A historic moment. "Welcome to the Czech Republic" project has held its first conference.

Together in one place for the first time. At the end of September, Prague hosted the first-ever conference for the "Welcome to the Czech Republic" project. It brought together everyone involved in providing adaptation and integration courses for newly arrived foreigners across the country—from representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, which funds the project, to course coordinators, lecturers, interpreters, evaluators, and representatives of the organization Slovo 21. The latter came up with the idea for the courses years ago and provides the methodological framework for the entire project.

"We are truly delighted that we managed to organize this conference after all these years. A large number of entities from all over the country are involved in the Welcome to the Czech Republic project. We see each other regularly, but mostly on computer screens via various video conferences. Meeting in person is always invaluable," says Blanka Vosecká Veselá, an adaptation and integration course methodologist at Slovo 21.

The nationwide conference offered participants a space to share practical experience and an opportunity to discuss various challenges. "Exchanging experience between individual course coordinators, lecturers, the Ministry of the Interior, and ourselves is incredibly important. Based on this, we can continuously improve the courses, and that is key for us. Currently, for example, we want to work more on promoting the adaptation and integration courses. We feel that by no means all newly arrived foreigners who are required to complete the course are actually aware of it. And we want to change that," adds Vosecká Veselá.

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According to her, raising awareness about the adaptation and integration courses will be helped, among other things, by a new spot that Slovo 21 released in mid-September. Its main face is Andrea, an influencer originally from Venezuela who has lived in the Czech Republic for over 6 years. A mother of two and a lover of Czech beer, she uses a roughly two-and-a-half-minute video to explain the content of the courses in an entertaining way and why they are useful for newly arrived foreigners. The video is available on social media and the project's website in a total of six language versions.

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Conference participants also agreed that foreigners should be informed more frequently about the risks of failing to complete the course. If they do not manage to complete it on time, they face a fine of up to 10,000 CZK. "I am glad that we discussed this topic at the conference as well. Some foreigners take it lightly, and then it can happen that they get into trouble because they haven't paid the fine. That is not our goal. We want newly arrived foreigners to complete the courses as soon as possible and not put anything off unnecessarily," explains Veronika Bayerová, an adaptation and integration course coordinator in Prague.

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Adaptation and integration courses are educational seminars that help foreigners find their way around a new country as quickly as possible. Since 2021, they have been mandatory for certain groups of newly arrived foreigners. Since then, over 30,000 foreigners have completed the courses. The majority of them—more than 90%—were satisfied with the format of the courses.

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