How Do Public Libraries Around the World Help Migrants?

I recently had the opportunity to contribute to the Impatient Optimists blog, sharing my observations on the role of rural public libraries in supporting the families of migrant laborers. What follows are my thoughts as they appear on Impatient Optimists.

By providing access to technology and trained library workers to facilitate its use, public libraries can play a critical role in advancing social and economic development, enhancing lives and strengthening communities.

Field trips are always inspiring and eye-opening. Having managed the Global Libraries Ukraine – Bibliomist program for over two years now, I rarely get to the field for more than a day or two. And yet, the program brings technology, internet access, and training in to all corners of the country. Recently I was on the road for almost a week, to see what impact we have on libraries in the more remote places of Ukraine.

I was surprised to find out that it is not the big, urban libraries that are the country’s champions in using free access to internet to develop their communities. It is the small, rural ones.

I visited three oblasts (regions) that border the European Union: Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpatia. These host some of the most underdeveloped rural communities in Ukraine, with high unemployment rates. Not surprisingly, large parts of the population engage in labor migration. Dads take jobs building houses in the Czech Republic or Poland, while mums clean houses and babysit in Italy. We have visited communities where literally every family has one productive-age member abroad.

Local librarians and heads of villages, with whom we have visited, understand well the potential for internet in the local library. With Bibliomist support, libraries in the villages of Maidan, Tysmennitsa and Dobrohostiv  provide services that help their communities to face the hardships of labor migration.

These services include: advice for future migrants in the form of backlists of agencies known to have scammed people, contacts for agencies that seek labor, and advice on how to secure a visa application. For those who return to their villages, libraries offer reintegration programs – programs that help them move back into the community and use the skills they gained abroad.

The strongest, yet probably simplest, service these libraries offer are free Skype calls to relatives abroad. I have seen the logs that record these calls, calls which show just how well the libraries help families communicate with their loved ones. Parents are able to see their children growing and children do not forget what their parents look like.

For me it’s all very clear: a thousand dollars for a computer in a library can mean so much for families living in small villages – especially in the underdeveloped communities with large populations of migrants, with whom we work in the Ukraine. It’s the difference between being kept in the dark – not just when it comes to information access but also for family connection – and shining a light on how much of a difference access to the internet can make in people’s lives.

To see just how amazing the transformation of communities can be, with access to free internet through public libraries, view the video below. It's the story of one small village before - and after - free internet access is introduced.