Eighty students from more than forty countries took part in a week-long Summer School of Migration Studies at Albertov, held from 31 August. Among the speakers were Marie Price, President of the American Geographical Society, Eric Opoku Ware, whose organization in Ghana focuses on the prevention of irregular migration, and Tomáš Sobotka from the Vienna Academy of Sciences.
“The Summer School is for us every year a unique opportunity to meet and discuss the global phenomenon of migration with experts and students from all over the world. This year, participants arrived from six continents, for example from Ethiopia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Australia, and Canada. They will focus on the relationship between migration and demography, economics, and development,” says Professor Dušan Drbohlav, head of the organizing Geographic Migration Centre.
The program was opened by Petr Čáp, head of the Czech office of IOM, which provides assistance to refugees and migrants worldwide. The current situation of the Ukrainian diaspora, not only in the Czech Republic, was presented by Bohdan Rajčinec, President of the European Congress of Ukrainians. The faculty was represented in addition to Dušan Drbohlav also by Eva Janská and Josef Novotný.
The challenges posed by the growing number of people forced to leave their homes were discussed on behalf of UNHCR by Ajmal Khybari, Director of its Czech office, and on behalf of the UN Information Centre by its head, Michal Broža. In total, the program included some twenty lectures and workshops up until 6 September. Partners of the Summer School also include the UN Information Centre in Prague, the Jan Masaryk Foundation in Geneva, and the Czech office of UNHCR.
More information and full program is available at Home