TandEM

The project

TandEM (Towards Empowered Migrant Youth in Southern Europe) is a regional project, funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of the European Union, and implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in partnership with the European University Association (EUA) and the Italian Islamic Religious Community (COREIS). 

Grounded in a network of universities as ideal places to design a youth-led response to discriminatory and toxic narratives on migration, the project promoted dialogue, mutual understanding and cohesion in Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece, Croatia and Cyprus. TandEM has delivered results with significant immediate or potential impact.  Mainly, the initiative actively involved young TCNs and their European peers in the receiving communities of participating countries in building more cohesive societies, relying on communication and peer-to-peer contacts between youth of diverse backgrounds, with an emphasis on the student community as a shared social space.  

This was achieved by: 

• Empowering youths as subjects of migration narratives. Young TCNs and their local peers had the opportunity to shape the discourse on migration and diversity, by designing and participating in a Southern European social media campaign emphasizing youth’s multiple forms of identification, irrespective of their (migrant) background.  
• Mobilizing youth to improve interreligious understanding as a key feature of cohesive societies, by organizing and participating in inter-faith dialogues in educational institutions in the target countries. 
• Improving access to and integration of TCNs into higher education by conducting a comparative cross-country study aimed at understanding TCNs’ access-related needs and identifying operational recommendations to remove barriers.  
• Engaging youth in peer-to-peer support by establishing student mentorship schemes, which aimed to build more inclusive academic communities. The pilot activity was monitored in order to derive lessons learned for possible replication of the schemes, and the findings were distilled into guidelines for future upscaling, considering specifically the potential for transferability of activities across different higher education and national contexts. Results demonstrated that educational communities and local communities benefited in the short and medium term, while entire societies may benefit in the long-term. The engagement of mentees as new mentors in the course of the project duration also testifies to the success of this initiative and its sustainability.  

Being implemented in six Member States, the European added value of this regional initiative stemmed from its strategic geographical coverage. In particular, by adopting a regional perspective, it tried to approach integration under the lens of “inclusion”, highlighting youth’s multiple forms of identification and belonging, irrespective of their (migrant) background.  

The impact of the good practice

A pilot mentorship scheme was successfully implemented in three Universities in Italy, reaching more than 200 TCNs and migrant students enrolled to the University of Pisa, Rome La Sapienza and Naples L’Orientale.  

Structured on a peer to peer approach, the 50 TandEM youth mentors, selected by universities involved, provided foreign students with different kinds of support (administrative, legal, academic and socio-cultural support). Members of the Student Committees organized more than  20  social multicultural events and participated  in  a number of additional  initiatives  and/or  public  debates  to  share  their  experience with  foreign students in the framework of the project, and to promote their activities among civil society organizations. Partnerships with University Institutions were also forged in all project countries, creating a network of 12 Universities in Southern Europe committed to the values of the project.