The project
About Road Map 10
Why Road Map 10 exists, what it aims to achieve and how it works with youth workers, young Muslim peers and public services.
The challenge
Muslims across Europe continue to experience discrimination in education, at work and in access to services. This is not mainly because laws are missing: EU and national equality frameworks are well established. The difficulty lies in applying them consistently in daily institutional practice.
Young Muslim women often face the sharpest barriers, where anti-Muslim bias meets gender discrimination. Trust in public institutions can be low, discrimination is often unreported, and community organisations and public services rarely work together in a structured way.
35%
of Muslims surveyed experienced racial discrimination in the preceding 12 months
53% vs 73%
employment rate of Muslim women compared with Muslim men
39%
experienced racial discrimination when looking for work (35% at work)
58% vs 38%
young Muslim women wearing religious clothing vs those who do not, when looking for work
According to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA, 2024), 35% of Muslims surveyed experienced racial discrimination in the 12 months preceding the survey, while Muslim women’s employment rate is 20 percentage points lower than that of Muslim men (53% vs. 73%). Discrimination is particularly prevalent in the labour market: 39% of Muslim respondents experienced racial discrimination when looking for work and 35% at work in the five years preceding the survey. Young Muslim women wearing religious clothing face an even higher risk of discrimination when looking for work, with 58% reporting such experiences compared with 38% of young women who do not wear religious clothing.
What we see in our countries
Italy
Bias persists in schools and job counselling, and educators have limited access to intercultural training.
Germany
Anti-Muslim incidents are rising, particularly against women, and inclusion in vocational training is uneven.
Greece
Discrimination is under-reported and trust in public authorities is low.
Spain
Islamophobia is increasingly visible in education and public services, but responses are not coordinated.
Our goals
Four goals guide everything Road Map 10 does, from training rooms to policy tables.
Strengthen professionals
Reinforce the competences and advocacy capacity of youth workers, educators and mediators to address anti-Muslim discrimination in education and employment pathways.
Empower young Muslims
Support young Muslims, especially young women, to become peer educators and leaders who engage confidently with institutions.
Turn practice into standards
Develop and share the Road Map 10 Decalogue, ten practical guidelines for public administrations, to translate local experience into European standards for equality.
Build lasting networks
Establish a European network and advocacy mechanisms that link community actors, institutions and equality bodies.
Our approach
Road Map 10 links three levels of change:
1 · Competences
Building professional capacity
A transnational training programme and job-shadowing exchanges create a European community of practice among youth workers and mediators.
2 · Contexts
Learning in action
Professionals and young Muslim peer educators co-facilitate sessions in schools and job centres. Contact and dialogue between young people and service staff become a learning space.
3 · Policies
Converting experience into standards
Evidence from the field becomes the Road Map 10 Decalogue, policy briefs and dialogue tables with decision-makers.
Every activity follows a “do no harm” principle, is voluntary and confidential, and complies with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and GDPR.
Gender and intersectionality
Anti-Muslim discrimination affects women and men differently, and gender often intersects with religion, ethnicity and migration background. That is why gender is built into every part of Road Map 10, not added on top:
- gender-balanced participation and facilitation teams;
- targeted outreach to young Muslim women;
- training on gendered Islamophobia;
- monitoring based on sex- and age-disaggregated data;
- communication that shows young Muslims, and especially women, in active, leading roles.
Who we work with
Three groups, each with a distinct role in making equality work in daily practice.
Youth workers, educators and cultural mediators
Our primary group. They stand between communities and institutions, and are best placed to make equality work in daily practice.
Young Muslims, with a focus on young women
Peer educators and co-facilitators, not only beneficiaries: co-producers of inclusion.
Schools, employment services, equality bodies and policymakers
They gain tested formats, standards and a European network to support adoption.
Timeline (20 months)
Project start date: July 2026 · End date: February 2028
July 2026 – February 2027
Launch
Project set-up, scientific committee, comparative analysis, curriculum, residential trainings, recruitment of peer educators
March 2027 – October 2027
Consolidation
Peer educator training, co-design of sessions, job shadowing, dialogue tables, European platform goes online
November 2027 – February 2028
Impact
Sessions in schools and job centres completed, policy briefs, national conferences, European conference and network launch