Turning Immigrant Mothers' Expertise into a First-Class Asset

Mission

mom2mom's mission is to unlock the underused professional potential of immigrant mothers by recognising their expertise as a strategic asset for the labour market, and by building pathways — through real projects, visibility and partnerships with employers — that turn career breaks and migration into sustainable employment, entrepreneurship and economic participation.

Vision: a network, in every country, where “mother” and “immigrant” on a CV read as marks of resilience and expertise, not gaps.

Not a second chance. A first-class talent.

The problem: an underused asset

Immigrant mothers face a double break: a career pause for childcare and a move to a new country. Each alone weakens a CV; together they make an experienced professional look like a beginner.

• No local track record. Employers ask for Polish experience and references, which a newcomer cannot yet have.

• Lost confidence. After months at home in a new language, many women stop applying for jobs that match their skills.

• Downward drift. They accept low-skilled or informal work, and their qualifications erode.

• Mismatched support. Existing programmes offer courses, language and job boards, but rarely the first real project that proves competence to an employer.

At the same time, Polish businesses report staff shortages and lack the time to take a risk on an unfamiliar candidate. The result is a loss for all three sides: women lose income and status, businesses lose talent, and the state loses tax revenue and pays for inactivity.

Evidence

The data shows a large, qualified group held back by barriers that a first real project can remove.

Two conclusions follow. Language and a local track record are the binding constraints, not skills. And women with an entrepreneurial background integrate fastest, which supports an entrepreneurship track alongside employment.

Open question: comparable data on Belarusian mothers in Poland is scarce; the pilot will collect it.

Policy context

mom2mom delivers on goals that EU and Polish policy already set but lack practical tools to reach for this group.

The mom2mom model

mom2mom works like a talent agency for immigrant mothers: it curates experts, promotes them, and places them on paid projects with founders and companies.

1. 1

   Recruit through NGOs, diaspora groups and partners such as language schools.

2. 2

   Prepare: a skills diagnosis, a confidence track, professional Polish and a profile in four languages.

3. 3

   Promote: each expert gets a curated portfolio, a public profile and media visibility. Entry to the showcase is earned, which keeps quality and value high; preparation is open to every mother.

4. 4

   Match experts with founders and companies for 4–8 week paid projects, remote or part-time.

5. 5

   Outcome: employment, regular freelance income or a business of her own, with a reference and a case study.

Technology: a Telegram bot for experts, a web workspace for companies, and AI that extracts skills from CVs, translates profiles and proposes the top candidates for each task. A coordinator confirms every match.

Value for each stakeholder

Every side gains, which is why the model can sustain itself beyond grants.

Funding and sustainability

Grants pay for preparing the women; companies pay for the results. The two streams fund different costs, so nothing is financed twice.

Target revenue mix: about 70% grants and 30% companies in year one, an even split in year two, and about 30% grants and 70% companies from year three. Grants then fund expansion to new countries and groups rather than core operations.

Legal structure: a foundation (fundacja) with business activity in its statute receives grants and runs the programme for women. A limited company (sp. z o.o.) will follow when the platform scales and takes investment. For the first large grant, mom2mom will apply as a partner of an established NGO while building its own track record.

Pilot plan and impact metrics

The pilot runs six months in Poland with two cohorts of 15 mom-experts. It is the proof point for replication in other Member States.

Cohort 2 starts only if cohort 1's projects close, get paid and earn good ratings from both experts and companies.

Budget: the main cost lines are coordination, mentors and trainers, childcare during sessions, the platform, outreach and an independent evaluation. The figures will be set with delivery partners for each funding call.

Scaling globally

The pilot proves the model in one country; the platform is designed from day one for many.

• Poland: the pilot with Belarusian and Ukrainian mom-experts.

• Central and Western Europe: transnational partnerships in Member States with large immigrant communities, funded through ESF+ and AMIF and one shared evaluation framework.

• Global: any country with migrant mothers and women founders, including the UK, the US and Canada, with local partners and one platform.

The network grows itself: experts who succeed become founders, and founders hire the next experts. That is the meaning of mom2mom.

Policy recommendations

Five changes would let models like mom2mom reach far more women at lower public cost.

1. 1

   Name immigrant mothers as a priority group in labour-market and integration calls (ESF+, FAMI, Razem Możemy Więcej), not only “foreigners” or “parents” separately. They face both barriers at once.

2. 2

   Fund real work experience, not only training. Allow grant budgets to cover short paid projects with employers as an eligible activation measure, with clear rules against double funding.

3. 3

   Make KFS and PUP support easier to claim for employers hiring returning parents, including foreign-born ones, through simplified forms and intermediaries that can apply on their behalf.

4. 4

   Recognise childcare as part of activation. Fund childcare during training and project work as a standard cost, as some regional calls already do.

5. 5

   Link pay-transparency compliance to inclusive hiring. As Poland transposes Directive (EU) 2023/970, encourage employers to use structured return-to-work and inclusive hiring programmes as part of their remedial measures.