Inclusion of migrants across Europe

Migrants make up a significant proportion of Europe's population: almost 24 million people living in the EU are third-country nationals, or five per cent of the total population. At the same time, migrants face disproportionately unfavourable outcomes in terms of education, employment and access to basic services such as healthcare and decent housing.

The Partnerships and Financing for Migrant Inclusion (PAFMI) project, completed in 2025, supported the integration of third country nationals in EU member states through innovative partnerships and financial support. It was implemented by the CEB and funded by a €3.5 million contribution from the EU's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).

PAFMI consisted of four pilot projects across Europe:

• Belgium: MicroStart led a project in Brussels that empowered migrant entrepreneurs through tailored training, individual coaching, and access to microcredit, fostering self-employment and economic independence.
• Finland: The City of Väntää implemented SMILE, a community-based initiative that promoted migrant family inclusion through multilingual job coaching, school integration activities for children, and strengthened dialogue between families and local services.
• Italy: Microlab and its partners carried out EMPOWER!, which combined entrepreneurship training, financial education, and mentoring with microloans and personalised support for the recognition of foreign qualifications.
• The Netherlands: Qredits provided tailored entrepreneurship training to migrants, complemented by one-on-one coaching and access to microloans to help launch and grow their businesses.

The projects were linked to CEB loans to test the sustainability of blended finance for migrant integration. The actions were designed to enable the collection and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices to stakeholders.

A programme funded by the European Union