EMEN’s Communities of Practice

EMEN Project aims to strengthen the support for migrant entrepreneurship. In particular, through the use of community of practices, EMEN Partnership wants to bring together relevant players at European, national and regional levels to form transnational networks and share approaches and lessons learnt on migrant entrepreneurship.

A community of practice (CoPs) is “a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. They are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavour.

EMEN Project foresee three CoPs each addressing a key component of a comprehensive ecosystem to support migrant entrepreneurship:

1) Coaching and mentoring: Under the responsibility of Social Impact, this community brings together experts and practitioners who support migrant entrepreneurs across Europe to enhance the professionalisation of coaching and mentoring services for migrant entrepreneurs. Its purpose is to foster the identification of common standards and process, the co-creation of tailor-made business models, and the emergence of a European support ecosystem for cross-border cooperation.

Join CoP 1 and contribute to the identification of common standards and process, the co-creation of tailor-made business models, and the emergence of a European support ecosystem for cross-border cooperation.

Register in in the CoPs FORUM or contact Moritz Blanke (Social Impact) – blanke@socialimpact.eu

2) Access to finance: Based on the experience of over 100 microfinance institutions in Europe, CoP2 aims to compile evidence of best practice in enabling migrant entrepreneurs to raise business finance. The community start from the assumption that new ways of offering external finance to migrant entrepreneurs in a more diverse Europe require more attention. Under the responsibility of Professor Klaas Molenaar (THUAS-FINE), CoP2 aim is to systematise and document such new initiatives that are often unknown to policy-makers and programme implementers. This work will result in a set of documents describing new ways of offering finance to migrant entrepreneurs, which will hopefully be an inspiration for others to break away from the beaten path.

Join CoP 2 to support the identification of financial mechanisms and opportunities for migrant entrepreneurship.

Register in in the CoPs FORUM or contact Klaas Molenaar (THUAS-FINE) – N.Molenaar@hhs.nl

3) Professionalisation and diversity management: Under the responsibility of UNITEE and EUROCHAMBERS, CoP3 aims to stimulate the integration of migrant entrepreneurs into mainstream business associations, such as chambers of commerce. The forum therefore focuses on two problems: (1) The general low level of professionalisation of associations of migrant entrepreneurs; (2) The general low level of inclusion of migrant entrepreneurs in mainstream business associations, such as chambers of commerce.

Join CoP 3 to discuss how to stimulate the integration of migrant entrepreneurs into mainstream business associations, such as chambers of commerce.

Register in in the CoPs FORUM or contact Giovanni Collot (UNITEE) – gcollot@unitee.eu & Ivelina Fedulova (EUROCHAMBERS) – fedulova@eurochambres.eu