On January 17, 2013, at the initiative of the missions of the International Organization for Migration in Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan, an online seminar, or webinar, was held for employees of the Centers for Assistance to Migrants operating under the Regional Program on Labour Migration in Central Asia and Russia, on the topic: “ Methods of social and legal work with migrants in receiving countries and countries of origin”.

The main purpose of this event was to share the accumulated experience and summarize the results of social and legal work with citizens both in the receiving countries and in the countries of origin of migrants. The experience gained has shown that with the help of webinars, it is possible to organize joint work of participants at a remote distance: communicate interactively, demonstrate presentations, and exchange files. Therefore, by combining offline and online meetings, the participants of the regional program were able to reach a new level of effective interaction.

The webinar was attended by consultants, social workers and lawyers of the Centers for assistance to migrants in cities such as Moscow, Astana, Almaty, Aktobe, Shymkent, Karaganda, Esik, Petropavlosk, Dushanbe. During the speeches, the lawyer of the Information Resource Center of IOM Moscow highlighted issues related to the new provisions of Russian legislation regarding the stay and employment of foreign citizens on the territory of the Russian Federation. The center's consultant also spoke about access to educational and medical services for migrant workers in the Russian Federation. Then the staff of the centers in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Russia shared their experience, talked about the methods and forms of information, advisory and social support for migrants by phone hotline, at personal meetings, during outreach and mobile consultations. At the end of the webinar, an online training session was held for social workers and consultants of the centers, dedicated to such an important and relevant topic in their daily work as the prevention of emotional burnout.

As a result of the event, all participants expressed their interest and readiness for further joint work, and also noted the speed, cost-effectiveness and efficiency of communication at the regional level via online webinars.