Description of the integration initiative implemented
The most important issues for its integration have been:
- Previous contacts with relatives in the country of destination, which have facilitated their arrival and reception, in addition to obtaining employment.
- Information and guidance on legal aspects obtained from social entities (Córdoba Acoge), or the Church's food aid.
- The training received through the Córdoba Women's Institute and the City Council on home help aide
- The informal networks established with their neighbors have been fundamental during COVID-19.
- They try to maintain their cultural patterns of the culture of origin, but incorporate and live the cultural patterns of the host society.
- Family networks have been very important both in origin and destination, since they have been the economic and psychological support to face the migratory process.

Personal story
The woman interviewed comes from a municipality in Colombia. She left her country three years ago due to the situation of insecurity, since she has suffered different episodes of robberies at gunpoint with her young son and her teenage daughter.
She worked as an accounting and financial assistant (university studies) in a family business, but she and her husband left their jobs to start a business in her town, a flower shop. The second robbery at gunpoint was in the business, while she was alone with her son, and this meant the loss of the entire business. They found themselves in a situation of total insecurity, unable to overcome that insecurity psychologically, and with business debts, so they decided to migrate and start over in a safer context for their son and daughter.
When they ran out of financial resources, they had to sell their properties and live with her husband's family, being a very difficult situation. She comes from a family with two brothers and had a happy childhood obtaining university studies. Her two brothers have migrated, one to Italy and the other to Lanzarote (Spain). This migratory tradition together with the situation they were going through and the crime in Colombia influenced her decision to migrate to Spain. The destination was Spain since they considered that the language and the cultural approach favored her integration, as well as that a brother was in Spain.
At first the migratory process was carried out by the husband, he entered as a tourist with a round trip ticket. Her husband had a relative in Spain and had found him a job in a municipality in Córdoba. The initial idea was for the husband to settle in Spain and eventually she and her children would migrate, but 15 days after her husband was in Spain, he sent her the tickets for her and her son, all with the help of her husband´s cousin.
The resources to make the trip were obtained through a financial loan from a relative of hers (a cousin of hers), from her and her parents, and from her cousin who was in Spain. The bank was also owed the business loan.
The wife of her husband's cousin found her a job in the municipality of Córdoba, caring for an older man. The boss of her husband provided them with rental housing where they have been living for these 3 years.
Her son is fully integrated into the school, her daughter is shyer and she does not do very well in high school.
She spent 14 months working morning and afternoon in the house of this older man, taking care of the man, his wife and her eldest son, in very bad conditions and receiving very little, all in an irregular situation.
All the money they earned and that was left over after paying for basic needs they saved to pay all their debts (with their parents, with their cousins, with the bank), and today they can proudly say that they no longer owe anything, they paid all their debts and now they save to buy a car since they see it very necessary.
After 14 months working in that house, and also the COVID, she decided to leave this situation, and soon after, the boss of her husband from her offered her a job taking care of a relative from him.
During COVID, when she had barely worked, they had to resort to the food aid that the Church has given them. She has also taken a course as a home help assistant through the Andalusian Institute for Women (Córdoba) and the City Council and which she considers to be the workplace where she has the most possibilities to work, she finds it difficult to resume work in accounting and economics.
She maintains very good relations with her neighbors and they have helped them a lot during COVID, especially when they were infected with COVID, they helped them with the purchase, food, payment of food, etc.
She has not felt any type of discrimination, but her husband says yes, that having Arab features they confuse him with Arabs and if they have discriminated against him until they find out that he is Colombian.
In relation to women, to the situation of women, she considers that in Spain there is more conciliation and co-responsibility since her husband works in each as in her, and in Spain that is better than in Colombia, which is more macho in that appearance.
She feels welcomed and integrated into the town and she would like to stay there for the rest of her life. She maintains Colombian customs, especially food and music, but she has integrated elements of Spanish culture, especially in food.
She has heard stories of women who have been abused and discriminated against, and even return, and very depressed single women who are not feeling well, however, she considers that being with her family is an element of protection and strength in the face of adversity . .
She will shortly process all her documentation of her to regularize her situation of her with the employment contracts. The Córdoba Acoge entity is helping them in all the administrative procedures for this.

Analysis of the initiative and individual story
The main initiatives to improve integration have been:
LEGAL SCOPE:
- To be able to regulate his administrative situation and that of her family in order to be able to be on a regular basis and improve her employment.
RESOURCES AND SUPPORTS
- Social entities are key in orientation, information and training.
- Support from the City Council at the local level
- Neighbors are a very important support network both in reception and at times when they were most vulnerable by Covid-19.
NETWORKS AND PARTICIPATION
- Family networks, which facilitate the migration process, first arrival, finding a job and participating in the life of their municipality.
- Active participation in your municipality, which has been developed through the activities organized by the entities you have in your context (town hall, school, church) and being part of something.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
- Maintaining their cultural guidelines especially food and music.
- At the same time, incorporation into their lives of the cultural guidelines of the host society, valuing the richness that diversity brings.
RESILIENCE STRATEGIES
- Their ability to face life situations through new strategies of adaptation to the current situation, without clinging to their previous life.
- Assess the resources at your disposal and try to contribute to their immediate context.
- Her husband and her children are her main motivation to overcome adversity. Her family is the most important resource.

Results and Impact
In this case, the migration process has had a positive impact on their lives, despite the fact that they have a higher qualification than the jobs they do, that their economic level has decreased considerably, and that they must start from scratch regardless of what achieved in their previous life, they value it positively since they have achieved security.
In this sense, it is a dream for her that her son and her daughter can play in the street without fear of being shot, kidnapped or robbed. It was the main reason for her immigration process, so the result for her has been positive despite leaving all of her previous life in Colombia.