In the past two years, the WEMIN project – Migrant Women Empowerment and Integration has implemented a large number of local activities and achieved significant results in the integration of women into their new communities and countries of residence. In order to celebrate the end of the WEMIN experience and its results, an international conference was organized in Athens, Greece on December 8th and 9th.
During its two years of life, the project partners worked relentlessly to improve the lives of the migrant and refugee women (MRW) that were beneficiaries of the projects, through the organization of workshops, trainings, awareness campaigns; and the development of a digital “Learning Platform" aiming to help MRW to find information for a better and faster integration, promote peer learning and networking, which will continue to be operational even after the end of the project.
The conference was academically oriented and saw the presence of key speakers from different organizations and institutions that were either directly or indirectly involved in the project such as the European University Institute, DIOTIMA-Center for Research on Women’s Issues, UNHCR, National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), OXFAM Italy.
The main aim of the event, in addition to the detailed presentation of the results of the WEMIN project, was to explore the gender aspect of migration with reference to Europe today, with a focus on gender-based migration and what it means for education, policy-making and justice. It was also an opportunity to present the WEMIN booklet, which collects the stories of WEMIN beneficiaries narrated by the MRW themselves: these serve as an insightful mirror on their struggles with integration and facing new realities, but also on the new opportunities they were given also thanks to the WEMIN project.
All in all, the conference gave useful insight from the academic world on the current situation that migrant and refugee women face once they arrive in Europe. The importance of projects such as WEMIN is far-reaching, especially considering that in 2019 more than half of the migrants moving to Europe were female (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs).
In the past two years, the WEMIN project – Migrant Women Empowerment and Integration has implemented a large number of local activities and achieved significant results in the integration of women into their new communities and countries of residence. In order to celebrate the end of the WEMIN experience and its results, an international conference was organized in Athens, Greece on December 8th and 9th.
During its two years of life, the project partners worked relentlessly to improve the lives of the migrant and refugee women (MRW) that were beneficiaries of the projects, through the organization of workshops, trainings, awareness campaigns; and the development of a digital “Learning Platform" aiming to help MRW to find information for a better and faster integration, promote peer learning and networking, which will continue to be operational even after the end of the project.
The conference was academically oriented and saw the presence of key speakers from different organizations and institutions that were either directly or indirectly involved in the project such as the European University Institute, DIOTIMA-Center for Research on Women’s Issues, UNHCR, National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), OXFAM Italy.
The main aim of the event, in addition to the detailed presentation of the results of the WEMIN project, was to explore the gender aspect of migration with reference to Europe today, with a focus on gender-based migration and what it means for education, policy-making and justice. It was also an opportunity to present the WEMIN booklet, which collects the stories of WEMIN beneficiaries narrated by the MRW themselves: these serve as an insightful mirror on their struggles with integration and facing new realities, but also on the new opportunities they were given also thanks to the WEMIN project.
All in all, the conference gave useful insight from the academic world on the current situation that migrant and refugee women face once they arrive in Europe. The importance of projects such as WEMIN is far-reaching, especially considering that in 2019 more than half of the migrants moving to Europe were female (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs).