In an article written on La Repubblica of 31 March by Professors Tito Boeri and Roberto Perotti (Bocconi University) the FORWORK project was mentioned as a successful initiative for the labor market integration of asylum seekers. The project can provide useful lessons to address the challenge of integrating Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war. The article (in Italian) can be read at this link.
The report shortly describes recent immigration of asylum seekers to Albania and its reception system.
It then focuses on the FORWORK activities implemented in Albania.
Firstly, it summarizes evidence collected through a survey administered between June and October 2019 in the National Reception Center for Refugees and Asylum seekers in Tirana. The aim of the survey was to collect information on key demographics, skills, social and labour market integration, life plans, and access to services of asylum seekers.
Finally, it focuses on FORWORK integration activities implemented with a group of 30 asylum seekers hosted in the National Reception Center in Tirana.
The report can be downloaded and this link.
The “FORWORK Italy – Impact evaluation report” provides information about the impacts produced by the FORWORK intervention in Italy.
The evaluation design consisted of a large-scale randomized controlled trial, whereby eligibility to FORWORK was randomized across a large experimental sample of emergency reception centers (Centri di Accoglienza Straordinaria, CAS). The evaluation sample was drawn in September 2019 and consisted of 1,262 individuals, randomized into two statistically equivalent groups: an eligible group of 622 individuals, in 133 CAS and 29 managing entities; and a control group of 640 individuals, in 131 CAS and 29 managing entities.
We evaluated the impact of FORWORK on employment and other measures of integration using three main sources of data: registries of asylum seekers hosted in CAS; administrative records on employment histories from the PES informative system (Sistema Informativo Piemonte Lavoro, SILP); and baseline and endline surveys.
FORWORK beneficiaries joined the program over about 20 months, from December 2019 through July 2021. The average take-up rate of the program was 66%.
FORWORK increased the employment rate of participants by 15 percentage points. The effects on employment were slightly larger in magnitude for male than for female participants (+17 and +13 percentage points, respectively), but the relative effect over the baseline was larger for females than for males.
FORWORK had a positive effect on proficiency in Italian language – on understanding and speaking the language in particular, while there are no significant effects on reading and writing.
FORWORK also affected the social networks of participants, in particular connections and interpersonal trust with Italian people.
The report can be downloaded and this link.
This report describes how FORWORK activities were implemented in Italy.
Chapter 1 gives an overview of the program, and discusses on how the Covid pandemic affected the design and implementation of project activities.
Chapter 2 provides evidence on the number of FORWORK beneficiaries, the take up rates of the different project activities and the geographical distributions of beneficiaries.
Chapter 3 includes a detailed description of all delivered services (mentoring, profiling with the EU-Skills Profile Tool, placement services and internships, cultural linguistic mediation, language and civic education courses, vocational training, recognition of prior learning). It also provides a qualitative assessment of each service, based on feedback received from FORWORK partners and operators involved in the project implementation.
The report can be downloaded at this link.
Stories from FORWORK
The video presents some interviews to several beneficiaries of the project FORWORK Italia. Good vision!
Please, find below all the materials presented at the final event of the project FORWORK, held at the International Training Center ILO in Turin on 28th September 2021.
Presentations are in Italian.
Presentations
Streaming
Please, find below the direct links to the YouTube channel of the Fondazione Ing. Debenedetti, among the partners of the project, for the vision of the conference and of the interviews of some of the participants. Good vision!
Moderator: Dr Elona Bano
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 14:00-14:10 | Registration of participants | ANPAL, ITCILO |
| 14:10-14:15 | Welcome speech | Dr. Esmeralda Hasani (Project Coordinator for the Albanian consortium) |
| 14:15-14:30 | Policies and Projects Impact for the asylum seekers | Mr. Andi Mahila (Deputy Minister of Ministry of Interior) |
| 14:30-14:40 | Forwork – Fostering Opportunities of Refugee Workers – A wider vision of the project results | Ms. Valeria Scalmato (Project Manager of the project – ANPAL) |
| 14:40-15:00 | Presentation of standards and curricula | Dr. Ejvis Gishti (Director of National Agency for Education, Vocational Training and Qualifications) |
| 15:00-15:20 | Aims and Activities | Dr. Esmeralda Hasani (Forwork Project Coordinator for the Albanian Partners – Executive Director of Adriapol Institute) |
| 15:20-15:30 | The contribution of civil society | Mr. Amarildo Ceka (Country Coordinator – Germin) |
| 15:30-16:30 | Afterhours – Finger food and Beverage @ETNO Restorant |
Date: 23rd September 2021
Time: 14:00 to 16:30 (CEST time)
Albanian and English (simultaneous interpretation)
Registration will be open to all people interested through the above registration form.
