The European Commission recently published a call under the EaSi programme (PROGRESS axis) for “Fast track integration into the labour market for third country nationals targeting exclusively asylum seekers, refugees and their family members.” The call aims at funding innovative transnational projects to test and implement innovative policy schemes and delivery mechanisms that will ensure and facilitate a swift labour market integration of the specific target groups of third country nationals, namely asylum seekers, refugees and their family members. Specific measures targeting the labour market integration of migrant women will be considered favourably.
Eligibility criteria:
- The lead applicant must be a public body (such as national, regional and local authorities or public employment services)
- Co-applicant organisations must be public bodies, for-profit or non-profit-making private entities, or international organisations
- Consortium: Proposals must involve an international consortium made of at least 4 organisations (1 lead applicant + 3 co-applicants) with at least one established in an EU Member States and in principle at least one of the organisations in one of the programme candidate countries
Objectives of the call:
- To promote the development and testing of innovative and effective mechanisms to ensure fast-track integration into the labour market;
- To develop sustainable multi-level partnerships models conducive towards the integration of the targeted groups into the labour market;
- To foster knowledge and experience sharing between different Member States of already functioning swift and successful insertion mechanisms into the labour market of the targeted groups, with a strong emphasis on the challenges faced by women.
The total budget earmarked for the EU co-financing of projects under this call is estimated at EUR 14.200.000. The Commission expects to fund approximately 5 to 7 proposals.
Co-financing rate: 80 %
Submission deadline is March 30, 2017
Rapid labour market integration is key to successful integration in the receiving society. It is therefore important to promote good practices allowing the target groups to integrate quickly into the labour market, matching the labour market needs of the hosting countries, while equipping the target groups with the necessary skills to ensure their integration into the labour market and society more broadly. The inclusion of the gender dimension through an integrated approach responding to the specific needs of migrant women must be taken into account in the applications.
Eurodiaconia secretariat provides its members with a background on the wider EU context on migration and offers a space for discussion on the question of inter-faith dialogue in addressing migration, as well as a conversation on the relationship between church and diaconia on the topic of migration.
Please, check out the website of the call for more detailed information (EN-DE-FR).
For further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Florian at florian.tuder@eurodiaconia.org