NEAR project

NEwly ARrived in a common home - NEAR is a two-year project funded by the European Commission under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), relied on a consortium made up of Fondazione Iniziative e Studi sulla Mutietnicità (ISMU, Italy), Tamat NGO (ITALY), Cardet NGO (Cyprus), AidGlobal (Portugal), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy).

NEAR aims at fostering the process of integration of newly arrived migrants (adults and minors) throughout their settlement in the host countries. This project is meant to raise awareness as well as enabling knowledge and cross-cultural transfers between migrants and local communities by using a bottom-up strategy, working on a local level (Lisbon, Nicosia, Perugia and Milan) and with a peer-to-peer approach.

Project website

NEAR

Treasure hunt in the streets of Milan

DISCOVER

Treasure hunt in the streets of Milan

READ THE ARTICLE

Tools for international students

Maps

Tools for international students

Handbook

NEAR will do so by:

TRAINING

Training, to empower community agents - members of diaspora associations - on how to inform newly arrived migrants.

ORIENTATION

Orientation, to support asylum seekers and IP holders in their participation in labor market through orientation, training, agriculture labs.

WORKSHOPS

Workshops, labs, urban tours and events to foster integration of newly arrived minors in compulsory school age.

HANDBOOKS, MAPS

Conventional and unconventional maps, handbook, networking, to provide orientation for newly arrived University students in their access to academic path.

COMMUNICATION

Communication campaign, to promote exchanges and interactions between local communities and newly arrived migrants through maps, treasure hunting, and initiatives built together with NEAR beneficiaries.

DISSEMINATION

Disseminating project’s outcomes and reaching a wider audience (video documentary, website, newsletter, social media, press release).

Project activities in Univeristà Cattolica

To foster newly arrived international students' orientation in Milan and welcome them as active part of the academic community and of their new city, Università Cattolica, through CeSI, CHEI and Area Sviluppo Internazionale, implemented the following activities:

Mapping

Mapping of services and cultural, sport and extracurricular oppportunities offered by the University to international students.

Focus groups

Focus groups with international students already attending Università Cattolica, to identify gathering places, cultrual spots and opportunities in Milan, especially the ones most interesting for the students; these focus groups were also a chance to share the experiences of each student about their first-arrival period in Italy, at Milan and at Università Cattolica, to understand the challenges they faced to get oriented far from home.

Project's deliverables

After these activities, the following deliverable were produced: a handbook on bureaucratic procedures to face when arrived in Italy, also with all the useful information on services and opportunities in Università Cattolica and the tips of international students for those who will come in the next years; a map of services and opportunities in Università Cattolica and a map of opportunities and places of interest in Milan.

The project's deliverables are available here:
MAPS HANDBOOK