The National Thematic Network on Asylum

In the context of the EQUAL programme, eight Development Partnerships in nine federal states had combined their efforts in the thematic field of asylum. Of these, seven were working with the target group asylum seekers, among who were also tolerated asylum seekers (person with exceptional leave to remain for humanitarian reasons), who for many years have only been granted a “tolerated” status. The other DP worked with victims of human trafficking. Together with the subprojects, these DPs, in cooperation with additional EQUAL-DPs and strategic partners, had created The National Thematic Network on Asylum. The network should ensure that asylum seekers were not only considered as a target group in the area of migration, but rather within EQUAL, and that they were able to maintain their own voices. Varying conditions, rules and laws apply to asylum applicants, especially those with a tolerated status, than to migrants with a protected right to stay.

The aim of The National Thematic Network on Asylum was to promote better vocational integration and labour market access of asylum applicants and refugees in the receiving society and in third countries as well as in Germany. To achieve this and to ensure the preservation and improvement of the employability of the target group, the DPs pursued the following aims relative to the areas of emphasis in their projects:

to offer professional training for asylum seekers and refugees and with this,
to improve their employment chances in the labour market,
to promote their access to school and professional training as well as to education and further education degrees,
to eliminate the structural discrimination targeting this group,
to improve their access to the labour market,
to ease their access to health care services,
to promote intercultural communication,
to sensitise the public about the situation of asylum seekers and refugees and
to combat racism and xenophobia.

The National Thematic Network on Asylum strived to disseminate the innovative concepts and methods of their EQUAL pilot schemes to as wide an audience as possible, to stakeholders in politics, administrations and in the economy. Through this transfer of knowledge and of experiences, the professional integration of asylum seekers and refugees should be improved, a safeguarding of results should be made possible and labour market protagonists should become sensitised to the needs of the target group.

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