Supported employment for migrants with complex assistance needs is an ongoing research project conducted by Work research Institute in Norway. This is a brief presentation of the project given at 1st World Conference on Supported Employment – “Employment for All - A Global Perspective” which was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from 14 – 16 June 2017.

1. Dr. Tatiana Maximova-Mentzoni, Work Research Institute (Norway)

2. 2
Who are «migrants with significant assistance needs?”
Participants in the Introduction
programme for newly-arrived
refugees
Participants in the Job Opportunity
projects, a labour market measure for
migrant stay-at-home women
Foto: https://www.bergen.kommune.no)Foto: https://www.rb.no/
Project’sdepartingpoint
Project’s
result
Answer the question with describing this disadvantaged group and it’s specific
support needs

3. 3
Project’s details
- Main research question: What characterizes Supported employment
method adjusted for migrants with significant assistance needs?
- Project period: 2016-2018
- Project team: Øystein Spjelkavik, Grete Wangen, Angelika Schafft and
Tatiana Maximova-Mentzoni
- Funding: The Norwegian directorate for integration and diversity
- Expected deliverables: a research report, guidelines for SE for migrants,
testable quality criteria, international publications.

4. 4
Research questions and the analytical framework
5-stage
process
(EUSE)
Development of employment
specialist competence in pilot
projects
Implementation of the SE-
method
Identification of the support
needs of the target group SE-method
(possibly)
adjusted
to meet needs
of the new
target group

5. Methodology
5
- This is a method development project with participatory action
research design
- 6 case pilot projects in Oslo area involved with two employment
specialists in each project – total 12 employment specialists to follow
- The case projects are either the Introductory programs for newly
arrived refugees og Job Opportunity projects (qualification measures
for stay-at-home migrant women with no connection to labour
market)
- Employment specialists are co-researchers
- Additional methods: «zero point» analysis, course in 5-stage process,
literature review, survey among employers.

6. Participatory action research design
6
Self-
reflection
Logs for employment specialists
Registration of contact details of employers
(possibly) Self-monitoring of results
(possibly) Internal rapports written by employment spesialists
Dialogue
Email-group for employment specialists – questions/answers
Observations of employment specialists (3 times during the project)
Group interviews in pilot projects (3 times during the project)
Experience exchanges (meetings between researchers and employment
specialists, 3 times during the project)
Dialogue conferences gathering employment specialists, managers in
pilot projects and their organizations, workplace language teachers,
representatives from municipality government, employers’
organizations, Adult education centers, etc. (2 times during the project)
Meetings in the reference group (3 times during the project)

7. Logs for employment specialists
7
Log for self-reflection over 5-stages process
Employment specialist: X
Date Challenge Support Result
Stage i SE-
process
xx.xx.xx

8. More questions than answers…
8
- How to secure participatory action research design that leads to open
dialog with practitioners and change in practice at the same time as it
provides researchers with solid data to develop guidelines and quality
standards for «SE for migrants» as well as publish in peer-reviewed
journals?
- How to deal with misinterpretations of SE among practitioners who
synonymize SE with «place-train» «work placement», etc.?
- How to secure implementation of SE, not only elements of SE?
- How to promote organizational and institutional change?
- What are the necessary political and system-level adjustments to
secure successful implementation of SE for the target group?
- What do we know about SE for migrants on the international basis?

9. Let’s connect and cooperate!
9
Supported employment (SE) for migrants
Tatiana Maximova-Mentzoni
Senior researcher AFI/HIOA
Tlf: +47 45 08 31 08
Tatiana.mm@hioa.no
https://blogg.hioa.no/SEforInnvandrere