The Perception of the Integration Process and the Provision of Social Services by Immigrants

Abstract

Migration is a phenomenon that is present in every country. Emigration is more typical for some countries and immigration for other countries. In the past, emigration was typical for our country.. Recently, however, more and more immigrants arrive in Slovakia, especially in terms of looking for work. The aim of this article was to explore how migrants perceived their integration process and the provision of social services in Slovakia. We particularly focused on what social services they used during their integration process, how did they assess the approach of the staff of the institutions that provided social services. The survey sample was composed from immigrants living in Slovakia for at least one year. We used a snowball technique to select the participants. The survey sample consisted of 25 people from different countries of origin. Qualitative research strategy was used. A semi-structured interview scheme was designed to obtain information about integration process and provided social services during integration process. The data were analysed using the program Atlas.Ti. Findings describe how immigrants perceive their integration process and how they perceive the provision of social services were mainly positive with a few of negative experiences. This paper was prepared as a part of the project VEGA 1/0341/17 Identification of Manifestation of Social Riskiness of Families in Selected Indicators and Their Impact on Social Functioning of Families.