Bee My Job aims to promote, through beekeeping, professional training and job placement for asylum seekers and refugees. It also promotes social inclusion and active citizenship through environmental and ecological awareness.

Considering the high risk of labour exploitation in the agriculture sector (i.e., the so-called caporalato phenomenon), the project also provides an opportunity for agricultural sector work and training that operates under fair conditions.

Asylum seekers are the main beneficiaries of the project. Participants come from asylum seeker accommodation centres in the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria. Initially, only men took part in the project, but since 2018, women and unaccompanied minors have also gotten involved, as well as people with disabilities and jobseekers over age 50. Since 2019, asylum seekers who arrive via Italy’s humanitarian corridors and ‘Dubliners’ have also been involved in the project. The source of the funding influences the participant profile.

The main activities of Bee My Job are training in beekeeping and helping find job placements for beneficiaries.

Training

The association Cambalache offers vocational training for asylum seekers and refugees through both theoretical and practical modules. The training includes language learning, with attention given to apiculture (beekeeping) terminology. The training also aims to empower migrants in their skills for daily life. The Life Skills Lab explains, for example, how to access public services and manage bureaucratic procedures.

Job placement

Bee My Job has created a national network of employers in the beekeeping sector who are interested in hiring or offering internships to asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection.

Selected beneficiaries are matched with enterprises for internships. Cambalache scouts and selects apiculture enterprises, with attention paid to fair working environments. The enterprises involved in the project are required to respect labour laws and sign an ethics code. 

The project arranges transport to the internship location for participating beneficiaries and helps them find nearby accommodations. Moreover, the project supports the enterprises involved, providing tutoring and intercultural mediation, as well as help with paperwork.

Agricultural products

The project sells honey and other agricultural products produced through its activities.

Awareness

Bee My Job raises awareness about migration and integration. Asylum seekers and refugees are also active in this outreach. Bees are used as a metaphor for migration and the added value of cooperation. The project was also the focus of a documentary film.

Around 140 beneficiaries have participated in the trainings since 2015. The project has initiated around 86 internships. Almost all beneficiaries have found employment, though not always in the agricultural sector.

Bee My Job has expanded from its original location in Alessandria, Piedmont into a network with partnerships in eight Italian regions—Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Puglia and Calabria.

Bee My Job has been recognised as a good practice by various reports and awards, including:

• Selection as a good practice by the European Migration Network – Italy in 2016
• Recipient of the Welcome – Working for Refugee Integration award by UNHCR in 2017

Bee My Job draws on a mix of resources:

• Resources obtained via contracts with public authorities following competitive bids
• Contractual agreements under the framework of the CAS and SPRAR reception and integration systems
• Public and private grants
• Funding from UNHCR (as of 2018)