The EMN Educational Seminar on Migration is a unique learning platform about migration organised in Slovakia which for three days fosters networking, experience sharing and discussions among (inter)national experts and participants. The seminar provides professionals working in the state institutions, non-governmental sector and other entities (e.g. research bodies, academia, media) with comprehensive and up-to-date information on migration and in this way aims to contribute to enhanced policymaking process in Slovakia, other EU countries and Norway. It reaches out also to the public through various evening events. The seminar has been organised by IOM as the coordinator of the EMN activities in Slovakia with funding by the European Union since 2012*. Each year it focuses on a specific migration related topic. 

In 2024, the seminar “Demystifying Migration and Harnessing Its Power” examined some of the common myths and misconceptions about migration and migrants, and how they shape public attitudes and narratives. During the three days participants had a chance to explore latest policies, data, and trends of migration in the world and the EU, as well as the interlinkages between migration, human rights, and state sovereignty. Special attention was paid to climate migration and its various layers and relations to food security, conflicts, irregular migration, and state governance. More than 100 participants and speakers from 15 countries took part in the event.

In 2019, the seminar "Impacts and Opportunities of International Migration“ focused on the relationship between politics and migration, how and why people decide to migrate, good governance as a way forward in migration, and migration in urbanizing world, with special focus on cities. 

In 2018, the Educational Seminar on Migration “Causes and Consequences of Forced Migration” discussed migration myths and data based migration policy-making, migration governance and future scenarios of international migration, current migration development from the countries of origin perspective, vulnerabilities and human rights of migrants, environmentally induced migration as well as labour migration and the risks of modern slavery. Participants had a chance to explore impact of current actions for the future migration policy-making through interactive role-play board game developed by the EU Policy Lab of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

In 2017, the seminar focused on “Addressing the Needs of Forced Migrants in the 21st Century” including migratory trends, enhancement of safe and legal pathways for migrants, protection of migrants, and empowerment of refugees of the 21st century.

The 2015 seminar “Irregular Migration – Borders and Human Rights” was devoted to irregular migration in the world, EU and Slovakia, smuggling and other forms of irregular migration, measures to tackle irregular migration, ways to deal with a situation of irregular migrants and protection of their rights as well as intermingling of forced and irregular migration.

The topic of the seminar in 2014 was “Forced Migration – Causes and Possible Solutions”, dealing with causes of contemporary displacement and current situation with regard to forced migration, asylum and other forms of international protection globally and in the EU, resettlement as a vital tool of international protection, and refugee hotspots in the Mediterranean region.

In 2013, “Labour Migration Opportunities and Challenges” seminar focused on labour migration management, the status of labour migrants on the labour market, risk factors of labour migration and human trafficking.

The first 2012 Educational Seminar on Migration “Migration Globally and Locally” introduced various aspects of migration: migration as a global phenomenon, migration policy of the Slovak Republic in the global and EU context, labour migration worldwide, ability of the Slovak Republic to respond to labour market needs through migration, migration and development, forced migration and irregular migration.

*Notes:

In 2016, the seminar did not take place due to the organisation of the EMN Annual Conference under the first Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU. In 2020, the organisation of the seminar was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2022 due to changed priorities of the EMN related to the war in Ukraine.

The EMN Educational Seminar on Migration reaches out also to the public through free-of-charge evening programme: film screenings and/or discussion evenings. EMN Discussion Evenings combine a documentary screening and moderated discussion with experts in the particular field.

In 2024, you could experience the theatre play 'Domov, kde je ten tvoj?, a fictional story of two Slovaks fleeing their war-torn homeland based on the book "War, what if it were here?" by Danish novelist Janne Teller. The play offered an exploration of displacement and identity. On the second day of the seminar, you could join us for the screening of the film The Old Oak (2023) which portrays the experiences of a village in Northeast England as it welcomes Syrian refugees. The film provided insights into the themes of migration, community, and resilience.

In 2023, you could join us to watch documentaries The New Europeans about migration in the European Union after recent pandemic and with ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and Buoyancy about modern slavery in the fishing industry. The documentary The New Europeans was followed by a discussion with experts about migration, migration policies and long-term public attitudes towards foreigners and diversity in Slovakia in the light of a broader economic, demographic and social reality.

