refugees Archives - LinguaCoP

Growing Language Skills with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

Posted on 12 May 2023 by Frans Oosterholt

For immigrant parents in the United States, lack of English-language proficiency can be a barrier to good jobs, healthcare, education and more. Family-school communication challenges, inadequate educational supports or the lack of quality programs for young, immigrant-background children who are dual language learners may also fuel educational achievement gaps. Social service organizations can support immigrant and refugee families through culturally responsive programs that build on the strengths of the home language while also helping grow English language skills.

What does it take for service organizations to grow home and English language skills with immigrant and refugee families, and what positive results can flow from those efforts? What steps can organizations take to provide accessible and inclusive services to families who speak a language other than English?

You can read this brief on Language Skills and Immigrant and Refugee Families here: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/CSG-Language-Brief.pdf

Image by annemcdon from Pixabay

Creating pathways to employment for immigrants through language learning

Posted on 19 April 2023 by Frans Oosterholt

Thanks to the European Social Fund, the ‘Bremen Integration Qualification’ (BIQ) project provides not only language lessons free of charge for young immigrants in Bremen, five days a week, but also lessons in mathematics and IT, which allow them to improve their maths and computer skills while gaining experience for an apprenticeship. Since the start of the project nearly 900 young immigrants have benefited from these opportunities. Managed by the Red Cross, BIQ is already providing support to young people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Picture: (cc) Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Europe in Bremen

Language barriers and the importance of language learning for refugee and migrant communities in Europe

Posted on 5 February 2023 by Frans Oosterholt

Migrant people often travel to Europe through many countries before reaching their destination. Each country they enter has different cultures and customs, and language plays a major role in facilitating or hindering their journey.

Understanding and being able to communicate in a language allows us to access information and make informed decisions. For thousands of people living in transit and in refugee camps, language barriers are a difficult reality of everyday life. They often rely on information from refugees and friends who have gone through the same experience, especially because local authorities, humanitarian aid workers, and volunteers do not usually speak their languages. Refugees and displaced persons are exposed to more threats to their lives when they do not speak the local language. In some refugee camps, volunteers offer language lessons to bridge the gap left by government institutions that have failed to address the needs and rights of refugees. Generally, they can only get professional linguistic help from interpreters and translators via non-profit organisations and NGOs.

Read the rest of this blog here: https://openculturalcenter.org/language-barriers-and-the-importance-of-language-learning-for-refugee-and-migrant-communities-in-europe/

Open Cultural Center supports migrants and refugees in Spain and Greece by offering free language classes, with the aim to support refugees’ integration and improve their chances of accessing training and employment opportunities.

Lithuania: promoting language learning for faster integration of migrants and refugees

Posted on 17 January 2023 by Frans Oosterholt

n 2021 the framework for Lithuanian language teaching for third-country nationals as well as language-relevant recommendations were introduced. They further emphasise the importance of language learning for the integration of migrants and refugees into society, education and the labour market system.

Ongoing project ’Language learning as part of successful social integration (2020-22)

The project, implemented since August 2020, targets migrants and refugees, as well as Lithuanian language teachers/specialists. By end-2020, 160 migrants and refugees had participated in Lithuanian language courses. Methodological training introducing methods for designing and implementing training courses were organised with the participation of 60 language teachers. The main aim of this project is to provide nationals of third countries the possibility to learn Lithuanian, so that they can be integrated in the education and labour market system more easily. The concept for this project was prepared based on the experience of four other countries (AT, DE, NL and SE).

Read more: ReferNet Lithuania; Cedefop (2022). Lithuania: promoting language learning for faster integration of migrants and refugees. National news on VET

Virtual Exchange supporting teachers of Ukrainian refugees

Posted on 11 January 202311 January 2023 by Ton Koenraad

Another output from the VALIANT community at the #ErasmusPlus VALIANT PROJECT – This time a booklet from the #VirtualExchange supporting teachers of Ukrainian refugees. The document offers a compilation of resources gathered from the guest speakers on the topic. Download link

The OPORA Platform

Posted on 20 December 2022 by Frans Oosterholt

Opora developed and operates an online platform launched in March 2022 using which Ukrainians looking for sponsors can find UK sponsors for the Government Homes for Ukraine scheme, creating a more structured way for the two communities to connect as an alternative to social media whilst allowing Ukrainians retain agency and choice in the process.

The Opora platform is evolving into a support hub for Ukrainians in the UK, offering direct assistance to Ukrainian arrivals from our growing network of partners, from travel, baby supplies and tailored employment opportunities and business grants for long-term sustainable support. Leveraging the platform allows our partners to make tailored offers of support to Ukrainians communities and beneficiaries.