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Valuing diversity: guidance for labour market integration of migrants

systems and legal procedures is frequently insufficient; the training does not
necessarily follow a standardised structure, so it is difficult to identify the actual
skills of multicultural practitioners; training of practitioners is frequently associated
with their previous professional experience with migrant publics and was
developed in an ad-hoc manner.
Some countries have invested strongly in the past in this type of training but
are now phasing it out and giving preference to cost-reducing coordination
arrangements. The Netherlands is an example of disinvestment in this kind of
training due the limitation of financial resources. Other countries, such as Italy
and Greece, are now developing counsellors’ multicultural skills. Greece reports
on a multiplier model designed to disseminate multicultural training
methodologies effectively and quickly and with adaption to the specificities of the
client groups found in the country (see case studies).
Migrants’ CMS are also developed in training and educational contexts,
which raises the question of how to guarantee the skills of other professionals
than counsellors. This problem, more related to career education than to career
counselling, has been tackled in different ways, depending on the strategy to
integrate CMS development in curriculums. In the Czech Republic, Estonia and
Sweden, an infusion strategy was followed by integrating career development
themes in the context of other subject courses. This carries consequences for the
training of teachers.
On a broader system level, both counsellor and teacher/trainer multicultural
training are a part of the principle that sees integration as a two-way process
between the immigrant and the receiving society (CBP 1). In practice, all
administrative levels responsible for the integration of immigrants – including
management – should undergo minimum training on the characteristics and
needs of migrant groups. Some interesting practices on this level have been
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developed by the Council of Europe in the youth policy field ( ), such as the
compass and domino initiatives.

4.6. Synthesis of system-level discussion points

In this chapter, we have reflected on important aspects of immigration and
integration systems across Europe, discussing how lifelong guidance policy

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( ) See, for example, the compass initiative: http://eycb.coe.int/compass/ [accessed
3.4.2014].

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