InCoMi Project

‘‘Intercultural competencies for professionals working with Migrants ’’ (InCoMi) KA1 project and its connection to VAMOS project

EELI, in cooperation with the organisations Creative Learning Programmes, a tandem partner of the “VAMOS” project, Lothians Regional Equality Council Limited and LINKnet Mentoring in Edinburgh, UK, offered a weeklong training for the project ‘‘Intercultural competencies for professionals working with Migrants” (InCoMi) in August 2021. The training was based on the materials created for previous ERASMUS+ projects of EELI, called “ReInclusion” and “REMINT”. All three projects have aspects that are connected and in close integration with the VAMOS project.

The InCoMi project aimed to improve knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity and help professionals who deal with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and improve their organizations’ delivery of services. Intercultural competencies were the core of the programme, which covered many different aspects, from approaches to use when dealing with foreigners and mediation to conflict management techniques. Participants were presented with different pedagogical approaches when teaching migrants and ways to recognize and understand ambiguity, cultural standards and communication barriers.

The ReInclusion project intended to develop innovative methodologies and tools so that the operators of services of social and work insertion of asylum seekers or holders of International Protection, who carry out their activities in the SPRAR Centers of the Protection System for Asylum Seekers and Refugees. The inclusion of the refugees cannot leave out asylum policies and topics related to international defense, employment and discrimination issues. EELI had partnered with INCOMA for this project and this has helped a lot when it comes to the collaboration in the VAMOS project, as it has been possible to create a partnership for specific competencies and experience in the field in order to guarantee the development of the project and the meeting of its expected goals.

The enhancement of labour integration of experienced migrants and the improvement of the social and labour integration of newcomers was the core of the REMINT project. Through the collaboration with the, now tandem partners of VAMOS project, organizations of Centro Machiavelli and INCOMA, it was possible to promote social inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees, as well as migrants in general. REMINT aimed to share and improve teaching methods based on experiential methods, useful for the improvement of the aforementioned basic and transversal skills of refugees, asylum seekers, and economic migrants.

Through all aforementioned project activities, the transnational cooperation, the sharing of good practices on teaching methodologies, and experiential learning, all four partnerships aim to develop and strengthen the competencies of organizations that are active in the field of migrants’ support and social inclusion. Alongside, our ongoing project VAMOS aims to support the efforts of EU member states to help integrate migrants and refugees into Europe’s education systems and ensure their skills’ development. The innovation that VAMOS project brings, in comparison to previous implemented projects “Re-Inclusion” and “REMINT”, is that VAMOS is tackling this challenge by valorising migrants’ own experience to act as recognized professionals in migrants’ labour and social inclusion. Therefore, VAMOS will have a double goal: to enhance labour integration of experienced migrants and to improve the social and labour integration of newcomers.