São Paulo – The socially-conscious company Linyon keeps a register of 900-plus resumes from refugees and immigrants to send to businesses interested in hiring them. It also keeps close track of three separate projects by those non-Brazilian entrepreneurs, as well as teaching courses to raise awareness about refugees at schools and companies in Paraná, Brazil.
Linyon is based in the Paraná state capital Curitiba and was established by Marcela Milano, an International Relations professional who had always felt uneasy about the issue of immigrants and their integration into the labor market. The experience of living abroad – she spent time in Ireland in 2011 – only added to that interest, she tells ANBA over the phone.
Last year, after a crowd-funding campaign, Milano managed to get her project going. The actual business didn’t go online until October, and at first it worked to find jobs for refugees and immigrants on the local market. But jobs soon dwindled down in Brazil, so the business owner realized it was time to broaden her scope.
“We began to question that way of working and to look at entrepreneurship as a new path to take,” says Milano, adding that input from Syrian refugees was a factor. “Syrians started getting in touch with us, but they wanted to run their own businesses.” So Linyon started monitoring entrepreneurs’ projects, giving out guidance on localization, market opportunities, paperwork, and bank issues.
Now, besides consulting services, Linyon also raises awareness about refugees at schools and businesses. The goal is to fight prejudice. Milano explains that school kids, who are free from prejudice, discuss the subject back home. The companies procuring Linyon’s services are often ones that hired an immigrant and are looking to raise the awareness of their employees and management.
Milano claims the next step is to offer workshops on entrepreneurship to refugees, which should happen in June. Linyon has also worked to help immigrants find jobs in their own fields of work, which has proved difficult due to problems validating their diplomas in Brazil. “They end up having to do more manual-heavy work” the business owner regrets.
Linyon runs a co-working space in downtown Curitiba, which is managed by three professionals. Besides Marcela Milano and her partner Raquel Correia, who also holds an International Relations degree, an attorney works with the project. Before going in business, Milano travelled to Brazil’s northern state Acre, where many refugees arrive, to get a closer look at their reality.
The refugees are referred to Linyon by organizations whose job is to welcome them, as well as by word-of-mouth from other immigrants. Linyon keeps afloat through payments for the corporate services it renders. It occasionally relies on sponsorship for some of its actions.
Linyon
Website: http://www.projetolinyon.com.br
Email: contato@projetolinyon.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
