This article is based on a selection of the findings and insights emerging from “DIVERSE,” diversity improvement as a viable enrichment resource for society and economy, a research-project realized with the aim of contributing to “reinvent” the European migrants’ integration model, in order to sustain both the positive interethnic coexistence and the long-term development of European societies. Implemented from January 2014 to June 2015 in 10 EU countries – Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden –, characterized by very different migration experiences, the project had identified three major levers to maximize migrants’ potential contribution: (1) enhancing the recognition of migrants’ skills, knowledge and competences (here after: SKC); (2) promoting the awareness of the advantages provided by the implementation of diversity management (here after DM) practices; (3) improving migrants’ civic and voluntary involvement. After a presentation of the theoretical premises on which the project was based (Sections 1–2) and the description of the project activities (Section 3), the article will focus on both the major impacts and the critical insights emerged in relation of each lever (Section 4); finally, it will develop some policy implications in order to make these levers crucial components of a wider strategy aimed at benefiting from immigration-related “diversity,” reinforcing both the economic competitiveness and the social cohesion of European society (Section 5).
This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creative commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.