On December 6, in Brussels, was held the final event of the project. The conference brought together project partners, civil society representatives, policy and decision-makers to discuss the challenges to the integration of third-country nationals as well as to showcase good practices from Ploutos for building stronger and inclusive communities.
An AMIF-funded initiative that gathers a consortium of 11 partners from 7 EU member states, PLOUTOS aims to support migrants and promote social and financial inclusion throughout Europe. The conference offered an opportunity to present the project outputs, among them a business language course, a financial literacy course, a practice business program and an online support platform for would-be entrepreneurs.
Ekaterina Yordanova, a municipal councilor in Sofia Municipality and a chairperson of the Governing Board of SDA, was an invited speaker in the panel focused on policies and strategies for integrations. In her presentation, she emphasized the challenges that local authorities – and not just in Sofia – face in designing meaningful, resource-backed pathways for integration: a dynamic process of migration that makes long-term planning difficult, changing political priorities at EU and national levels, financial constraints to implement wide-scale integration measures, and shifting public support to local initiatives. At the same time, she also stressed that integration is a multisectoral issue and requires a multi-stakeholder approach and constant communication to society, to convey the benefits of integrating migrant talents in the local economy.
Anna Zurek from the European Investment Bank shared similar insights; she focused on EIB’s current work for introducing financial instruments for the integration of migrants, in three key areas: microfinancing, housing and social impact investing. Establishing one-stop-shops to support the coordination of such initiatives and the offer of business development services to migrants is a good practice, Zurek said. Sofia is proud to have established the first in Bulgaria such one-stop-shop, a bureau for integration and information to third country nationals.
Though PLOUTOS comes to an end, we at SDA will continue to collaborate with Sofia Municipality and local organizations to support integration initiatives. The resources created in PLOUTOS will enrich the database of knowledge, good practices, learning and training resources that we have gathered over the past five years, working on integration. Supporting the migrant communities in Sofia is an essential part of ensuring that we live in an open and inclusive society, built on dialogue and shared values.
PLOUTOS is implemented with the support of the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.
