characterised as a dynamic and multifaceted two-way process which requires efforts by all the relevant stakeholders. One key factor of Integration is accessibility to housing, education and labour market participation.
In the big picture, prioritising and ensuring that people with a migration background learn the language, get their educational and professional skills validated/recognised and receive adequate training is essential for their overall integration and positive economic impact in the receiving societies. The empowerment of accessibility of migrant and refugee people, especially from intersectional minorities, proves to be essential for social and cultural integration.
As minors socialise and get in touch with the society through school, offered education and an opportunity to the future as all the other students in a country, the labour market is the key to empowering adult refugees and migrants as well as their families. By empowering their access to the labour market, we mean to create open opportunities for upskilling and reskilling them, build a network between them and the market stakeholders, and policies to ensure they can have a legal contract and decent working conditions. On a second level, in the working environments, it is essential to create an inclusive base so that all SHA’s colleagues are culturally trained.
Talking to the founder of Social Hackers Academy, we found out the common values that led them to participate in the INTEgreat project: “In the beginning, the constant incoming flows of refugees/migrants in Greece increased the need for sustainable solutions in order to rebuild their lives in the host country. SHA chose education as a tool to achieve its mission, as it provides the tools for anyone to develop their potential. More specifically, IT Education can give those people the competitive advantage to find their place in the job market, given the rise of digital transformation. Currently and after the COVID-19 pandemic, SHA changed the model by developing its own e-learning platform and creating a new educational system that allows more people to benefit from the coding/web-development curriculum. The goal is to make with every step more accessible the education, the material and the opportunities for all the marginalised groups in need. One of these steps is INTEgreat, and we feel honored to be part of it.”
INTEgreat project, though, is designed to bring local, national and European-oriented impact at the same time. The European Union states, “The inclusion of people with a migration background in the labour market is key to ensure their effective integration into the host societies and their positive impact on the EU economy; this entails fully using their skills and realising their economic potential.” INTEgreat is a project that aims towards this direction, having realised the local and European values that flow both ways to benefit the vulnerable groups within the refugee population and give back to the European community. Stay tuned because more activities and valuable material are about to come.
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