Nestled in the heart of the Kalamaja district, the Tallinn Migration Center comprises no fewer than 17 dedicated people who work tirelessly to provide essential support to those who choose to settle in Tallinn. Initially established as a welcome center for Ukrainian refugees, the institution has recently undergone a transformation, adopting the name Tallinn Migration Center, reflecting its commitment to being a place open to all, regardless of their background.
The center's missions are as vast as they are crucial, ranging from emergency reception of refugees, including care, housing, and vital needs, to comprehensive guidance in all aspects of daily life, such as work, career reorientation, housing, training, education, counseling, and language learning. In close cooperation with the International House of Estonia, the center works together to provide comprehensive support.
Online, a dynamic team works daily to sort information, update the website, and maintain an active Facebook page, thus promoting transparency and communication.
Violaine Champetier de Ribes presented CAdFE, the Business Club of Francophones in Estonia, and discussed avenues for collaboration. We had the opportunity to exchange views on the integration model in France, highlighting what works and the challenges encountered. The French integration model, sometimes complex, was compared to the Estonian approach, which aims to understand the differences of each while preserving and celebrating cultural diversity.
The center welcomes all questions enthusiastically, as this helps enrich its range of actions, enabling it to provide precise answers. A survey conducted among foreign residents gathered suggestions to further improve welcome in Estonia and implement new measures.
Given the diversity of ongoing initiatives, the center acknowledges the need to synthesize these efforts to enable more effective integration. Despite the existence of many useful initiatives, some remain little known, and it is essential to raise awareness about them.
With a growing number of 5,000 immigrants per year and a foreign community reaching between 70,000 and 75,000 people in Tallinn, Estonia has become a destination of choice, particularly appealing for its innovative digital model.
The ethos of the Tallinn Migration Center is clear: to listen, include, and treat each person with kindness. The diverse team, consisting of a psychologist, a chief specialist, a coordinator dedicated to personalized support, an administrator, and temporary recruiters, is actively engaged.
Alice Järvet, responsible for the business creation competition project for Ukrainian women
in Estonia organized for the second consecutive year by CAdFE, highlighted the support already received from numerous institutional partners (the Embassy of France in Estonia, the Embassy of Ukraine in Estonia, IOM, Lifeline NGO, Hands For Ukraine NGO, the Foreign Investors' Council in Estonia). This competition offers an opportunity for these women to develop their entrepreneurial projects, allowing them, according to the words of participants from the first edition, to not feel defined by their refugee status but to grow beyond these preconceived labels.
At the end of this meeting, the Tallinn Migration Center agrees to become an official partner of this competition. A huge thank you for their support.
To learn more about CAdFE: https://www.cadfe.ee/en/about-us
To learn more about the Tallinn Migration Center: https://www.facebook.com/niine2
To register for the competition: https://tally.so/r/wbxQZ2
We are seeking sponsors for this event. If you are interested, please feel free to contact us.