Arctic15 and ArcticStartup have teamed up with Newcomer Bootcamp to run a pilot programme as a side event for refugees at Arctic15, one of Finland’s leading tech conferences. Rather than driving refugees to government support, the exciting mix of refugees and leading entrepreneurs could be the solution to fixing one of Europe’s current challenges.
The big goal of Newcomer Bootcamp is to get all the right people in the room intensively apply different models how to create very fast routes for integration to the society – to provide simple, scalable tools for building businesses and thus enabling employment, and new taxpayers.
To do so, Newcomer Bootcamp currently works with leading refugee support systems like Techfugees and Startup Refugees; Onapp, a cloud platform for service providers; Zharity, a social enterprise that aims to help all immigrants, newcomers, and asylum seekers to integrate into and contribute to the Finnish society by linking them with job opportunities; and MONI, a Finnish startup that makes it easy for the unbanked to get access to a pre-payed card, as well as send and receive money abroad.
Most notably, MONI is known for working with the Finnish government to help refugees to receive salaries in Finland. Newcomer Bootcamp is also working with the Finnish government: immigration service Migri will be speaking at the event.
With the partners in place, Newcomer Bootcamp will help refugees find work as micro-entrepreneurs, start new businesses, hire employees, and thereby help newcomers enter and contribute to Finnish society. Over the three-day event, European entrepreneurs and their startups will help to mentor and provide services to these new entrepreneurs. Rather than being a “business idea competition” or something similar, the event focuses on cutting through red tape to provide repeatable results, which will be continued to be taught in regularly occurring events.
“The first step for refugees’ integration, or as we prefer calling them, newcomers, is economic integration. Through business refugees help to grow our economy and learn about local culture. Entrepreneurship is a rough road though, as such, the best way to do that is through skill-based micro-businesses, which lowers the failure rate, shortens the development period, and boosts employment,” says Mohamed Eldishnawy “Dish”, the main organiser of the event.
You can support a refugee for Newcomer Bootcamp by donating over here
For refugees, you can register over here
Fast facts:
- 3 days event starting June 1
- Newcomer Bootcamp kicks off its first event as a parallel event at the Arctic15, ArcticStartup’s annual tech conference.
- The event brings in experts in entrepreneurship, law, and government to help with newcomers’ ideas, cut through red tape, and plug into the best tools that simplify doing business.
- The event focuses on microentrepreneurship (quick and easy ideas to develop businesses), using entrepreneurial skills to find work at small companies, and helping newcomers start real businesses.
- Both Finland’s Refugee Man of the Year and Woman of the Year will be speaking at the event, as well as notable tech founders.
