See me in – Social Entrepreneurship as an Enabling environment for Migrants’ Employment and INtegration
Project Focus
The SEE ME IN project (Interreg Central Europe) aims to strengthen the integration and employment of migrants in Central Europe. It focuses on promoting and supporting social entrepreneurship led by migrants, thereby contributing to their financial security and independence. The project identifies and analyzes barriers, builds a supportive environment for the growth of such enterprises, and fosters social cohesion. A key activity is the development of B2B support to boost the competitiveness of migrant-led businesses.
SASS project team
- Project manager: Prof. Dr. Matej Makarovič
- Team member: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tea Golob
- Communication manager: Assist. Prof. Dr. Janja Mikulan
- Financial manager: Mag. Jasmina Jakomin
Short Project Description
The School of Advanced Social Studies (SASS) is a partner in the project “Social Entrepreneurship as an Enabling environment for Migrants’ Employment and INtegration – SEE ME IN”. The project involves ten partners from five Central European countries (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and Germany) and is funded by the EU Cohesion Fund through the Interreg Central Europe programme, which supports transnational cooperation and fosters activities aimed at improving the functioning of cities and regions in Central Europe.
The core idea of the “SEE ME IN” project is to strengthen the integration of migrants in Central Europe, primarily by ensuring financially secure and independent migrant-led businesses, and to stimulate social innovation in urban centers. Migrants represent a significant group of entrepreneurs, but they often face specific legal, cultural, and linguistic barriers in their operations. Therefore, the main objective of the project is to promote migrant-led businesses and contribute to their increased responsibility and competitiveness in the market. Another important dimension of the project is enhanced social cohesion.
In order to achieve these goals, the project partners will carry out the following activities:
- context analysis to enhance knowledge about entrepreneurship among migrants;
- designing a supportive environment that will contribute to the growth of migrant entrepreneurship;
- a pilot project to evaluate the support provided to such enterprises;
- supporting the development of a “B2B” dimension between migrant-led and other businesses.
As a higher education and research institution, SASS is responsible for coordinating Work Package 1, which includes the context analysis. These activities will involve: identifying existing businesses (core sectors, number of employees, etc.); analyzing training needs; and analyzing networking and integration capacities.
- Official project website: https://programme2014-20.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/SEE-ME-IN.html
- Lead partner: Fondazione Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
Last week, Milan hosted the final event of the successfully implemented SEE ME IN project, which focused on multicultural entrepreneurship. Prof. Dr. Matej Makarovič and Assist. Prof. Dr. Janja Mikulan attended the event on behalf of SASS. During the meeting, the partners finalized the concluding project activities. The final day featured the event MULTICULTURAL ENTERPRISES: SHAPING A VISION FOR THE CITIES OF TOMORROW, which consisted of three panel discussions. One of the panels, focusing on platforms for innovative ecosystems, was moderated by Prof. Makarovič.
Today marks the conclusion of the fourth reporting period of the Interreg SEE ME IN project, in which SASS participates as a project partner. Throughout this period, the project consortium carried out numerous activities. The partners, including SASS, dedicated most of their attention to developing an online multicultural hub. This online hub will offer multicultural enterprises in Central Europe a space for networking, business success tips, country-specific market information, details on business tools, and online courses.
On 11 February 2021, SASS hosted an online workshop titled “Secrets of Effective Sales” via the Zoom platform. The workshop was led by Dr. Andrej Kovačič, a consultant for Slovenian and international companies. He introduced the participants to advanced sales techniques, strategies for improving the overall customer experience, and methods for increasing turnover through customer loyalty and referrals.