In 2021, two film screenings accompanied the online seminar programme. Midnight Traveler (2019) captured an uncertain journey of Afghan director Hassan Fazili and his family to Europe. Gleis 11 (2021) told five parallel stories about Germany’s first generation of labour migrants and their untold stories. The 2019 EMN Discussion Evenings included theatre play by Nová scéna Theatre Home (where is yours?) followed by discussion with experts on how to talk about migration in an accurate and balanced way as well as screening of documentary movie The Good Postman (2017) following the election for mayor of an almost deserted Bulgarian village on the Turkish border. Previous EMN Discussion Evenings Migration Caused by Climate Change (2018) highlighted devastating consequences of this phenomenon for people and Refugee Camp, My Home (2017) the dire conditions which refugees face. Older EMN Discussion Evenings included topics Europe or Die? (2015) on irregular migration and current situation in the Mediterranean, People Forced to Flee (2014) about the forced migration, refugees and assistance to them, The Tree Workers Case (2013) on labour exploitation and human trafficking, Are we at Home Here? (2012) about migrant integration in Slovakia and Czech Republic. In 2015 and 2017, film screening extended the educational seminar’s accompanying events and offered the Slovak premiere of the Hollywood movie The Good Lie about Sudanese refugees resettled to the United States of America.

Each year, the seminar welcomes more than 70 participants with different professional backgrounds. It targets mainly professionals from the public administration, non-profit sector, and academia based in Slovakia who deal with or are interested in the topics related to migration of third-country nationals. In 2017, the seminar for the first time opened up also to participants coming from/nominated by other EMN National Contact Points based in all EU Member States and selected non-EU countries which are members of the EMN as observers.

The seminar participants have the opportunity to meet various experts from the EU institutions and agencies, international and non-profit organisations as well as from renowned universities, think-tanks and media. Over the past years, among numerous guest lecturers were for example (in alphabetical order and in their capacity at a given time):

• Baptiste Amieux | Regional Immigration and Border Governance Specialist, Policy and Programme Support Division, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for the EEA, the EU and NATO, Belgium
• Karin Atassi | intercultural worker, Brno Municipality, Czech Republic
• Margo Baars | Senior Programme Coordinator, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Afghanistan
• Peter Barnett | Head of Libraries, Advice, Health and Information Service, Coventry City Council, United Kingdom
• Gudrun Biffl | Professor of Economics, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Globalisation & Head of Department for Migration and Globalisation and the Department for Knowledge and Communication Management, Danube University Krems, Austria
• Marina Brizar | UK Director, Talent Beyond Boundaries, United Kingdom
• Ingrid Brockova | State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic
• David Brown | Researcher, Antislavery Ecosystems project, University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab, United Kingdom
• Simona Carnino | freelance Journalist and Documentarist & director of The Power of Passport documentary, Italy
• Elizabeth Collett | Director, Migration Policy Institute (MPI) Europe, Belgium
• Emir Comor | Project Coordinator, Tripple Win, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Mathias Czaika | Professor in Migration and Integration and Head of Department for Migration and Globalization, Danube University Krems, Austria
• Jasper Dag Tjaden | Data and Survey Officer, IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), Germany
• Richard Danziger | Regional Director, IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa, Senegal
• Giuseppe De Giorgi | Admiral (r) and former Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, Italy
• Tesseltje De Lange | Professor of European Migration Law & Director of the Centre for Migration Law, Radboud University, The Netherlands
• Raúl Delgado Wise | Professor of Developmental Studies, Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico
• Evan Easton-Calabria | Researcher, Humanitarian Innovation Project, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Nicole Epting | Regional Representative, UNHCR Representation for Central Europe, Hungary
• Montserrat Feixas Vihé | Regional UNHCR Representative for Central Europe, Hungary
• Zsuzsanna Felkai Janssen | Anti-Trafficking Team Leader, EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator Office, Belgium
• Georgette Gagnon | United Nations Assistant Secretary-General - Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL)
• François Gemenne | environmental geopolitics and migration dynamics specialist, Paris School of International Affairs, France
• Iris Goldner Lang | Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Michael Gray | Chief, Resettlement and Movement Management Division, IOM Headquarters, Switzerland
• Renald Grégoire | Immigration Counsellor and Programme Manager, Embassy of Canada, Austria
• Jill Helke | Director, International Cooperation and Partnerships Division, IOM Headquarters, Switzerland
• Ola Henrikson | Regional Director, IOM Regional Office for the European Economic Area, the European Union and NATO, Belgium
• Kate Hooper | Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI), USA
• Petra Hueck | Director, International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Europe, Belgium
• Kathrine Jensen | Policy Analyst at EU Policy Lab of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission, Belgium
• Martin Kahanec | Founder and Scientific Director, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI), Slovakia & Professor and Head of the Department of Public Policy, Central European University, Austria
• Kilian Kleinschmidt | Founder of Innovation and Planning Agency (IPA), Austria & former director of Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan
• Kari Anne Klovholt Drangsland | Human Geographer & Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK), University of Bergen, Norway
• Dardan Koçani | Field Coordinator for Kosovo, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
• Heather Komenda | Senior Regional Thematic Specialist for Protection, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Austria
• Albert Kraler | Researcher and Programme Manager, International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD)
• Penelope Kyritsis | Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Network & Research Associate for the Worker Rights Consortium, USA
• Jeffrey Labovitz | Regional Director, IOM Regional Office for East and Horn of Africa, Kenya
• Frank Laczko | Director, IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), Germany
• Arjen Leerkes | Associate Professor of Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam & Full Professor of Migration, Securitzation and Social Cohesion at Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, The Netherlands
• Michele LeVoy | Director, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), Belgium
• Lars Johan Lönnback | Chief of Mission, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Moldova
• Nassim Majidi | Founder & Executive Director of Research, and Policy, Migration and Displacement Pillar Lead, Samuel Hall
• Eurídice Márquez | Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section, Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking Branch, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Austria

