In the last 150 years, up to a million people have emigrated from Slovakia. They found a new home, jobs and started families in various parts of the world. Today, up to two million people in the world declare Slovak ancestry. At present, this is no different – our loved ones leave Slovakia for work, study and a better life. And this phenomenon was not slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic either. We seldom realize that Slovak nurses traveling to work in Austria are also migrants, and our Erasmus+ students somewhere in Spain are migrants too. Today, you would find a ‘face of migration‘ in every family. Migrating men and women from Slovakia also want abroad to meet people treating them with respect and dignity. The same should apply in reverse – we should be tolerant of foreigners who have visited Slovakia.

The first Ambrela’s video entitled ‘Diversity tastes’ was produced by the Cosi agency, which has worked with Slovak Platform for development organizations on sustainable lifestyle campaigns in the past. The video presents foreign tastes, such as pho soup, curry rice or kebab in pita bread, which are no longer unknown in Slovakia. The authors ask in the video: “Why so many don’t accept a different culture and the people who brought us these foreign tastes and favorite dishes? After all, different cultures and customs can pleasantly bring some spice to our lives. „

Maros Kemeny, director of the Cosi agency clarifies the concept of the first video: „To avoid that everything foreign ‘sits badly in peoples’ stomach’ we had to find and express creatively strong mainstream topic we encounter everyday. Such a topic is undoubtedly foreign cuisine, which is in Slovakia like at home. Food unites people, so we built a creative concept on foreign cuisine, in which we look for a way to respect the diversity and tolerance of culture and individuality of people whose culture and customs can enrich each other.” The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/VvuAwptqtBw

Daniel Kaba, executive secretary of Slovak Platform for development organizations – Ambrela, points out that migration is often not an option but a matter of survival, and takes place mainly within the low-income countries. „According to a 2016 UN estimate: 66 million people have fled their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence and human rights abuses. More than 40 million of them are displaced, migrating within their own country. „At the same time, he adds that not all migrants are heading west: „Another UN report from 2018 shows that 21.7 million migrants will end up in the low-income countries, while in the EU and the US together ‘only’ 3.6 million people are on the move.”

Ambrela’s member organizations operate also in low-income and post-conflict countries such as Ukraine, Iraq, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan, affected by natural disasters or wars, and help vulnerable people to face humanitarian crises. It is important with the Faces of Migration campaign to explain the stories and life conditions of migrants, as well as refugees and the reasons for (often forced) migration of vulnerable communities. 

About our Ambrela:

Ambrela – Platform for Development Organizations is an umbrella organization of 28 mostly non-governmental organizations in Slovakia which focus on development cooperation, humanitarian aid, global development education and sustainable development at home and abroad. The platform represents the common interests of its members both domestically and internationally.

Since 2019, together with six European partners, Ambrela has been implementing the SDGs and Migration project, supported by the European Commission’s Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) programme. The ‘Faces of Migration‘ campaign is one of the outputs of this project. Its aim is to raise awareness of the diversity, tolerance and coexistence of people from different cultures through specific life stories and look at the migration phenomenon through the prism of SDGs. Above mentioned videos and online discussions are part of this campaign. Videos’ production was also supported by Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation – SlovakAid. More information on: www.ambrela.org, www.tvaremigracie.ambrela.org and www.tvaremigracie.sk