Three members of the local YOUMIG team from Rača visited the city of Brno in the Czech Republic to learn about local experiences with managing youth migration. They visited the Brno Expat Centre, which provides free consultations and assistance to skilled foreign professionals and their families who live and work in Brno or plan to do so.  The main mission of the Centre is to help foreigners find a new home in Brno and create an open environment so they are able to take part in the everyday life of the city. Also, they talked to the Head of the Department of Strategies of the Municipal Office in Brno which is an entity responsible for designing migration policies in the city.  

In January 2018 three members of the project team from Rača (Peter Pilinský, Lucia Kováčová and Slavomír Ondoš) visited Brno. Brno is the largest city of Moravia and the second largest in the Czech Republic. At the same time, it is the historical capital of Moravia and the administrative center of the South Moravian Region. In terms of migration, the Brno region can be considered as a receiving destination due to its good opportunities in the labor market and higher education (e.g. Masaryk University with a large number of international students).

The team visited the Brno Expat Centre. The aim of the visit was to get acquainted with the activities and the overall functioning of the Centre, and their experiences with providing services to foreigners. Rača’s delegation was welcomed by Mr. Kopkáš - the head of the Brno Expat Centre. Mrs. Chrapková - the head of the Department of Strategies from Brno Municipality joined the meeting and provided information about the overall migration policy of the municipality.

Issues of interest to the YOUMIG project were addressed during an informal discussion.

The Brno municipality does not collect data on migration. They use official national statistics (provided by the Czech statistical office), as well as contacts at research and academic institutions to fulfill their data needs, e.g. Masaryk university Brno. Brno Municipality plans to carry out their programme for the integration of migrants with short- and long-term goals and to this end collect and utilize data on migration to a greater extent.

The Brno Expat Centre does not collect data on migration, either. They identify their clients' needs based on the services migrants use most frequently. Based on this information they created a website for migrants with all necessary information about the city, information on registration, accommodation, organisations providing migrants with different services, including email and phone contacts for the most important institutions (emergency services, municipality office, foreign police etc.).

Both the Centre for the Support of Integration of Foreigners (the regional unit) and the Brno Expat Centre provide one-stop-shop services. These are services that can be used all in one place connected to one topic, such as migration. As the Brno Expat Centre provides services to high-skilled migrants, the website provides information only in English. The website of the Centre for Integration of Foreigners however provides information in Czech, English, Russian and Vietnamese. Such a selection of languages reflects the structure of immigrants in the region (taking into consideration that Slovak immigrants can understand Czech and Ukrainian ones are often proficient in Russian).

Subsequently, YOUMIG’s thematic expert Lucia Kováčová conducted three interviews with young migrants. All migrant respondents said they often use the websites of both organisations. They find information provided by both useful. They also appreciate that information is updated on a regular basis. They used or still use the services provided by the Centre. They appreciate that Czech language courses are by and large free of charge. One respondent also used job counselling services and could find a part-time job as a student with this assistance.

The Municipality of Rača can learn from the practices in Brno in several ways. For example, they may consider implementing low-threshold language courses. Rača could get inspired from the way one-stop-shop services were organised in Brno, as the YOUMIG project is also implementing such a service for a 12-month test period. They are particularly interested in creating a functional and well-structured website, offering information in several languages not just in English, depending on the country of origin of local immigrants.

Text and photos by YOUMIG Rača team