The Municipality of Nitra approved in December 2018 the establishment of a local integration centre for economic migrants. This will be the first integration centre in Slovakia to be operated by a municipality. The goal of the centre is to create conditions for the successful integration of newly arrived economic migrants into daily life and local society.

The new integration centre, which is scheduled to open during the first quarter of 2019, will provide migrants in Nitra with guidance and information according to their needs and in various languages, e.g. information about public transportation, contacts for medical specialists and integration programmes, information about accommodations, etc.  The vision of the municipality is to avoid ghettoisation and to support social cohesion and integration in the city.

Nitra has experienced a continuous increase in the number of economic migrants due to the fast development of the economy and industry in and around the municipality. Economic migrants in the area are attracted mainly by work in the automotive industry or other production sectors. Thus far, integration centres in Slovakia have been run by NGOs/IGOs and financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and the state budget (Migration Information Centres operated by IOM Slovakia) or financed by private donors or crowdfunding (Community Centre Mareena).

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