Enhancing the work of migrants in Italian companies: DIMICOME project
As part of its task to promote local economies and support the business system, Unioncamere has focused in recent years on the issue of migrants. In the face of an increasingly significant immigrant presence in the Italian workforce, both in terms of employees and entrepreneurs, Unioncamere’s engagement and direct promotion of initiatives and projects aimed at their enhancement and work integration has intensified.
An example is "DIMICOME (Diversity Management and Integration: the skills of migrants in the labor market), a project promoted by ISMU Foundation (Initiatives and Studies on Multiethnicity) and funded by FAMI (Asylum, Migration, Integration Fund), in which Unioncamere participated from 2018 to 2022, together with Piemonte Agency for Internationalization Scpa (Ceipiemonte), University of Verona, Mondinsieme Intercultural Center, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Casa di Carità Arti e Mestieri Onlus Foundation, Francesco Realmonte Onlus Association.
The project captures a crucial aspect of inclusion policies: diversity management in Italian companies. The purpose of DIMICOME was, in fact, to identify companies familiar with enhancing the involvement of migrants in the workforce, mapping existing diversity management practices in business contexts (in particular, in business models combining inclusiveness and competitiveness), promoting training and capacity building activities in companies wishing to strengthen the role of migrant personnel in the production cycle, and disseminating good practices, tools and procedures specifically implemented within the project.
Thanks to its widespread outreach, Unioncamere has been able to provide an important contribution in finding best practices in the regions covered by the survey (Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Puglia), identifying companies willing to undergo a training course aimed at reinforcing diversity management strategies and disseminating project activities and results.
Among the points covered by the project that provide elements of reflection, enhancement of skills is fundamental, an area on which Unioncamere is strongly committed, through the certification of skills acquired in informal and non-formal paths. The project has emphasised soft skills, in particular those related to a migratory background and dual status, on the issue of their identification and assessment in business contexts, through management mechanisms able to optimize them.
Finally, the issue of implementing in our companies diversity management as a catalyst for a new business culture remains topical, in the belief that inclusion and enhancement and developing of skills can be strategic levers for corporate competitiveness.
Further details on:
https://www.unioncamere.gov.it/promozione-e-assistenza-alle-imprese/progetto-dimicome
