Enter: The Hub

What is it?

 

Enter to Transform set up a supportive structure for recognized refugees with entrepreneurial experience and ambitions in Ireland, Germany, France and the Netherlands, and increased the guidance capacity of the institutions that support them.

Four hubs were set up, one in each country, over a period of three years. We supported starting entrepreneurs through the phases stand-up, start-up and scale-up, with a focus on four sectors: health care, arts & artisanship, ICT services and trade.

The project was based on action research: during the first year designed and tested various interventions in France, which will be rolled out and tested in other national contexts during the second year.

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The Hubs functioned as door-openers to the existing entrepreneurial infrastructure. The Hubs are be physical and virtual meeting places for refugee-entrepreneurs and the supporting community: a space for encounters, for conversations which spark new ideas. Furthermore, the Hubs will offer support and mentoring on e.g. financing, business and market awareness, intercultural awareness and collaboration. 

Integration as a two-way process

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Researchers and implementing organisations were involved in the four countries, with The World Makers Foundation and Newest Art Organization in the Netherlands. 

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​A Project by The World Makers Foundation

​Community by Design is a project with the World Makers. The World Makers is a foundation I set up in 2019 together with Atusa Lalizadeh and fashion designer Karim Adduchi. The aim of the foundation was to support refugee and migrant artisans in their work, connect them with local designers and provide a platform for them.

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A lot of our work was informed by the principles of processwork. Instead of looking at migrants and refugees as people who need to be 'integrated', where some corners are sanded down and the lacking parts are enhanced, we see them as people with unique skills they have brought with them. Our job is to angle the project in such a way that it will fit the skills of the participants, to appreciate what they can do and instead of ignoring that, and only teaching them how things work in The Netherlands.