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Description
Entering the local job market of Estonia continues to be difficult for highly qualified and low-skilled refugees alike. During the past year International House has piloted an intervention model – a social enterprise called Köömen (Cumin). Köömen offers refugees a work experience programme to support social and labour-market integration. Köömen earns independent revenue from ethnic food prepared by refugees participating in the programme. The aim of the project is to scale up the intervention model to be available for refugees nation-wide. Our goal is for Estonia to be the first country, where each refugee can start working, find a support network and gain valuable skills already within the first few months, preventing prolonged dependence on social benefits.
The project results in a systemic change and a new innovative integration method that does not depend on project grants and effectively supports refugees’ integration to the labour market and society at large. The target group includes refugees in Estonia and possibly third country new migrants. Project partners are social enterprises Marhaba (Estonia) and Mestringsguiden (Norway) with whom we exchange best practices and co-create an impact measurement tool, which will be distributed for free to other similar initiatives in Europe.