About us

SIMI is a human rights organization that defends the rights of migrants and provides them with comprehensive support regardless of their background. We support integration, coexistence, and strive for a fair and open society.

Our vision is an open and informed society that perceives migration as a benefit and a natural part of life. We aim to create an environment where migrants have easy access to information, rules are clearly formulated, and the specific needs of each individual are considered.

WHAT WE DO

Services for foreigners

We provide free legal, social and psychosocial counseling to foreigners living in the Czech Republic. As a successor of the Counseling centre for refugees we have been providing counseling since 1992. In the course of our operations our services have been used by at least 40,000 migrants.

Influencing the public

We work with the general public to promote tolerance and combat xenophobia and racism. Workers of SIMI appear in the media, participate in discussions, seminars and conferences while they give lectures at elementary and high schools and universities throughout all the Czech Republic.

Legislative Work

Through concept work, SIMI seeks to influence migration and refugee legislation. By means of initiatives, scholarly articles and lobbying, we strive to create living conditions that are, in the long term, better and more favourable to foreigners in the Czech Republic.

History

The Association for Integration and migration was founded in 1992, when thousands of refugees fled war-torn Yugoslavia for the Czech Republic. In the same year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began operating in Prague. The head of the Office asked the Czechoslovak Helsinki Committee for cooperation. With the support of the Canadian Embassy, the Czech Helsinki Committee's Counselling Centre for Refugees was officially opened in 1993. The Centre was founded by Dana Němcová, a psychologist and former Charter 77 spokeswoman, and Anna Grušová. Together with a lawyer, they began touring the emerging humanitarian centres.

Work with Yugoslavian refugees was followed up by work with refugees from other countries. In 1998, the Centre for Migration Issues was founded, addressing the issues of migration and integration of foreigners into the Czech Republic. The Counselling Centre for Refugees separated from the Czech Helsinki Committee at the end of 2002 and began operating as an independent NGO on 1st January 2003.

A major change took place in 2008 when the Counselling Centre for Refugees merged with the Centre for Migration Issues, adopting a new name in the process: the Association for Integration and Migration (Sdružení pro integraci a migraci – SIMI).