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Valuing diversity: guidance for labour market integration of migrants

To achieve these targets, guidance services must account for the difficulties
and barriers which affect migrant communities from third countries: difficulties in
accessing clear information about recognition of qualifications, work regulations,
housing, health systems, and training; limited cultural connections with the
receiving cultures and weak social networks, especially in countries where
immigration is a recent phenomenon; tendency for youth disengagement from
education and training among the less qualified groups; lower labour market
outcomes than natives, especially for women; tendency to be employed in jobs
with considerably lower requirements than their effective skills.
Guidance services allow immigrants to acquire basic skills, knowledge of the
receiving country culture, language and institutions, and easy access to health,
education and training as well as to social support systems. Guidance activities
also allow employment services to help arriving individuals create realistic
expectations about local labour market demand.
They also play a role in supporting recognition of foreign qualifications and
validation of prior non-formal learning. This allows for a better signalling of
immigrant skills, increasing the opportunities for firms to find those they require,
the odds of individuals finding work conditions and earning wages comparable
with nationals in similar work situations.
Guidance can also help training providers to plan and target the offer of
programmes and qualifications made available for immigrants. This is possible if
the information resulting from the identification of client group characteristics and
the assessment of individuals’ needs is fed (in an ethical manner) into education
and training.
These services can promote a steady path to individual autonomy and
progressive immigrant community empowerment if they provide different degrees
of support for different stages and aspects of their integration. We can picture
potential guidance support to migrants in a continuum that departs from initial
contact with the receiving culture aiming at the development of a solid set of
skills, attitudes and self-awareness that allow for autonomous career planning
within their new context.
Prominent members and associations in immigrant communities can
cooperate with public sector guidance activities. This type of cooperation leads to
a better voicing of the needs and concerns of immigrants and contributes to
capacity building in communities. The role models successful members of
migrant communities provide can help prevent educational disengagement and
stimulate the development of entrepreneurial activities.

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