Mentoring immigrants: 'As much about my own development as it was about the mentee's'
The Immigrant Council of Ireland has implemented a mentoring programme for immigrants in order to promote their integration into the Irish society. The ICI emphasises the link between immigration and integration and has
developed a number of programmes which promote the economic, political and social participation of people who have migrated to Ireland. The evaluation of their mentoring programme contains valuable lessons learned and general pointers for developing a mentoring programme in other societies.
Active support of integration is vital
‘Migration at different levels and in different forms is here to stay and the successful integration of migrants cannot be taken for granted’: this rationale underlied the mentoring programme initiated in Ireland. The programme was launched in December 2008. Mentors gave of their time voluntarily to support mentees in meeting a range of goals, while mentees shared their knowledge of a different culture and country, their experience of migration and living in Ireland.
Mentoring is a good way to achieve a wide range of goals
This evaluation report discusses which measures have been
successful for obtaining the objectives of the programme, and
proposes improvement for a future mentoring programme. Much of the
work was ‘frontloaded’: by disseminating the existence of the
programme in several ways, and by preparing matches which are
likely to be successful. For mentors, important outcomes of the
programme were:
Meeting people from other cultures;
- Being pro active in supporting integration in Ireland;
- Volunteering for a worthy cause or initiative;
- Supporting immigrants because they themselves had been immigrants once;
- Sharing their knowledge of Irish culture and Irish life with others.
For mentees, a selection of main outcomes were:
Improving their English language proficiency;
- Support in finding a job;
- Support in navigating the Irish social welfare system;
- Support with integration to Irish social and cultural life.
Recommendations for future mentoring programmes
Based on the experiences gained in this mentoring programme, 11 recommendations are formulated at the close of the report. It is for instance emphasised that wide dissemination at local and regional level is important to ensure awareness of programme. In this light, the use of high profile public figures to raise awareness and attract
mentors recommended to attract mentees for future programmes. In practical terms, all potential mentors and mentees should participate in the group induction/training prior to embarking on the programme, and ongoing group meetings of mentors and mentees should be organised to ensure collective feedback and monitoring of the programme.
Document Type
Practice document
Publication Date
March 2010
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