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Studies and research

ConnectIEM: ICT for immigrants and ethnic minority people (IEM)

On April 2011, ConnectIEM was launched with the main purpose of gathering statistically representative and cross-country comparable data on ICT skills, access and usage of the main migration groups living in 8 EU Member States. This study, which represents the first European thorough attempt at exploring the relation between technology and integration processes of migrant population, will also develop evidence-based policy recommendations aimed at improving the contribution of ICT to IEM's integration in our society.

The main goals of the study is to better understand how immigrant communities in the European Union use information and communication technologies (ICT) - and the effects of this use on their social, economic, and cultural integration. By ICT we mean all kinds of digital tools and applications, in particular those based on computers; the Internet, the web and social networking sites; mobile phones, smart phones and other mobile devices.

The project seeks to answer some of these questions:
  • How is ICT being appropriated by IEM groups in Europe and which role does it play in helping individuals position themselves within the new order of informational capitalism?
  • Do "connected" IEM have better chances of integration?
  • What are the potential uses of ICT to remove barriers and empower migrants?

The research board is designing an online survey to capture the patterns of skills, use and access of about 5,400 connected IEM in the following EU countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Latvia Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. The online survey will be conducted with the help of local researchers, social organizations and intermediaries. These will contribute to promote the survey towards the targeted IEM groups in each country and to contextualize the results which will likely reflect also country-specific features. The survey will be available from September 2011 until November 30th 2011.

ConnectIEM is a research project commissioned by the Directorate General Information Society and Media (DG INFSO) and the Joint Research Center - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) from the European Commission, and it will be finished in March 2012, its total duration being of eleven months.

ConnectIEM is implemented by the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in Barcelona (Spain), the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington Information School in Seattle (USA). The collaboration of local teams distributed around the eight countries where the research will be conducted.

Coordinator of research in the Czech Republic: Ondřej Daniel
Cell phone: +420 724 803 394
E-mail: europeancity@mkc.cz

Financial education of foreigners

Foreigners arriving in the Czech Republic must deal with a number of issues including housing, employment or establishment of business, healthcare, education, etc. Dealing with such issues is closely related to money management and it is therefore important that foreigners have enough correct and relevant information about the Czech banking sector and financial services it provides.

This project aims at giving foreigners information about the Czech banking system and explaining legends and myths that circulate among foreigners with little knowledge of the Czech language. The project should help prevent social and economic exclusion of foreigners and contribute to their successful integration.

The Multicultural Center Prague implements this project in cooperation with banking professionals, migration experts, social workers and foreigners. The ultimate objective was to publish a "Guidebook to financial services in the Czech Republic for foreigners" and make it available in print and on the Internet. The guidebook was published in Czech, English, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese to help foreigners whose Czech is not adequate.

The guidebook contains general information about banking in the Czech Republic as well as specific information about basic banking and financial products offered by selected banks and perceived as important from the point of view of foreigners living in the Czech Republic including current account, mortgage, international money transfers, etc.

Publication in all languague versions is available for download at www.migraceonline.cz/finance. Free copy could be also picked up from office of Multicultural Center Prague.

The project, which has received financial support from the Citigroup Foundation , kicked off in June 2005 and ended in March 2006.

For more information, please contact Hana Žáková Petrová at projekt@mkc.cz

Discrimination and media

Multicultural Center Prague is a partner of Counselling Centre for Citizenship, Civil and Human Rights in a project Discrimination and media sponsored by the foundation NROS. The basic aim of the MKC‘s part of the project is to point out different forms of discrimination of marginalized groups in the media and to fight against it. The range of the vulnerable groups is restricted according to the mission of the MKC mostly to the ethnic or religious minorities, such us muslims, Romas or refugees. Most of the outputs will be published on the thematic section “Discrimination and media” of the website www.migrationonline.cz.

Activities:

  • press monitoring
  • press review
  • articles
  • analysis
  • up to date reaction to discriminatory or outrageous manners of reporting
  • network of the experts interested in the theme

    • Duration: 11/2005 – 10/2006

    Contact: Eva Burgetová
    phone/fax: 296 325 346
    E-mail: migrace@mkc.cz

    Media and Minorities: The Media Image of Foreigners and Ethnic and National Minorities in the Czech Republic (2002-2003)

    Our worldview is to a large extent shaped by the media. But information provided by the media can sometimes be distorted or incomplete. What do we think about foreigners and what information about them do we receive from the media? These questions were at the heart of Media and Minorities: the Media Image of Foreigners and Ethnic and National Minorities in the Czech Republic, a project organized by the Multicultural Center Prague.

    The project's main result was the report "Hard to Make out Foreigners: How Foreigners Are (not) Written About" which focused on the way foreigners and various ethnic and national minorities are presented in the media, the context of reporting and whether we learn about their lives in the Czech Republic and the reasons why they decided to come here. Our goal was to find out whether information presented by the media is sufficient for people to develop an "objective" opinion about the life of foreigners. The report was commissioned by the Multicultural Center Prague and written by the sociologists Petra Klvačová and Tomáš Bitrich.

    We have presented the conclusions of the research at public debates with panelists from the ranks of journalists and foreigners, at Interculturality and the Media, a course attended by teachers of civics and related classes, and finally at a conference of librarians. The results were also made available to students of media studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University who frequented a specialized and optional one-semester seminar.

    The Czech and English book Hard to Make out Foreigners contains an abridged version of the final report, commentaries by media experts, contributions by foreigners living in the Czech Republic, glossary and address book. The book is available from our library or you can download it from www.mkc.cz. It has also been distributed to 500 libraries across the Czech Republic.

    Project partners: Newton IT, Center for Media Studies and the Mass Communication Department of Charles University, Youth for Intercultural Understanding (MIP), POLIS and the Counseling Center for Integration.

    Project coordinator: Barbora Hořavová
    E-mail: fondy@mkc.cz

    Hard to Make out Refugees (2002)

    In 2002, the Multicultural Center Prague commissioned a research study of coverage of refugees by the Czech Republic's main dailies. The study is based on an analysis of 200 randomly selected articles published in the course of one year in MF Dnes, Lidové noviny and Právo.

    The study is divided into five chapters with the first chapter explaining selection methodology. What follows is a brief overview of the three newspapers based on the types of articles they published and the sections in which the articles appeared. The main analysis has two sections, one that examines the topics of articles about refugees and the context in which refugees are discussed, and one that attempts to answer the question of what image of migrants is presented in the analyzed articles. The final chapter proposes a number of ways in which the issue of refugees should be further examined and discussed.

    The three papers do not communicate a negative image of refugees, but they do not communicate a positive one, either - rather, the image is incomplete and mediated as so blurred that it is insufficient to form stereotypes. What the articles lack is a refugee perspective; instead of informing about the lives, values and features of refugees, the selected articles impart opinions of Czech institutions and citizens. Refugees are presented through their problems and this is reflected in the selection of sources used by journalists.

    Authors: Petra Klvačová and Tomáš Bitrich

    The study has been partially financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

    Project coordinator: Lenka Simerská