It is all about Diversity, Mobility and Citizenship.

Best practices on ethnic entrepreneurs(hip) in Europe presented at the international conference Entrepreneurial Diversity in a Unified Europe.

Triodos Facet led a research team that conducted a study on Policy Measures and Programmes in Europe to promote entrepreneurship amongst ethnic minorities and migrants. The study identified 146 policy measures. From among these policy measures the research team selected twelve Good Practices to serve as illustrations for practitioners and policy makers.

The study was commissioned by the DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission. The results also serve as input for the development of policies in the European Union to meet the challenges of our ever more diverse society.

Over the past years issues such as migration, integration and cultural identity have become less relevant for programme implementation. The world in which we operate is changing. Migrants do not any longer regard themselves migrants. Instead, they are citizens in society and they wish to be treated as such. They are people who seek their place in a rapidly diversifying society that hopefully wishes to make use of their talents. They are people in need of services that facilitate them to set up new businesses in such diverse society. In order to design the right programmes and services it is essential to take the diversity of our society into account.

People who have travelled have crossed borders. Over time these border-crossers have shown that mobility generates substantial benefits. In fact, mobility has become an integral and invaluable part of our life. Isn’t it true that people from across borders enrich society with their talents, experiences and insights? Acknowledging this also implies that borders have become very artificial and as such enterprising across borders as well. Society is changing very rapidly and so do programmes and hence policies. In fact, current policymakers carefully monitor innovative programmes and often base their policies on the lessons learned from those programmes.

If you wish to obtain more information or want to download the full study report please access. (website: Enterprise and Industry ) and a brochure is temporarily available at: http://www.yousendit.com/download/bVlBYUo5RkVveFB2Wmc9PQ

If you wish to develop new ideas in this area you can also contact
Joep Vonk ( Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir ) or
Gerrit Ribbink ( Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir ).

[Bunnik, 13mar2008]