Mayor of Wroclaw Rafał Dutkiewicz revealed in press conference the initiatives that the city authorities have taken up in support of the Wroclaw expat community. "We strive to provide opportunities to our foreign residents to learn Polish. We want to avoid the emergence of ghetto communities because, as the experience of many countries suggests, it is very difficult to leave them," pointed out Mayor Dutkiewicz.
Since the predominant majority of expats in Wroclaw are of Ukrainian origin, the city programmes are largely designed to support them.
This year only, the Lower Silesia Employment Agency has issued 40 thousand work permits to Ukrainian nationals, the majority of whom are working and residing in Wroclaw. A large number of Ukrainian expats arrive with their children, who enrol in greater numbers in the local schools and kindergartens. The children tend to benefit more often from the two additional hours of Polish offered by Wroclaw's primary schools.
Two additional hours of Ukrainian
"Our goal, however, is to provide opportunities for Ukrainian children to engage with their native language and culture," points out Wroclaw's Mayor. One such initiative for the benefit of Wroclaw's Ukrainian community is to establish an inter-school form with additional (all other subjects are in Polish) Ukrainian language classes in Primary School No. 84, which has just started the enrolment process.
Two additional hours of Ukrainian and Greek Catholic Religious Education respectively will be available for inter-school learners in Primary School No. 63 in ul Mennicza. The classes have continued since 2002.
Volunteers to teach Polish
One more project in support of the Wroclaw expat community is to provide Polish classes, since those who fail to communicate in Polish find it difficult to study or find a better job in Wroclaw. That is why the Wroclaw Integration Centre (in Plac Strzegomski) is now seeking volunteers to teach practical Polish to the Ukrainian expat community.
"Our goal is to provide a one-on-one learning process to offer practical Polish skills, e.g. how to so shopping or communicate with local authorities. We are now creating lists of volunteers and locations where classes in Polish will be provided," says Jacek Sutryk, Head of the Department for Social Affairs at the City Office of Wroclaw. To date, 200 volunteers and 80 partner institutions have been involved in the project. The latter include community centres, branches of the Wroclaw Public Library, churches and NGOs.
Volunteers (both individuals and institutions) can submit their applications at the Wroclaw Integration Centre in Plac Strzegomski. As of September, the applications will also be made online.
