NEAR is a two-year project funded by the European Commission under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), relied on a consortium made up of Iniziative e StudisullaMutietnicità (ISMU, Italy), Tamat NGO (ITALY), Cardet NGO (Cyprus), AidGlobal (Portugal), UCDC (Italy).

NEAR aims at fostering the process of integration of newly arrived migrants (adults and minors) throughout their settlement in the host countries.

This project is meant to raise awareness as well as enabling knowledge and cross-cultural transfers between migrants and local communities by using a bottom-up strategy, working on a local level (Lisbon, Nicosia, Perugia and Milan).

NEAR will do so by:

• empowering community agents – members of diaspora associations – on how to inform newly arrived migrants >> training
• supporting asylum seekers and IP holders in their participation in labor market >> orientation, training, agriculture labs
• fostering integration of newly arrived minors in compulsory school age >> workshops, labs, urban tours, events
• providing orientation for newly arrived University students in their access to academic path >> conventional and unconventional maps, handbook, networking
• promoting exchanges and interactions between local communities and newly arrived migrants through a communication campaign (maps, treasure hunting), built together with NEAR beneficiaries
• disseminating project’s outcomes and reaching a wider audience (video documentary, website, newsletter, social media, press release)

Strategy/Methodology

•  working on a local level (Lisbon, Nicosia, Perugia and Milan)
•  employing a botton-up approach
•  peer-to peer strategy