Focus Groups& In-Depth Interview

During the first half of April 2024 we will be holding a total of 6 focus groups and in-depth interviews with 60 participants in the 3 countries of the project (Spain, Italy and Belgium).

There will be 2 focus groups of 10 people each in each of the countries, and then each of them will be interviewed.

What are these activities for and what is their purpose?

A focus group is a type of qualitative sociological research in which a group of people, representing the population we intend to study, debate in a guided and open way on a certain topic.

In our case, the target group of the project will be formed: immigrants from countries outside the EU, who are over 50 years of age and who have in mind to develop a business in the EU. The objective is to obtain a local mapping in each country on the elements that characterize the target group of our project, as well as the motivations that lead them to want to carry out an enterprise, and the needs that arise for this reason. The aim is to extract meaningful and useful ideas and opinions for the project.

In focus groups, the role of the moderator is very important, as they must guarantee the legitimacy of the results and reduce bias in the discussions. To this end, it will use specific rules that must be respected by the participants, as well as facilitation techniques, for which it will have the assistance of the partner SOLIS Srls, a specialist in this discipline, who will be in charge of the coordination of this activity in the project. As for the in-depth interviews, these will be conducted individually with each of the immigrants who participated in the focus groups. They will serve to deepen the topics discussed in the focus groups, but from the individual point of view of the interviewee, obtaining information about their profile, motivations and needs, as well as to learn more in detail about the idea of entrepreneurship that each migrant has. Likewise, in this interview, each one will be explained how the phases will be so that they can

present their business ideas, in order to subsequently make a selection of 5 migrants for each country (15 in total), so that they continue in the project, obtaining training and being assisted in the development of their business plans.

With the information obtained in this qualitative research, it will be possible to map the situation, expectations and training needs of the group of immigrants over 50 years of age who wish to start a business in the European Union in each of the 3 participating countries. These local mappings will be consolidated among the 3 partner organizations of the project in an international workshop to be held online in May/2024, obtaining a consolidated mapping that will serve to enrich the focus of the project and, especially, to adjust the trainer's guide that will be used in the 3rd international workshop to be held in Italy in June/2024, and during the online mentoring that will be provided to the beneficiary immigrants so that they can develop their business plans.