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October 12th, 2008

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NGO aims to train bureaucrats in sensitivity

Czech officials head to diverse London area

By Hilda Hoy
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 7th, 2007 issue

Learning by doing: That’s the premise behind an innovative new project designed to bridge the chasm between Czech bureaucracy and the country’s growing immigrant population.

Launched Jan. 24, the “Be In During Integration” project is the brainchild of the Prague-based European Contact Group (EKS), a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that focuses on migration and labor. The group has enlisted the partnership of a British NGO named Praxis, which has worked for 24 years in London’s East End, an area famous for its hodgepodge of diverse ethnicities.

Together, the organizations will school Czech bureaucrats on immigration issues, then fly them to London to practice what they’ve learned.

Critics often lambast the Czech system for being insensitive to or ignorant of immigrants’ needs, and EKS is no exception.

“We are not very satisfied with the status quo, and that is partly the reason why we launched this project. Maybe it will stir the waters up,” spokeswoman Lucie Šídová says.

“We want participants to be more sensitive when dealing with immigrants, to better understand the immigrants’ needs and to pass this knowledge and experience on to their colleagues.”

There are two stages in the project: First, experts from Praxis fly to Prague to hold three weekend workshops, held once a month, for participants, who come from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, Prague City Hall and various NGOs. The workshops will focus on such topics as cultural differences, gender issues, the challenges of immigration and the ways that governments and NGOs can help.

Then, the Czechs travel to London for a four-day stay in the multicultural East End, where they will get to see their lessons in action and put their training to the test. The planned schedule will have them taking part in Praxis’ community works and visiting other immigrant centers in the area.

Supported by funding from the European Union, Prague City Hall and the Czech government, the project has room for 36 participants. To recruit them, EKS placed ads in newspapers and on the Internet and approached various state institutions. From the 70-some applications they received, they carefully whittled the list down to represent a fair cross section.

Citing privacy reasons, Šídová declined to provide the names or ranks of the government workers chosen.

The project will proceed in three cycles, with 12 participants in each. The first cycle is now under way, and its participants will head to London in May.

‘A holistic approach’
Praxis’ wealth of experience has given it many ideas to share, says Berhanu Kassayie, a project leader at the organization in London.

“We take a holistic approach in our initiatives,” he says. “It’s not just about settlement, but also about the realization of the potential of these people within the community. … You need to engage them in the actual civic life of the community.”

Giving bureaucrats the chance to witness such a community is “extremely important,” Šídová says.

“These are the people who usually do a load of administrative work. They need to have some real-life contact with the situation of immigrants and the people that work with them,” she says. “They get to see the practical side of the story, which can then help them deal more effectively in the administrative area of this issue. Plus, it forces them to think in a different way.”

“What the clerks or participants learn here in the Czech Republic, in theory, they will be able to use there in practice. This stay will enable them to see how what they studied in the workshops works in real life in London,” she adds.

Though, like any other community, East London has its problems, “it is an area that has managed to develop as a very diverse community,” Kassayie says. “You come to London, and you see communities working together.”

At last count, at the end of September 2006, foreigners made up 2.5 percent of the Czech population, according to the Czech Statistical Office. In Prague, that number is even higher: Nearly 100,000 non-Czechs live in the capital, or about 8 percent of the city’s population.

In the East London borough where Praxis operates, and where the Czech trainees will be visiting, that number is far higher.

According to the last British census in 2001, more than one-third of that borough’s population was born outside of the United Kingdom. In total, 37 percent of people are self-identified as Asian or Asian-British, and 33 percent described themselves as Bangladeshi.

The largest group of foreigners in the Czech Republic is Ukrainian, numbering about 98,000 at the end of last September. The highest number of non-Europeans comes from Vietnam.

Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Hilda Hoy can be reached at hhoy@praguepost.com

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