Straß in Steiermark

“I started working for this project on May 6, 2018. My first contact was the kick off meeting in Lampedusa. It was a great experience to meet all the partners of this project right in Lampedusa and to start working together,” says Michaela Rauscher, who works in social policy in the municipality of Straß in Steiermark, Austria.

“I expected that we could have an exchange and learn from each other about the complex topic of migration and integration and there are so many moments that were interesting – says Michaela – The visit to Östersund, the meeting in Brussels or the online events we did. Each one of them was interesting and I am happy that I was able to participate.”

Straß in Steiermark is an Austrian municipality of 4900 inhabitants in the district of Leibnitz, Styria.

On January 1, 2015 it incorporated the abolished municipalities of Obervogau, Spielfeld and Vogau taking the name Straß-Spielfeld, but since January 1, 2016 it has reverted to the name Straß in Steiermark.

Styria is a historical border region: Slovenia is just a stone’s throw away and exchange between borders has always been normal in these parts, a region that is considered the green heart of Austria and of wine and apple production. But from the point of view of solidarity, memory, and networking between the territories of Europe, how could we tell Straß in Steiermark?

“Because of the right-wing political orientation, from my point of view, the people in our area with regard to solidarity are not able to do enough, especially if you think about the people in the southern region in Europe such as Lampedusa, Lesbos, Thessaloniki,” Michaela says. “During the pandemic, the topic of migration and integration was not the most important issue. And the hardest thing is that the topic of migration was not that important in our region before or it was just used by right-wing parties when it came up as a topic of political conflict. It’s hard to encourage new people, because they weren’t interested before and they’re not going to change their minds, because of this political climate. People who were already engaged are even more engaged and working to help asylum seekers/migrants.”

In this climate do you think the SnapShots project has been able to make a positive contribution?

“With the help of the SnapShots project and the work of Südwind we were able to support a new radio program with migrants and publish a book about the experiences of so many people at the border during 2015 and that was a great experience.”

The radio program, which you can listen to at this link, as well as the book, which you can see at this link are two products resulting from the collaboration between the administration of Straß in Steiermark and Südwind, an organization founded in 1979, which applies its unique experience in international development to both its teaching work, in particular “Global Learning,” and its PR and campaign work. A network of partners and regional offices enable Südwind to act

locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, working with organizations and institutions in the areas of international development, education, environment, culture and social issues, as well as with various civil society networks and important political figures.

“From my point of view,” Michaela concludes, “the project and the awareness campaign didn’t produce much awareness in the people who might be affected, but we couldn’t reach them. We stayed in our comfort zone, but we won’t stop trying.”