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For successful and egalitarian integration into the labor market

AFIP, the Association pour Favoriser l'Intégration Professionnelle, was created in 2002 to facilitate access to jobs for young immigrants with diplomas. Its office has been less than ideal, but it has just been given new space, which needs to be converted.
Projects listing

Social and Employment

Place
France

Sponsor
Christelle Laudre

Grant(s)
€ 15,000 to the Selection Committee at 2006/01/31

Project leader

Afip

«  The socioeconomic fragility of young immigrants with diplomas shows how persistentdiscrimination is when it comes to social integration. AFIP's headquarters in the midst of a neighborhood that is home to many people belonging to minority groups will help project the positive image of training and models of success. »

J Christelle Laudre

The situation in France is impossible to hide: with equivalent qualifications and diplomas, young immigrants (French and foreign nationals) have much more trouble finding a job than their native-born French counterparts. To help them maintain their confidence in their abilities despite the problems they encounter and to teach them how to optimize their job search, AFIP was founded in 2002, in Paris.

The association looks exclusively after young graduates (two years or more after secondary schooling). Relying on its network of partner companies, it puts these people in touch with potential employers. Since its creation, it has also been assisted by volunteer sponsors, both active and retired, who help the job seekers, share their occupational experience with them and pass on their knowledge of the world of work by decrypting its rules and codes.

A need for space

Since its creation, AFIP has been working from a small, 35 square meter, space with only one room and a desk, located in the basement of a building in Paris's 20th arrrondissement. This didn't make its work easy. At the end of 2005, the public development and construction agency of Paris offered it a 105-square-meter warehouse in the same arrondissement. The association plans to consolidate its work in a better adapted environment that is more suitable for the reception of its young clients. After conversion, the two-story structure will have a meeting room, individual offices to ensure confidentiality and rooms reserved for workshops and documents.

To help AFIP pay for this essential conversion work, the Veolia foundation decided to grant it €15,000, contributing to a project that is the answer to many young immigrants' prayers.