Aiming to foster migrants and refugees’ integration to the labour market and society through linguistic integration and following the successful dissemination of the Council of Europe Linguistic Integration for Adult Migrant (LIAM) toolkit in 2018-19-20, Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network of Schools, implemented the project ‘LIAM Labour Linguistic Integration 2021 (LiLaLI 2021)’. The project aimed to address the challenging work environment for the migrant population, with the goal to protect human rights in a democratic state governed by the rule of law, by developing and piloting a Language Support Guide for Work, a proposed 58th tool for the LIAM Toolkit.
Migrant and refugee workers’ legal and economic vulnerability makes them subject to exploitation, a situation caused by and further aggravating the undermining of respect for and enforcement of decent work conditions and standards in national labour markets. Moreover, the implementation of EU laws is lacking hugely in many countries, who thus do not necessarily guarantee equality of treatment and non-discrimination for non-citizens in the workforce. In addition, the scarcity of primary communication skills in the second language (L2) is significantly responsible for the prolonged and rising unemployment of migrants and refugees in Europe.
This Tool aims to aid migrants and refugees in Greece to acquaint themselves with the primary objectives of the employment/labour legislation and the working life conditions of the country they reside in. The Tool also provides tailor-made solutions for their job-oriented language support. It has been piloted with migrants and refugees, as well as evaluated by migrant and refugee communities and experts working in the field.
Symbiosis organised in September a two-day induction webinar aiming to raise educators’/participants’ awareness and knowledge. Educators working in the migrant-refuge field created a working group under the leadership and mentoring of our expert and trainer. In October, the team created two questionnaires for language training support and fundamental labour rights, which outcome is the basis of the prototype scenarios. In November, a face-to-face dissemination/evaluation/validation Seminar took place in Athens. The working group presented its work to representatives from migrant communities and experienced educators in order to evaluate the thematic structure, the material, and the efficacy of the teaching scenarios, following the presentation of the questionnaires’ results.
