Period: 1 October 2021 – 31 Marca 2023
Project ‘Mechanism of prevention of radicalisation and extremism – the police and youth together’ is supported from a programme ACF – Slovakia funded by the Financial Mechanism EEA 2014-2021. The programme is administered by the Ekopolis Foundation in partnership with Open Society Foundation Bratislava and Carpathian Foundation.
The project aims to contribute to a change of paradigm – from repression to prevention of radicalisation of youth. We will conduct a research using both quantitative and qualitative methods exploring potential for growing support of extremist ideologies and state of the art with respect to prevention targeting the youth. In the next phase in order to foster participation of young people we will create a working group composed of representatives of relevant institutions and young people. Based on the research findings the working group will design a mechanism of prevention of radicalisation of youth. Its draft will be consulted with young people across the country in consultation workshops. Together with the working group members we will advocate on various levels of public administration for the mechanism to be implemented.
The project will directly involve young people as consultants. The project will also benefit from the expertise of the leading expert on radicalisation and prevention from Norway.
Minorities in Slovakia are often perceived as sources of various threats which also affects policy making (e.g. strict migration policy, refusal to adopt registered partnerships for same sex couples, impossibility for new religious communities to be officially registered, proposals to curb Roma birth rate). Our main goal is to contribute to a change of the current discourse through minority policy monitoring, evaluation and analysis. We also aim to provide feedback to policy makers and point out how minority policies can be made all the while respecting human rights principles and human dignity. As part of the project we will publish two issues of our critical magazine Minority Policy in Slovakia.
The project explores integration of foreigners in Slovakia, availability of integration services and perception of integration by foreigners themselves and by the majority population.
The research rolls out in three phases:
1) identification of integration tools on various levels of public administration – using both quantitative and qualitative methods (questionnaire distributed to district capitals and individual in-depth interviews with stakeholders on the local level) we explore availability and accessibility of integration services on municipal level;
2) foreigners´ perception of integration services, their availability and accessibility – using both quantitative (representative survey) and qualitative methods (individual in-depth interviews);
3) attitudes of the majority population towards foreigners, potential support for different migration and integration policies – using both quantitative (representative questionnaire survey) and qualitative (focus groups) methods
All three phases will result in a comprehensive publication and will serve as a point of departure for advocacy activities targeting stakeholders at all levels of public administration.