FORWORK aimed at developing, implementing, and evaluating innovative paths to effective integration of asylum seekers and refugees in the labour market. The beneficiaries, hosted in reception centres in Piedmont (Italy) and Albania, were offered mentoring, language courses, vocational training, and support in identifying their skills and looking for a job. In Italy, the FORWORK project specifically targeted asylum seekers hosted in extraordinary reception centres (CAS), who are legally entitled to work but have very limited access to services aimed at labour market integration. The implementation of the project, with 8 partner institutions and 4 associate organizations, took place between January 2018 and September 2021. With the end of the activities, it is time to present the results of the project, evaluate its impact, and discuss what the policy lessons for the labour market and social integration of asylum seekers are.
| Orario | Sessione | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00-9:15 | Registration | |
| 9:30-9:50 | Welcome remarks | Raffaele Ieva (ANPAL), Federica Deyme (APL), Miriam Boudraa (ITC ILO) |
| 9:50-10:15 | Conference opening a FORWORK Project – Fostering Opportunities of Refugee Workers FORWORK Project Video | Miriam Toplanska (EU Commission – DG EMP)
Valeria Scalmato (ANPAL) |
| 10:15-11:00 | FORWORK – The Piedmont experience in supporting asylum seeker
Tailor-made support and skill enhancement Reconnaissance des Acquis and Job Coaching to reactivate empowerment processes Companies and mediators: a key role in job insertion processes | a Miranda Andreazza (APL) Giovanna Gangarossa (Inforcoop Ecipa Piemonte) Deana Panzarino (Exar Social Value Solutions) |
| 11:00-11:15 | FORWORK – The Albania experience in supporting asylum seeker | a a Esmeralda Hasani (Adriapol, Smart and Creative development) |
| 11:15-11:30 | Coffee break | |
| 11:30-12:00 | The impact evaluation of FORWORK Italy | Giovanni Abbiati, Erich Battistin, Paola Monti and Paolo Pinotti (Rodolfo Debenedetti Foundation) |
| 12:00-13:15 | Round table
What policies can support the social and labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees? | a
Tito Boeri (Bocconi University and fRDB), Donatella Giunti (Prefecture of Turin), Massimo Gnone (UNHCR), Stefania Maselli (Central Service of SAI), Maria Perino (University of Eastern Piedmont “A. Avogadro”), Corrado Giustiniani (Journalist, writer, blogger for L’Espresso) |
| 13:15-13:30 | Concluding remarks | Stefania Congia (Ministry of Labour and Social Policies – DG for Immigration and Integration Policies) |
| Light lunch |
a
Date: 28th September 2021
Time: 9:00 to 13:30 (CEST time)
Italian and English (simultaneous interpretation)
Registration will be open to all people interested through the above registration form.
Fostering Opportunities of Refugee Workers (FORWORK) is a pilot project aimed at the labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees hosted in reception centers (CAS) in Piedmont (Italy) and Albania. Under this project, ITCILO identified 10 and functioning practices of labour market integration of refugees and asylum seekers from other EU countries, including institutional approaches for multi-partner engagement in programme and service delivery.
Under the scope of this exercise, functioning practices are understood as “successful initiatives or model projects that make an outstanding, sustainable, and innovative contribution to the issue at hand”. Based on criteria such as effectiveness, innovation, sustainability and potential of replicability, 6 outstanding functioning practices were systematized and will be presented in the share fair event organized by the ITCILO.
An on-line webinar will be conducted aiming at encouraging participants to reflect on existing practices implemented to foster the socio-economic integration of refugees and asylum seekers into the EU labour market. Participants who have been engaged with effective and innovative practices will have the chance to share knowledge acquired in the implementation and also to list the strategies used to overcome some of the challenges.
Objectives:
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 14:00-14:15 | Welcome words | ANPAL, ITCILO |
| 14:15-15:15 | Economic integration processes: challenges and opportunities | ILO expert |
| 15:15-15:30 | Break | |
| 15:30-17:00 | Discussion of EU functioning practices | Representatives from EU cases |
Date: 8th September 2021
Time: 14:00 to 17:00 (CET time)
Venue: On-line
English and Italian (simultaneous interpretation)
Registration will be open to all people interested through the above registration form.
Fostering Opportunities of Refugee Workers
This project has received financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation "EaSI" (2014- 2020)