Have you ever tried to grow a plant from a small seed? Have you noticed how much time, effort and care does it take for a beautiful flower to bloom?

Now, imagine a person that had to leave his/her country for various reasons and has arrived in a completely new environment with new culture and language. Does this case remind you of a seed that has recently been planted in the soil? Although it has a huge potential of growing and enriching nature, insufficient care and neglect may damage and destroy it eventually.

The same is with an foreign-born person. Apart from the emotional baggage of being far away from home, this individual may face a lot of structural obstacles, discrimination on his/her way to building up a new life and integrating into a new society.

Foreign-born women are especially being exposed to unequal access to education and the labor market, the double burden of taking care of the family, and trying to adapt to a new environment simultaneously. Social and cultural norms of the countries of origin and hosting states may also limit their opportunities and benefits. According to the UN Women, the number of women migrants constitutes almost half of the total foreign-born population worldwide (eca.unwomen.org).

We, a group of enthusiastic and passionate people who work for an equal world for everyone, have developed the UPSIM project to tackle some of these problems that women migrants face in their daily lives. Our organizations that are located in five different countries - Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Czech Republic, and France (Guadeloupe), have gathered together to empower foreign-born women, create an equal space where the voices of each individual will be heard and considered. Each of the organizations is specialized in the fields of language acquisition, pedagogy, and didactics, and is active in the field of migrant integration.

Inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 8, which refer to the wellbeing of female migrants and refugees, we aim to develop resources that provide migrant/minority women, residing in the EU, with a suite of tools that enable them to study non-formal competence (learning to learn) and the language skills required to reach educational goals. We are eager to share all our resources with the target groups as well as assist them in the transition phases, by supporting the professionals working with these groups. Our main aim with this project is to detect the needs of the foreign-born women in each country and develop new strategies to foster their integration processes.

The title of the project UPSIM stands for “Upskilling Paths for Social Integration of Migrants”. This title perfectly describes our goals and aspirations for the project. With the different competencies, skills, and knowledge that each of the project members have, we believe in the positive, sustainable change that we can bring. More than that, we strongly believe in the power of migrant women that will be engaged in the project and the cooperation with them, allowing us to see the gaps from their perspectives and look for solutions together.

Now, we would like to ask if you are ready to join us and take care of the new seeds in the soil to grow a beautiful, green garden for future generations?