Starting and building businesses provides a path for the professional and social integration of immigrants. In host countries, immigrants face obstacles in creating a business, such as difficulties with communication, lack of familiarity with the law or the services related to starting a business and mistrust on the part of suppliers, institutions or customers.

In order to overcome these challenges and facilitate access to existing support for entrepreneurs, ACM and local institutions have implemented the PEI project to focus on the steps that prospective entrepreneurs can or must take to set up a business and on structuring business ideas that are still abstract.

The main goals of PEI are:

• To help immigrants develop an entrepreneurial attitude towards life, promoting self-esteem and self-confidence
• To develop personal, social and managerial competences in immigrant communities
• To increase the number of new companies among immigrant communities
• To link immigrant entrepreneurs to existing entrepreneurship support measures and programmes that have been developed by other public and private organisations
• To promote the formalisation of existing informal businesses

The project is divided into two interdependent areas:

• Training sessions to support immigrants in the creation of their businesses
• Subsequent meetings to implement a business plan

The execution of the project follows four overall steps:

1. All institutions involved in the project promote the project to target audiences.
2. The entities involved in PEI identify the project participants.
3. Courses related to entrepreneurship begin. The lessons are conducted both in groups and as sessions for individuals.
4. Following the course and for those who received a letter of recommendation, participants begin a period of consultancy with a trainer to support the participant in business implementation. The recommendation letter is signed by the trainer and states that the business idea was developed and structured during the course and presents many characteristics that are likely to help the entrepreneur in business implementation.

In parallel, PEI works on the following intersecting areas:

• Empowerment of a training team specialised in entrepreneurship
• Mobilisation and empowerment of partner institutions
• Mobilisation of other key players such as financial institutions, non-profit organisations, as well as state institutions related to business creation

Between 2009 and 2018, 127 courses were developed under ACM's responsibility, reaching 2,161 participants (over 60% were women).

• 63% received a certificate of attendance.
• 22% received a letter of recommendation from PEI trainers.
• 179 business plans were implemented.

PEI has involved 22 different institutions in 16 different municipalities in project implementation.

Participants in the initiative have identified PEI as allowing for the organisation and systematisation of a business idea, showing in a realistic way the efforts that are needed to establish a business.

In 2014, an evaluation report showed that PEI:

• Corresponded to the expectations of most people involved
• Reinforced participants’ skills (personal and social competences and business management)
• Supported the socio-economic integration of the participants
• Supported the fight against unemployment by creating additional jobs

Other conclusions from the report include:

• The characteristics of the participants are crucial to the results achieved.
• The main obstacles in business creation are related to a lack of capital or difficulties in financing and difficulties with bureaucratic procedures.
• The main factors in business failure are related to changes in circumstances, such as a drop in demand and difficulties in obtaining financing.
• One of the report’s conclusions was that PEI could also support people with other backgrounds, recommending extension of the project to other groups.

The target of the project are immigrants who want to implement a business idea. Since 2015, and following the recommendations of the evaluation report, ACM has also implemented this project with specific groups, such as international students (PEPEI) and refugees (REFUJOBS).

The project has been financed by the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), by ACM’s budget and by the European Fund for the Integration of Third Country Nationals (2007-2013).