Spain

IOM offices and partners launched Skills2Work to improve the access of employers and beneficiaries to information and services related to skills recognition.

The IGC is an informal, non-decision making forum for intergovernmental information exchange and policy debate on issues of relevance to the management of international migratory flows.

The IGC brings together 16 Participating States, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and the European Commission. The Participating States are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America.

The Government of Spain's Royal Decree 1620/20111 of 14 November regulates the special relationship that characterizes service within the family household.

The Royal Decree updates the rules governing the labour relationships of domestic employees and sets out to improve working conditions in the sector by bringing them as far as possible into line with those of other workers, while making due allowance where appropriate for such differences as may exist.

The Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) is a global inter-agency programme funded by the European Union and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. It focuses on the local dimension of migrants’ contribution to development and aims to maximize the potential of migration for local development. To achieve this, the JMDI provides technical and financial support to up-scale existing locally-led migration and development initiatives across 15 projects in eight target countries: Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Morocco, Nepal, Philippines, Senegal and Tunisia.

The Mediterranean City-to-City Migration Project (MC2CM) implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in partnership with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and UN Habitat, as well as UNHCR as an associate partner, aims to create a network of 10 European and Southern Mediterranean cities in order to facilitate exchange of experience among and to contribute to improved migration planning and governance in these cities.

The project aims to break down negative stereotypes and improve public perception of migrants and the phenomenon of migration in the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain by creating strong and long-lasting basis for interaction and dialogue between migrants and members of receiving communities. Since a large part of the project will take place in 2013, the European Year of Citizenship, the project seeks to bring attention to the wider definition of citizen, meaning a person who is linked to a country by rights, but also by responsibility to the society. 

The main goal of the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is to increase access to finance for small and medium enterprises – which is especially relevant for returning migrants. The AGF’s key mandate is to assist financial institutions to increase their financing to African Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) through the provision of partial financial guarantees and capacity development assistance. AGF’s products and services provide financial institutions with the means which they can leverage in bringing their African SME financing interventions to the required scale.

The EU Immigration Portal serves as a first point of entry to reliable, practical and up-to-date information on immigration issues. It provides useful basic information written in user-friendly language and gives rapid and direct access to relevant external websites for further information. In concrete terms, the portal helps potential migrants to:

- Better understand the EU admission rules and procedures;

- Identify job and study opportunities;

- Find information on the rights of non-EU citizens who are in the EU;

Under the “Youth Mobility Program” Agreement, signed in 2009 between Spain and Canada, up to 1000 Canadian youth can to travel to Spain to:

This instrument channels the official recognition of professional skills achieved through work experience, and enables to carry out a work activity in the production system. Since it applies to migrants, it aims to facilitate the adequately use of new skills and experience from abroad in the country of origin.