AMIF-2016-AG-INTE: INTEGRATION OF THIRD-COUNTRY NATIONALS-Generating Social and Human Capital for Third Country Nationals

MINGLE is an AMIF project that is funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.  

MINGLE aims to facilitate active citizenship by developing social (SC) and human capital (HC) for Third Country Nationals (TCNs) and foster their integration through interventions to min. 500 locals and min. 500 TCNs in 5 countries.

 Reinforcement of HC will be achieved through:

1. Training on horizontal skills, such as language, intercultural communication and social and civic skills.

2. Visits to cultural sites and institutions, and participation in cultural activities, aiming to increase knowledge of the host culture and political trust.

Regarding SC, the project will work on the development of social networks and relationships between TCNs and locals, through innovative interventions:

1. Events (MINGLING experiences) aiming at the discovery of the common humanity of TCNs and locals (representatives of local authorities and others), through sharing stories, objects, games etc. In these events TCNs will meet and bond with locals, thus accumulating SC in the form of networks and personal connections.

2. Mentoring: Locals will be matched with TCNs and mentoring sessions will be implemented, the content of which will be personalised, according to the needs of each mentee. Mentoring has more benefits than merely contributing to the resolution of TCNs’ needs; it leads to a greater openness, a change of mentalities and increase of social trust (for both parties).

The main outputs and deliverables of the project include:

1. Language, social & civic skills, intercultural competence workshops, manuals and training materials

2. MINGLING experiences including a faciliitator’s guide for organizing and delivering the experiences

3. The EMKIT which comprises of an‘Online Interactive Active Citizenship Assesment Tool’, a tool to assess the migrant’s situation in terms of social activity as well as skills and knowledge and a set of activities with guidelines for their implementation by mentors with their mentees in order to reinforce their HC and SC

4. Mentoring sessions including training materials for the mentor’s workshop “Effective Multicultural Communication & Mentoring”

5. The ‘How-to MINGLE’ (HtM) platform an online step by step guide available on an interactive web platform, with information on how to apply the project activities in different contexts. All the resources (training materials, best practices, facilitator’s guide etc) will also be available for download from the platform.

The project involves directly 1000 people, contributing greatly to their intercultural skills and competence, and more importantly providing them with vital resources (SC and HC). Indirectly, all TCNs, local authorities and NGOs supporting TCNs and other stakeholders throughout the EU will potentially benefit, since with the HtM, special efforts have been made for the project activities to be applicable and replicable in different contexts and sustainable in the long term.