Municipality/Region

Catalonia, Spain

Summary

The Government of Catalonia’s Programa de Reincorporació al Treball (PRT) aimed to improve the training and the labour market insertion of immigrants whose status had become irregular, immigrants who went through a family reunification process and asylum seekers. The programme had three modules—language training, occupational training and an internship in a company—that prepared people to access the labour market under better conditions and aimed to help people escape the vulnerability that comes with facing irregularity in their status.

Areas of integration covered by practice

• Integration of migrants in the labour market
• Undocumented migrants

Background and purpose

The economic crisis had a tremendous impact on people of foreign origin, who were particularly affected by unemployment. Many people were consequently at risk of losing their residence and work permit, even though they had held legal status for years. With adequate information and training, they could improve their chances of renewing their permits, which also reduced their risk of vulnerability.

Additionally, the number of newcomers arriving in Catalonia through family reunification has increased considerably in the last few years. Therefore, PRT also aimed to help migrants who had come to Catalonia through family reunification to gain autonomy so that they could be less dependent on other family members. This also makes families less vulnerable in periods of economic downturn.

Timeframe

The first edition of PRT was implemented in 2007, and it continued until the end of 2018.

How does it work?

The Secretariat for Equality, Migration and Citizenship selected different organisations to carry out the project through a tender process. The organisations designed a training plan that included the following modules:

• Catalan Language module: This module consisted of 45 hours of general language training, 15 hours of knowledge about Catalan Society and legal framework and 5 hours of language training specifically directed at the relevant labour market sector. This module was organised together with the Consortium for Linguistic Normalisation, which was responsible for implementing the classes.
• Labour training module in labour-intensive sectors: The number of hours of training depended on the training specialty chosen by the entity that conducted the training.
• Internship module: The labour sector and number of hours of the internship depended on each project. The internship did not constitute a ‘labour relationship’ with the participants.

The selected organisations were responsible for choosing the participants they wanted to train. The participants needed to attend at least 75% of all training hours.

The organisation monitored all the participants throughout the programme. Moreover, the organisations were responsible for offering legal advice related to migration issues to the companies that wished to hire one of the participants.

Results and evaluation

Since 2007, 3,651 people have participated in this programme, out of which 2,740 passed the course. The labour market insertion rate of the people who completed the course is about 30%.

Funding

This programme was financed entirely by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia), with an annual budget of approximately €350,000.