International Inter-Agency Collaboration

International Cooperation Component

Innovation is at the heart of PROMIS’ strategic initiatives. Faced with several contemporary societal challenges such as immigration management, PROMIS initiated and began the formation of a new research development component in 2018, focusing on international cooperation with the aim of establishing connections and partnerships abroad.

PROMIS is the first community organization to adopt a cooperative model aimed at partnering with international players who are also concerned with the professional integration of immigrants. In the past two years, PROMIS has been the only community organization recommended by the MIFI to receive representatives from Bavaria and the French Court of Auditors to discuss migration issues!

Within the framework of specific calls for projects from the Commission permanente de coopération franco-québécoise (CPCFQ), the Ministère des Relations internationales et Francophonie (MRIF) supported and funded PROMIS for its participation in two exploratory missions aimed at the collaboration of French communities to the great debate on immigration.

2018 Exploratory Mission

In October 2018, Mounia Benalil, PROMIS’ Development and Strategic Initiatives Advisor, organized a partnership development mission with the five associations that make up the Réseau de Ressources pour l’Égalité des Chances et l’Intégration (RÉCI):

• Observatoire Régional de l’Intégration et de la Ville (ORIV)
• Conseil et Formation sur les Relations Interculturelles et les Migrations (COFRIMI)
• Centre de ressources Politique de la ville Hauts-de-France (Irev)
• Espace de Soutien aux professionnels de l’Accueil et du Conseil aux Étrangers (ESPACE)
• Association Villeurbannaise pour le Droit au Logement (AVDL)

The RÉCI works to highlight existing resources for the prevention of discrimination, the promotion of equality and the integration of immigrants and newcomers.

As part of her professional tour in Paris, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Marseille, Mounia met with the management of these organizations to lay the groundwork for a collaboration based on the joint desire to meet the challenge of integrating the immigrant population.

The cooperation project wants to set up a module for the exchange and comparison of regionalization and territorialization practices of immigration between Quebec and France.

The Advisor was also received by the Québec Government Office in Paris during an exploratory meeting on the future perspectives of consolidating a Franco-Québec network in the area of ​​immigration, as well as the pooling of inter-agency expertise and skills .

2019 Exploratory Mission

In September 2019, PROMIS and Aquitaine Culture (Pôle de coopération Culture & Entreprises) signed a partnership for a project funded by MRIF aimed at the co-creation and co-development of an Open Lab in regional entrepreneurship. The latter focuses on the integration of immigrant populations. Aquitaine Culture wishes to draw inspiration from PROMIS’ practices to extend its continuum of services to immigrant populations in the Aquitaine region, and ensure their full participation in regional economic development.

On November 6 and 8, following the invitation of Aquitaine Culture, a PROMIS delegation went to Niort to participate to the Forum national de l’Économie Sociale et Solidaire (ESS) et de l’Innovation sociale (IS). The delegation notably participated in a workshop on the Living Lab and in a panel dedicated to social economy in the presence of Ms Laurence Kwark, Secretary General of the Forum mondial de l’économie sociale. This participation helped highlight Quebec’s advances in social economy.

Aquitaine Culture also organized a professional tour to facilitate the delegation’s meetings with key players in the region. In Niort, the delegation visited the Living Lab Calyxis-Pôle of risk expertise and attended a presentation on the resources that are developed there in terms of risk prevention in people’s daily lives. In Bordeaux, the delegation visited Espace la Ruche Bordeaux, a collaborative coworking space that bring together a community of players that includes the organization Action Emploi Réfugiés. Finally, in Limoges, the delegation visited Autonom’Lab and was trained on the application of open innovation in autonomy projects for the elderly.

PROMIS ‘exploratory missions have made it possible to study several possible partnerships with the French community sector, including that of the City of Paris, in a joint desire to compare the ecosystems involved in the support and professional integration of immigrant populations. These partnerships would make it possible to expose the challenges and determinants of their performance from a perspective of territorial development, economic dynamism and innovation.

Written by Mounia Benalil, PROMIS’ Development and Strategic Initiatives Advisor