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Funding to help UK Immigrants

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The UK Border Agency has announced a call for tender for the European Integration Fund 2007-2008. Applications to the fund which has a value of approximately five million have to be submitted by 6 March 2009. The European Integration Fund is for legal migrants who have arrived in the last five years and who are not asylum seekers or refugees. It also excludes European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) nationals and those who are in the United Kingdom under visa categories such as students.

The fund is for local authority, adult, further education and community colleges wishing to offer, or expand capacity, for English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses to help legal migrants to fully integrate into UK society.

The fund is also interested in innovative projects that support the efforts made by the United Kingdom in enabling nationals of different social, cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic backgrounds to meet the requirements for permanent residence in the UK. Bids that seek to evaluate the effectiveness of existing and future integration programmes and how to improve these programmes are also welcome.

Funding is provided for up to three years and successful bids must also be able to demonstrate that there is already funding in place from other sources for half of the project costs. In exceptional circumstances funding may be provided that cover three quarters of the project costs. The expected start date for selected projects is 11 May 2009.

The announcement for Calls for tender for the European Integration Fund 2009 will be announced on or about June 2009.