• Mauro Martini | Programme Officer at Financing Facility for Remittances, The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Italy
• Martha Mendoza | Investigative Journalist & Pulitzer prize-winner, Associated Press (AP), USA
• Fahmida Miah | Programme Manager at Climate Outreach, United Kingdom
• Boldizsár Nagy | Associate Professor, Central European University, Austria
• Asmita Naik | independent consultant
• Michael Newson | Senior Labour Mobility and Human Development Specialist, IOM Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Austria
• Ann-Charlotte Nygård, Programme Manager, Asylum, Migration and Borders Section, Freedoms and Justice Department, EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Austria
• Samuel Okyere | Senior Lecturer in Sociology, SPAIS, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
• Ján Orlovský | Director, Migration Office, Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic
• José Angel Oropeza | Director of IOM Coordinating Office for the Mediterranean & Chief of IOM Mission for Italy and Malta
• Marcin Antoni Pruss | Policy Officer, Irregular Migration and Return Policy Unit, DG Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission, Belgium
• Alexander Randall | Lead, Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN), United Kingdom
• Pascal Reyntjens | Chief of Mission, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Chad
• Kanta Kumari Rigaud | Lead Environment Specialist & Regional Climate Change Coordinator for Africa, World Bank Group, USA
• Lefteris Papagiannakis | Vice-Mayor for Migrants, Refugees and Municipal Decentralization, Municipality of Athens, Greece
• Lenka Šafránková Pavlíčková | sociologist & Project Manager at SocioFactor, Czech Republic
• Sonia Plaza | Senior Economist, The World Bank & Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), USA
• Gilles Reckinger | Professor of Intercultural Communication and Risk Research, University of Innsbruck, Austria
• Abril Ríos | DPhil candidate in Migration Studies, Oxford Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Gianluca Rocco | Chief of Mission, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Greece
• Nicolas Rollason | Partner and Head of Immigration Department at Kingsley Napley LLP, United Kingdom
• Mariam Safi | Founding Director, Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS), Afghanistan
• Liza Schuster | Co-Founder of Afghanistan Migrants Advice and Support Organization (AMASO), Afghanistan & Sociologist at City University London, United Kingdom
• Katarina Schwarz | Assistant Professor in Antislavery Law and Policy & Associate Director of the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
• Melissa Siegel | Professor of Migration Studies at United Nations University-MERIT and Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• Adriano Silvestri | Head of Section Asylum, Migration and Borders, Freedoms and Justice Department, EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Austria
• Ronald Skeldon | Professorial Fellow, Department of Geography in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom
• Klára Skřivánková | Leader of Anti-Trafficking Programme, Anti-Slavery International, United Kingdom
• Federico Soda | Chief of Mission, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Libya & Director of the Department of Operations and Emergencies (DOE), IOM Headquarters, Switzerland
• Vicki Squire | Professor of International Politics, The University of Warwick, United Kingdom
• Pawel Suchanek | Change and Product Manager to the Director of Operations Division, Frontex, Warsaw
• Argentina Szabados | Regional Director, IOM Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Austria
• Zuzana Števulová | Director, Human Rights League, Slovakia
• Vladimír Šucha | Head of the Representation of the European Commission in the Slovak Republic
• Blanca Tapia | Programme Manager at Communications and Events Unit, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Austria
• Patrick Taran | President, Global Migration Policy Associates (GMPA), Switzerland
• Janne Teller | award winning novelist & former conflict advisor for EU and UNO
• Jacob Townsend | CEO of Farsight, Belgium
• Caroline Van Buren | UNHCR Regional Representation for Central Europe, Hungary
• Michal Vašečka | sociologist & Program Director at Bratislava Policy Institute, Slovakia
• Zuzana Vatráľová, Head of Office, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office in the Slovak Republic & Chief of IOM Ireland
• Simona Vezzoli | Research Officer at International Migration Institute (IMI), University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Koko Warner | Director of IOM's Global Data Institute, Germany
• Lara White | Senior Specialist for Labour Mobility and Human Development, IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand
• Stéphanie Winet | Head of Stakeholder Engagement, International Organisation of Employers (IOE), Switzerland
• Katerina Wolfova, Policy Coordinator, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission, Belgium
• Martin Xuereb | Director, Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), Malta
• Roger Zetter | Emeritus Professor of Refugee Studies, University of Oxford, United Kingdom