Emotional Management for Migrant Women
Project number: 2021-1-DEO2-KA220-ADU-000033610
Since 1950 Europe has traditionally been one of the major destinations of immigration mainly due to its relative economic prosperity and political stability. According to World Migration report 2020 Europe experienced the second largest growth during 2019, with an increase of 25 million international migrants (5.5 %) of the 448 million people living in the EU-27 were non-EU-27 citizens.
On the other hand, a total of 3.9 million people immigrated to one of the EU-27 Member States during 2018 (Eurostat, May 2020) Given these figures, migration must be treated as a global issue. That said, the increase in migrants has been evident over time – both numerically and proportionally – and at a slightly faster rate than previously anticipated.
In relation to the European countries with the highest number of immigrants Germany reported the largest total number of them (893.9 thousand) in 2018, followed by Spain (643.7 thousand), France (386.9 thousand), Italy (332.3 thousand), Polland (214.1) and Romania (172.6). (Eurostat, May 2020)
Regarding the gender distribution of immigrants to the EU-27 Member States in 2018 women migrated as much as men, almost half (46%) of all international migrants were female. (Eurostat, May 2020)
And while this average figure has not changed in decades, women are now increasingly to migrate for jobs, as highly specialized employees or as unskilled labour migrants trying to make a living in the low wage sector. Some women migrate to join their families while others leave family behind to work and become their household’s main breadwinner. Women may also be forced to migrate as a result of conflict, war, natural disasters or due to different forms of persecution, including gender-based violence. For this reason, this phenomenon has been called the feminisation of migration.
Although the effects of migration are considered to be the same for men and women. However, this is often not the case. It is important to recognise how gender relations in host communities influence women's and men's experiences as migrants.
According to UNFPA (United nations Populated Fund) migration is a serious concern for migrant women for different motives:
Migrant women face double discrimination – as women and as migrants. Women can suffer doubly from these attitudes, experiencing not only discrimination based on their migrant status but also based on based on their gender. This can take the form of discrimination and mistreatment – including sexual harassment – in the workplace, while seeking housing, while using public transportation, and while accessing education and health services.
Female migrants face major risks, including sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence. Migrant women are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, accounting for 71% of trafficking victims, according to a 2018 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Migrant women are more likely to face health problems at their destinations. When female migrants reach their intended destinations, they face barriers to health care, especially sexual and reproductive health services. Foreign-born migrants can face significantly higher risks of maternal injury and death than native-born women, for example, and higher risks of HIV infection, trauma and violence.
In this context, immigrant women face a possible higher prevalence of stress/problems related to mental health due to individual, social and economic factors that may arise during the acculturation process. This type of stress can have various consequences for mental well-being, such as affective disorders, anxiety and adjustment difficulties leading to so-called emotional acculturation. Emotional acculturation is defined as a series of changes in emotional patterns as a consequence of an immigrant’s contact with a new culture (De Leersnyder J., Mesquita B., Kim M.S. Where do my emotions belong? A study of emotional acculturation)
In addition, this situation has been aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Too often overlooked is the cost to migrant women's mental, emotional and social health of isolation and loneliness, leading to increased risk of human rights violations.
When analyzing emotions and their regulation, one of the most relevant variables currently researched is the study of Emotional Intelligence. EI refers to an adequate interaction between emotion and cognition, allowing an individual to become adjusted to his or her environment (Salovey P., Grewal D. The science of emotional intelligence)
And in this point is where E.I. for immigrant women can be beneficial and necessary, as it will help them overcome social obstacles and they adapt socially better. To address this, emotional management must be a priority for all migrant women. Moreover, emotional management is necessary to master the environment and would therefore mediate the importance of depressive symptoms, acting as a protective factor.
In view of the foregoing, Emotional Management for Migrant Women” (EMMW)
wants to design a training system to develop emotional management in migrant women (the main target group), but also in social workers and NGO volunteers who will be the final beneficiaries of the project.
This training system will be targeted in the acquisition of competences focused on the development of the emotional skills both in female migrants and social workers and NGO necessary to confront and solve the risk situations in which immigrant women find themselves, as well as adaptation and integration to a social and a social and cultural environment different from that of their countries of origin.
Emotional Management for Migrant Women Project is a training plan for the purpose of developing and managing emotional skills in the frame of the immigration, reaching both female migrants and social workers and NGO with the aim of improving their risk situation in the adaptation and integration to a different country from that of their origin and, at the end, psychological well-being and the inclusion in the host country. The training system must be developed in these two lines in complementary ways, but they must be faced paying attention to the different target groups and the specific way they have to develop this basic skill.
The purpose of this project is to: (a) develop emotional skills to overcome social obstacles and (b) regulate their emotional states to improve their psychological well-being. The ultimate goal is to adapt socially in the host country, especially in situations where a specific approach should be revised and adjusted to conform to changes in context.
Make migrant women able to regulate their emotional states to cope with the new situation in which they find themselves.
Make migrant women able to reduce anxiety and stress caused by the situations they have had to face.
Improve their cultural adaptation by reducing psychological distress.
Make social workers and NGO help migrant women identify and recognize the emotions they feel.
Make social workers and NGO help identify the reason and know how to manage in a more suitable way the emotional state to express it.
Manage the fear of changes.
Create a training system with tools.
Disseminate the results of this training to other institutions that could benefit this output
The project will develop three intellectual products:
Intellectual Output 1: Definition of areas and handbooks for social workers and NGO in contact with migrant women. (10 months)
As a departure point, the project consortium will focus on the essential skills of social workers and NGO to ensure female migrants their safety and well-being and help them cope with problems they’re facing to improve their lives. The consortium will develop the theoretical and conceptual framework based on the needs assessment, identifying resources and generating a handbook focused on the target group.
Intellectual Output 2: Self-Evaluation tool (6 months)
Taking as a departure point the IO1, the project consortium will focus on a self-evaluation tool to help migrant women to identify their strengths and weaknesses in emotional intelligence. A testing phase will then be carried out in order to implement the questionnaire and thus obtain the results with two main objectives: awareness and knowledge. In this sense, this tool will shed light on their needs and help lay the groundwork for the creation of a training system for the implementation and development of how best to train those skills that are weak points at this moment.
Intellectual Output 3: XXX. Tool kit for women migrants (8 months)
Taking into account the results obtained in the IO2, the project consortium will create a “survival kit” in order to develop and to support the management of female migrants’ emotions in their new situation. A corpus of practical exercises, games and dynamics will be generated always thinking in the reinforcement of the emotional skills.
So, the project consortium will develop 36 different learning tools to be worked in the specific contexts. This will be the end in the process of our project, from the handbook to the final consumer.
Training needs assessment and guidelines on emotional intelligence management for migrant women.
A handbook on essential emotional skills for social workers and NGOs.
A corpus of strategies, exercises, e-learning tools and skills for migrant
women on emotional intelligence.
36 learning tools for management of women migrants´ emotions in their new situation.
Information notes on the project and links to online resources.
A website for the indefinite maintenance of the online course and contact details for tutors.
A training week for migrant women and face-to-face and off-site exercises.