As part of the ReRootED project, a focus group was conducted in a reception centre for migrant women in the province of Rome with professionals working in integration, training, and social support. The aim was to explore how entrepreneurship is currently understood within integration pathways and to identify key gaps in training and support systems.

Two core insights emerged.

First, entrepreneurship is not a starting point, but a process that begins much earlier. It is rooted in confidence, stability, and the ability to see oneself as an active agent of change. For many migrant women, however, experiences of trauma, care responsibilities, administrative complexity, and unstable life conditions significantly shape their relationship with risk and autonomy. As a result, emotional safety and social stability often become essential preconditions before any entrepreneurial pathway can be considered.

Second, effective entrepreneurship support requires a shift away from purely technical training towards a more holistic and trauma-informed approach. This includes integrating emotional and social support, recognising failure as part of learning, ensuring gradual and realistic pathways, and providing accessible information supported by human mediation. Importantly, entrepreneurship should never be imposed as a mandatory form of empowerment, but understood as one possible and legitimate option within broader life trajectories.

Within this perspective, emotional and mental wellbeing is not an additional component, but a central element of any learning environment, shaping both participants and professionals and influencing the quality of training itself.

The ReRootED project will build on these insights to develop more inclusive, realistic, and person- centred training tools for migrant women, grounded in lived experience and the complexity of real- life contexts.