Mobile workers contribute significantly to the European economy and their impact increases further once they are empowered to achieve their full potential. However, the European freedom of movement for workers also poses a number of risks to employees. Prevention is required. A network of transnational hubs tailored to reduce mobile workers’ precarity in Europe will be established in Hamburg, Madrid, Sofia and Kiev. With early prevention measures it will support cross-border labour mobility protecting mobile EU citizens and migrants working with regular status in host countries in the EU from exploitation, discrimination and de-qualification.
The hubs will both provide transnational migrant counselling and train highly specialized advisors on the requirements of labour markets in the context of circular migration. A mentor will be assigned to trainees, and they will learn about the latest national and international trends, develop innovative skills, gain practical experience and assist advice seekers. One of their key tasks will be to engage employers with the hub community.
The counselling centres are the flagship initiative of a project funded by the Erasmus + programme and called Transnational Migrant Counselling for Decent Work (TRAM4DW). Under the lead of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg), the project is implemented by a partnership consisting of nine organisations – universities, research centre and NGOs – from five countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
Addressing the Europe-wide shortage of qualified workers in sectors like construction, agriculture or care services, the TRAM4DW project aims at improving the labour and social participation of mobile workers in the EU by building preventive counselling capacities.
Apart from the establishment of transnational hubs, a series of training and networking activities will be carried out for the next three years with special emphasis on the creation of new professional profiles linked to the transnational migrant counselling.
These activities will be hybrid and online advanced seminars, workshops and networking events targeted to migration counselling professionals, employment advisors, social workers, students and academics, employers, representatives of the social and labour authorities and the civil society.
Project Website: www.tram4dw.eu
