MATILDE team members from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg developed two informative brochures in German language about the sustainable employment of immigrants from third countries. Brochures include practical information for the practitioners.

Tobias Weidinger, David Spenger and Stefan Kordel

The strength of the MATILDE project is to collect empirical evidence on the impact of immigration processes in rural and mountain areas in 10 different countries across Europe. In the course of a local case study in Bavaria, Germany, Dr. Stefan Kordel, Dr. Tobias Weidinger and David Spenger from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) investigated the sustainable employment of immigrants from third countries (Third-country nationals) in rural and mountain areas applying a multi-perspective approach that took into consideration the perspectives of companies, regional stakeholders and migrants themselves. Now that the MATILDE project is nearing completion and the results are available, the focus is on dissemination. Recently, the FAU team has developed two brochures in plain German language and with a specially designed layout to better address the target group of practitioners.

The brochures focus on the hospitality industry respectively the (health)care sector, where the labour shortage is observable in particular.  In its first part, each brochure captures a description of the study region and the industry or sector under study and presents findings with regard to three phases: recruiting from abroad and on-site; on-boarding in the company/facility and the region; and retention in the company/facility, industry/sector and the region. Based on the difficulties, recommendations for action are suggested in the second part drawing on the same three phases and addressing the local, the regional, the national and the EU level. For the recruitment of international employees it is suggested, first, to use networks of existing staff and of counsellors and target-group specific communication, second, to recruit multiple persons from the same country and, third, to establish a relocation management. Loans or (partial) waivers for the payment of the processes can be offered to TCNs to reduce costs for the recognition of foreign credentials. Besides, the recognition processes should be simplified and streamlined. The provision of counselling and information about (the recognition of) qualification, education and self-employment should be maintained and expanded. For the on-boarding and retention of international employees, regular meetings, tandems or mentoring programs as well as work-accompanying language courses are recommended. The intercultural opening of the workforce could be strengthened by consolidate funding for diversity management. Additionally, incentives, e.g. financially, with flexible work models or for long holidays to visit family and relatives, could be beneficial.

You can reach the brochures from here and here.