Practicing sports is the best way to integrate people”, says 26-year-old Nedžad Smajlagić, student, and handball coach from Bosnia I Herzegovina, presently based in Vienna, Austria.

The Austrian capital has been in the past, and continues to be, home for several migrant minorities who come from a wide range of countries, namely Germany, Turkey, and Serbia. This migrant policy started many years ago: whenever surrounding countries were suffering from political tribulations, Austria would open the borders to welcome either refugees or migrants.

After entering the EU in 1994, the Austrian approach to this subject was even less restrained, turning the country into European trailblazer regarding minorities’ integration and assimilation. Its capital, Vienna, is considered by many... Read More »

If you are walking around Vienna and find yourself near the Prater Recreation Park, you might come across a seemingly regular corner hotel. However, as soon as you go over the doorstep of Magdas Hotel, you notice this is a unique place: a hotel run by a team of refugees and locals.

Magdas is a social business founded by Caritas Österreich three years ago, with the purpose of matching tourism industry’s demand for employees with refugees in search of employment. Now there are 30 people, 20 of whom have a refugee status, from 14 different nations working in Magdas Hotel.

In order to get a deeper insight into the project, we met with the CEO Gabriela... Read More »

Moving to a different city for love and ending up founding a start-up 12 years later

Sometimes in life, this may happen as well, you can say, but it is quite seldom if the protagonist is a Romanian girl moving to the Austrian capital – Vienna.

It may happen in life, although quite seldom, a girl from Romania to move to Vienna – the capital of Austria. This is the story of Andra Slaats, a young businesswoman and a co-founder of “Younited cultures” social enterprise.

The story began after she quitted her job in a luxury cosmetics company. As Andra says, after that change in her life, she started using an underground instead of... Read More »

We met Raoul Kopacka, 29-year-old documentarist and journalist, in Café Prosa, one of the Austrian headquarters of Refugees Welcome. This is an organization established in direct response to migration upsurge, with offices fully functioning in 13 European countries. The idea behind Refugees Welcome is really simple: bringing locals and refugees in the same flat-share, and it seems to be a workable one. For instance, Raoul himself decided to join the organization as a volunteer after his girlfriend hosted a refugee in her home. Firstly, he was engaged into matching the refugee profiles with most suitable apartment shares. Later on, he took over the entire PR section.

Destination for many, home for a few

Our... Read More »

Facing the streets of Vienna with those who know them best. Shades Tours employ homeless people to guide and aware locals about the social issues of Austria’s capital.

     “When I was a student, I used to look at homeless as slobs who are able to work and simply don’t want to.”, says Robert, who was homeless for 3 years before starting to work for the company. Now he’s working in the sales force of Shades Tours because someone decided to give him an opportunity. “There are dozens of organizations working with homeless people in Vienna, but only Perrine replied. This opportunity changed my life and now I’m much more tolerant, humble and I got way more... Read More »

The School of Public Policy (SPP) was founded in 2012 with the mission of integrating practical experience of policy formulation, policy implementation, and the policy world with theoretical knowledge and conceptual learning. Would you like to jump on the train and become part of a new generation of policy actors, advocates, and activists? Learn more about the school’s opportunities from the currently acting dean, Julia Buxton.

Q: There are a number of public policy schools in the world. How is SPP different?

Julia Buxton: The School of Public Policy is grounded in a commitment to rights-based approaches and is a truly global institution with students from almost 60 countries. This diversity is integral to our view... Read More »

It was a cold windy day in Vienna, when the four of us, young adults from Germany, Slovenia, Macedonia and Portugal, crossed the main shopping street of the imperial city to arrive at the Impact Hub, a place that gathers a community of people inspired to create and work in social and sustainable business.

There we would find three ladies with whom we spoke about their art project – MAD Coproductions. Lau Lukkarila, Claribel Koss and Vera Rosner received us in their room asking what kind of conversation or interview we would like to have. We prepared some questions, but when they started to tell their story we did not need those anymore.

Vera was the... Read More »

#iversityis2 made a virtual global circuit in October 2015 to mark the second anniversary of the launch of the iversity platform. Where was iversity in 2013, and where are its standing as global learning platform with free MOOCs today? What have changed for the platform, and what have changed for the team?

Yes, time flies. In 2013, we were busy collecting our first courses and partnerships with the MOOC Production Fellowship. We were a young, small online learning company with 10 new courses in production with a tight deadline to finish the platform. 2 years later, we have had over 100 courses and over 1 million course enrolments.

Big changes over the past 12 months... Read More »

Anastasia Shishkina is a 3rd year humanities student at Anglo-American University in Prague originally from Russia and currently studying abroad at Chapman University, California. Being involved in many student activities and taking advantage of studying in an international environment truly enriches her life that offered her countless adventurous both home and abroad. In our latest featured article, Anastasia shares for the Anglo-American University in Prague:

AAU: Why did you choose to study humanities in Prague?

Anastasia: I have always been into arts and believed that the best place to study culture is Europe because of its rich historical heritage. To tell the truth, Prague was not my first choice. I was accepted to several universities in the... Read More »

Interview by: Stefan Alijevikj Edited by: Marija Matovska 

The Social Impact Awards for 2016 are just about to be launched in dozens of European countries. Mladiinfo International joined the initiative, and organized the awards for the first time in 2015, for Macedonia. The journey with the Social Impact Award is an exciting one, and, it means you will also get to meet and collaborate with amazing people. In our newest interview, and just before taking off with activities for the 2016 edition of the awards, we conducted an interview with Jakob Detering, Director of the Social Impact Award.

Being 27 years old, born and raised in Germany, Jakob Detering is part of a younger European generation that challenges... Read More »