integration of refugees in slovakia -...
TRANSCRIPT
INTEGRATION OF REFUGEES IN SLOVAKIA:
- responsibility: Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and
Family
- cooperation with: Migration Office of the Ministry of
Interior of the Slovak Republic
Part of Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic
Main responsibilities:
› creation and implementation of asylum and migration policy
› decisions of granting of international protection
› integration of beneficiaries with international protection (responsible Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family)
› coordination, analyses, technical support
Although the Migration Office starts with the process of
integration of asylum seekers since the beginning of the asylum
procedure, the main focus is on integration of persons who are
granted international protection.
During the asylum procedure integration of asylum seekers is
focused mainly on learning Slovak language and getting an
overview of cultural orientation.
Language – the language classes are provided to asylum seekers since the arrival to reception centre (currently provided by NGO implemented by project financed by AMIF)
Accomodation - during the asylum procedure it is provided in asylum facilities run by Migration Office, after granting international protection beneficiaries move to private commercial housing or hostels provided by integration project
Employment - NGO that runs integration project supports beneficiaries of international protection to find a job
The state budget covers only basic services for asylum seekers in
asylum facilities, such as housing, food, pocket money, basic
hygiene items, health care, social assistance.
Once asylum seekers are granted asylum they have a right to
receive single social benefit from the state (that is in amount of
1,5 of subsistence minimum)
NGO in cooperation with municipality implement projects that are held in asylum centres. Asylum seekers are provided with
supplementary services such as - social and psychological
assistance, legal counselling, language classes, free time
activities, material assistance, health care.
Persons granted asylum or subsidiary protection
If an applicant is granted asylum or subsidiary protection, the
Migration Office will assign the refugee to the „integration
project“ financed from AMIF. Currently the project is run by
Slovak Catholic Charity but soon will be taken over by a new
NGO called Marginal in partnership with ADRA (Civic association
– Adventitious Agency for Development and Assistance)
Main activities of Integration project consist of:
providing of social assistance
legal, job and psychological counselling
language lessons
access to health care
introduction to cultural orientation and supplementary assistance
Financial support is provided to the people who have been granted international protection for a period of six months. In some cases reception of the financial support can be prolonged. Migration Office also monitors the implementation of the project.
There are two categories of refugees who arrive in the
European Union or Slovakia to seek protection:
1. Spontaneously arriving refugees
2. Quota refugees (based on relocation or
resettlement programmes)
People who travel to Slovakia (usually illegaly and without documents) and make a refugee claim upon arrival in Slovakia
They go through a refugee determination process to determine if they are convention refugees
If successful they are granted international protection
If not successful they are required to leave Slovakia
The fact is that these people have a perception of „target
country“ the country where they planned to go initialy. It is
usually a country where they already have family ties or at least
people with their origin reside there. Moreover, it is often a
country with better economical and living conditions.
These people have already risked too much in order to achieve specific target country and were endangered while illegally crossing the border. They also invested too much, emotionally and financially. Generally speaking, integration of these people is much more complicated.
Therefore, there are following problems regarding integration of these people:
reluctance to learn new language and all the problems related to that, as for instance finding a job, getting an education...
all this is usually followed by secondary movements to other EU member states
These refugees are part of organised programmes. They usually
reside in refugee camps outside of their country of origin before the
arrival to the reception country. Therefore, they appreciate the
decision of EU member state to resettle them to its territory.
The individual refugee's motivation for successful integration is of
central importance. They are motivated to live and ready to integrate in a new country. Their arrival to reception country is
based on mutual agreement with clear conditions.
In comparison with the spontaneous arrivals, quota refugees are
perceived as a permanent solution of the refugee situation. Member states have a possibility to investigate an individual case
and verify their reasons for leaving as well as their identity.
List of personal skills and abilities of asylum seekers gathered already in asylum centres – in order to support a better use of
third country nationals’ skills and their labour market
integration (social profile)
Good exchange of information – social profile of asylum applicants and its subsequent use by those who are in
charge of integration process – from reception to integration
Supervision of information collected and used by the Migration Office
Most of the pre-integration and integration measures are implemented by NGOs on the project basis for limited period
of time and financed by AMIF – that might result in flawed
continuity of measures implementation, dependency on
NGOs and allocation of EU financial resources
Although pre-integration begins in asylum centers, it is very
difficult for a person to find a suitable job, if any – usually low-
qualified or high-qualified jobs
Main reasons: language barrier, employer is unsure about the
documents of the person
Lack of engagement by job centres
As the beneficiaries of international protection are perceived as „disadvantaged employment seekers“ in relation to work, they can barely take an advantage of following services such as employment counselling, employment offers or vocational training.
Reasons:
The same measures as for Slovak nationals, hence they face several disadvantages like language barrier. Therefore, beneficiaries of international protection or asylum applicants are disadvantaged to access labor market.
Introduction to Cultural Orientation - to provide more complex understanding and practical information in order to
make the integration as easy as possible (to get an idea how
the Slovak society works or how to get by in everyday life)
State Integration Program (will be introduced by December 2017)
› more systemathic approach towards integration
› interactivity of individual ministries and municipalities
instead of NGOs in crucial areas such as employment, education and housing (access to social housing)
› using state financial resources instead of EU funding
Migration Office supports the engagement of international companies - Migration Office plans to organize meetings with
companies
Year
Number of
asylum
applicatio
ns
Granted
asylum
Not
granted
asylum
Provided
subsidiary
protection
Terminated
procedure Granted citizenship
1993 96 41 20 25 0
1994 140 58 32 65 0
1995 359 80 57 190 0
1996 415 72 62 193 4
1997 645 69 84 539 14
1998 506 53 36 224 22
1999 1320 26 176 1034 2
2000 1556 11 123 1366 0
2001 8151 18 130 6154 11
2002 9743 20 309 8053 59
2003 10358 11 531 10656 42
2004 11395 15 1592 11782 20
2005 3549 25 827 2930 2
2006 2849 8 861 1940 5
2007 2642 14 1177 82 1693 18
2008 909 22 416 66 457 4
2009 822 14 330 98 460 1
2010 541 15 180 57 361 3
2011 491 12 186 91 270 7
2012 732 32 334 104 383 0
2013 441 15 124 34 352 7
2014 331 14 197 99 163 12
2015 330 8 124 41 148 5
2016 109 163 68 10 29 0
Total 58 430 816 7 976 682 49 460 238