BACKGROUND

EU-Passworld is a three-year project funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund that aims at designing and piloting education and labour pathways to Belgium, Ireland and Italy. The new programmes will engage receiving communities in providing welcome and settlement support to the displaced students and workers arriving to the three countries.

One of the key premises of EU-Passworld is that a link to community sponsorship can make education and labour pathways more sustainable. Sustainability, often used as a synonym for the capacity to scale pilots into national policies or programmes that “benefit […] all parties involved” and are “financed using funding sources […] available long-term and insulated from changing political or public demands,” is a fundamental question that will determine the future of complementary pathways. To answer it, however, it is important to analyze how each of the stakeholders engaged in these initiatives understands success, as a pathway can only be sustainable if it works for, and is owned by, all the actors who make it happen.

2. OBJECTIVE

By providing a platform to some of the individuals and communities welcoming and supporting the settlement of students and workers in need of international protection around the world (universities, workplaces, local volunteers, faith-based organizations, municipalities), this online discussion will explore how community sponsorship leads to more sustainable education and labour pathways. Some of the speakers will be joined by the displaced students or professionals they have worked with.

The webinar will showcase a wide variety of policy and programme design models in different regions and diverse degrees of engagement on the side of communities, aiming at identifying good practices and drivers of success.

Crucially, community sponsorship will be presented not from the perspective of programme managers and policy-makers, but through the expertise and lived experience of those welcoming and being welcome.

3. AGENDA
   10:00 – 10:05: Welcome & Introduction – Hannah Gregory, Refugee Hub

    

   LABOUR PATHWAYS

   10:05 – 10:20: Skilled Refugee Labour Agreement Pilot (Australia) – Employer Perspective: Karen Bennett, Head of Human Resources, Animal Logic o Community Volunteer Perspective: Julie Moriarty

   10:20 – 10:35: Neighbours for Newcomers (United Kingdom) – Newcomer Worker Perspective: Wissam Assad
   

   10:35 – 10:45: Q&A 
   

    

   EDUCATION PATHWAYS

   10:45 – 11:00: Proyecto Habesha (Mexico) – Community Volunteer Perspective: Shannon Kenny García

   11:00 – 11:15: Refugee Support Programme of the University of Barcelona (Spain) – Newcomer Student Perspective: Pius Bigembe o Local Student Perspective: Mariama Mballo

   11:15 – 11:25: Q&A 

   11:25 – 11:30: Takeaways, Next Steps & Closing  – Hannah Gregory, Refugee Hub