We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2025
Individuals in Charge
Whenever I was addressing the state of the Slovak refugee care system with my interlocutors, the workers at the NGOs, schools, and even the state institutions opened up really quickly and did not hold back with their frustrations and complaints. Often, they delivered a crushing critique of the formal procedures, only to express their discomfort about the informal means (involving rule-breaking and their own over-engagement) they applied to make up for these deficits.
Katka, the manager of the state-led integration project, which had been implemented by Charita and had already ended by the time of my fieldwork, elaborated:
It was difficult to riešiť (solve) anything with the officials. Often, the bureaucrats didn't even know what subsidiary protection is, or how it differs from asylum. What authorities they have, which competencies […] they were totally lost in that. […] Often, I received only minimal information from officials as long as they [the refugees, author's note] were in the retention or accommodation [camp, author's note] […] We knew their name, first name, birth date, and that was basically all, maybe their country of origin. So, it was difficult for the social workers right from the beginning. Oftentimes, we didn't even know if a particular person could communicate in any foreign language, or if we should organize an interpreter. Often it happened that they came into the office and we ended up just sitting there, laughing, because we didn't understand each other. Then we had to organize an interpreter as quickly as possible, but it's not so easy, it's not like they are just readily available at any time. […] Those were some of the real-life problems, from the terén (field), which we needed to solve. Ad hoc. Immediately as they appeared.
Renata, the vice president of a school that accepted two Syrian refugee girls, explained:
We, the teachers, are not prepared; we don't know how to správať sa (behave), how to work with kids who come here from different countries, especially kids who had to flee from countries affected by war. […] In many of the things we do, we emanate from the experience of colleagues who worked abroad, […] what proved successful there, and, na kolene (on a shoestring), we try to implement it here as well.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
