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

Thank you for your attention!