Integration of immigrant and minority groups
Good practice case study
Trinijove Foundation, Spain
Trinijove Foundation in Barcelona has set up two cooperatives in the field of environment to tackle problems of environmental degradation. These cooperatives employ local people from an area with a high immigrant and minority ethnic population. In both co-operatives contracts are agreed with members and the usual period of work with the co-operative is one to two years. The intention is that in this time the workers become rehabilitated and succeed in finding work in other enterprises in the relevant sectors.
Key lessons
- The potential for matching local people to local jobs in the private sector depends partly on a buoyant labour market and the availability of jobs. Where jobs are scarcer, local partnerships often seek to employ local people in public sector projects and services, often creating innovative solutions to fill local service gaps. Such initiatives work best when they are not ‘make work’ schemes, but actually address real service shortages, leading to greater sustainability.
- Local partnerships can be successful in identifying local service gaps that will not be filled by the market, and developing mechanisms for delivering such service while employing local people, particularly migrant populations who have difficulty accessing the formal labour market.
- Social enterprise and cooperative development can be a potential tool for this.
- It is important, however, to offer people routes into the formal labour market.
Case study
Trinijove Foundation [pdf, en, 18kb]
