Labour migration

The Association for Integration and Migration (SIMI), collaborating with director Jan Látal and produced by DW Agency, created a documentary film about the lives of migrant workers in the Czech Republic.

The PREMIERE of the film took place on Dec. 17the 2012 at 20.30 (8.30 p.m.) at Svetozor cinema, Prague 1. Photogalery from the venue is available below.

There were also two other screenings in the beginning of the year 2013. In the community centre Salé in Žižkov (Prague 3), Cross Club in Holešovice (Prague 7), in Klubovna Prague 6 or in the  Multicultural centre SAVEC, Prague 1.

The documentary movie you can also watch ONLINE or pick up a copy in the office of AIM.

About the film

The film tells the stories of four migrants from Ukraine, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Moldavia, who chose to live and work in Czech Republic. What brings them here is the dream of a better life. What is it like for them to live and work in the Czech Republic? How do they perceive our country and the mentality of the Czech people? What kind of problems do they have to deal with on their journey here and in their everyday life in the Czech Republic? Do the migrants really experience a better life here?

Association for Integration and Migration, Consortium of Migrants Assisting Organizations in the Czech Republic, Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, representation in the CR organized the international double conference on November 27th in the space of Academic Conference Center.

The topic of the conference in the morning session was Migration as a commodity and alternative perspectives on migration, together with positions of migrants in industry. The afternoon session brought outputs of the international project of SIMI and under its auspices program devoted to the topic of cooperation between non-governmental sector and Labor Office. In the end of the day the new documentary film The Better Life was screened. The document was followed by the discussion about a position of economic migrants in the Czech Republic and in Europe.

Summary of outputs of the conference are available on server Migrace online

On Saturday the 13rd of October AIM provided a seminar about employment and enterprise of foreigners to the members of the Filipino-Czech Association. The seminar was very succesful and higly apprised. The revaluating of the seminar you can find in the article here: http://filczech.cz/site/migration-integration-seminar/

This seminar was also the last AIM has organized as part of the project Increasing the role of NGOs in the social integration of labour migrants in the Czech Republic, funded by ESF.

Representative of AIM was present at the European Integration Forum – the dialogue platform on integration of immigrants, which met for the seventh time on 31 May and 1 June 2012 in the EESC building. The main theme of this meeting was: the Right to Family Reunification for Third Country Nationals.

This issue was the subject of a recent public consultation held by the European Commission. Given the high number of contributions received, it was decided that the Forum would be the most appropriate arena to deepen the discussion with representatives of civil society organisations.

Photos can be accessed from here:

http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.events-and-activities-european-integretion-forum-7-photos

Domestic worker who does your ironing, shopping and cooking for you, baby-sitters with perfect English or house cleaners who will come to your house a few times a week – or all of this in one person. Nothing unusual about that in the Czech households of late. There are also specialized agencies offering baby-sitters from the Phillipines or cleaners from the Ukraine. These particular women form, however, one of the most vulnerable migrant groups. „Equal opportunities on the threshold of Czech homes“ is a project that addresses this specific  issue. The project is being carried out by the Association for Integration and Migration (SIMI), People in Need (Člověk v tísni), marketing agency Ogilvy&Mather and the Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Národohospodářský ústav AV ČR).

At the end of May a foreign study visit of some SIMI workers at the Portuguese organisation Solidariedade Imigrante (SOLIM)  in Lisboa took place. It was a part of the project ESF which is focused at the cooperation between the non-governmental sector and the job centres in the area of integration of migrant workers. The aim of the study visit was to inform the Czech delegation about the situation of work migration and social integration of migrant workers in Portugal and about how local non-governmental organisations and Portuguese public sector at local and national levels implement the relevant measures.

The well-known European Platform for Internation Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants PICUM published the first edition of the PICUM Quarterly Newsletter. This Quarterly Newsletter is a summary and revised edition of news items published in the PICUM Bulletins between January and March 2011 providing you the most up to date information on each issue.

The news items of the PICUM Quarterly Newsletter are categorised thematically and sorted by country and chronologically. Among others, the conference "Regularisation of irregular migration, held by AIM, OPU and MKC on 12 April 2011 in the Polish Institute Prague is announced in the category "Events".

SIMI entered into a new partnership with the Filipino-Czech Association (FCA). The aim of this partnership is to support migrants from the Phillipines, especially women working in Czech households, but also all migrants from the Phillipines in general. For more information about this partnership have a look at here.