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Valuing diversity: guidance for labour market integration of migrants

education or active employment measures), guidance activities are not well
monitored and assessed. The governance and outcomes of guidance for
integration have, consequently, weak accountability which, in its turn, generates
equally weak arguments for continuity and resource allocation.
The generation of an evidence-base of comparative practices, clearly
describing the operation and cost-effectiveness of activities, is fundamental for
the sustainability of practices. The EU-funded European migration network has
taken first steps in this direction, creating a database of practices shared by
promoters across Europe. In spite of its value, the level of information in this
database does not allow for rigorous comparative assessment of the efficacy of
practices (especially on the reporting of outcomes). The European lifelong
guidance policy network is also taking steps towards generating an evidence
base of guidance practices.
A number of countries have reportedly developed tools to monitor the
outcomes of guidance activities (Denmark Germany Greece, Hungary, Portugal).
These monitoring systems tend, nevertheless, to have a narrow sector focus,
normally in education or employment policy fields. They also tend not to register
cultural backgrounds of individuals and their parents and do not account for
contextual variables which might affect outcomes, such as the individual’s social
networks and local poverty levels.
A well-developed quality assurance system is the Danish one, which
attempts to capture objective outcomes of guidance processes, such as effects
on transition rates, dropout rates, economic benefits and civil participation. The
system is coupled with a careful register of user characteristics and the follow-up
is guaranteed by monitoring contacts and good integration of information systems
between educational, training and social support. In spite of its good
organisation, the Danish evidence base strongly focuses on youth and the
education/training system.
In the United Kingdom, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has been
showing greater and more consistent concern for this matter, by assessing
integration barriers and migrants’ needs in a progressively more structured
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manner with a clear concern for the comparability of data ( ). Due to the
concentration of immigration in the London area, the GLA has responsibility for
the integration of most of the immigrant labour in the United Kingdom.

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( ) http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor-assembly/london-assembly/publications/tailor-
made-improving-adult-careers-services-in-London [accessed 3.4.2014].

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