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Valuing diversity: guidance for labour market integration of migrants

can be consulted in the background document to this report on the Cedefop
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website ( ).

5.1.1. Case study practices: objectives
Most of the practices in the analysed case studies have the general objective of
supporting immigrant integration through upgrading technical skills and CMS.
This can be coupled with the intention to validate skills and recognise foreign
qualifications, as it occurs, for instance, in the case of the professional insertion
offices in Portugal and the ‘Orientatión formativa y laboral’ in Spain. Validation
and recognition activities may also be associated with projects aimed at specific
groups with previous work experience, as is often the case of immigrant adult
women (see PiA Frankfurt).
The programmes aimed at all immigrant groups may exist in the context of a
compulsory set of measures applied to all recently arrived third-country citizens,
as in the Estonian adaptation programme. Although such compulsory
programmes are becoming increasingly common in the EU, most of the cases
selected for this study concern voluntary enrolment for two reasons: these
programmes tend to have a very similar structure, with minor modifications
across countries; and obligation frequently is attached to the legal status of
immigrants, which reduces access to the programmes.
The legal status may justify the definition of specific objectives for others
apart from illegal migrants: refugees and asylum seekers. This is the case of the
Centre for the Validation of Occupational Skills in Sweden, born from the need to
certify quickly the knowledge and skills of undocumented refugees and asylum
seekers.
General and holistic projects/programmes may, nevertheless, have
objectives for subgroups such as women, youth and the low-qualified, as in the
case of the ‘meeting point’ in Austria, which has different activities for each
group.
Other identified objectives include training of experts, counsellors,
community leaders/representatives and other professionals in knowledge of other
cultures and multicultural methods, and the provision of information to immigrants
in several languages via specialised websites (as in the migrant integration portal
in Italy).

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( ) Further information: http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/about-
cedefop/projects/lifelong-guidance/index.aspx [accessed 3.4.2014].

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