Chapter 1 Introduction
1.5 Organization of Thesis Chapters
Chapter 1 provides an introduction and the overview of the research. The literature review provides the findings of other scholars on the issue of immigration and integration.
Chapter 2 focuses on immigration and integration policy in the Czech Republic and answer the first research question. The chapter provides immigration overview, immigration and integration policies in the time period 1993-2017.
Chapter 3 focuses on Ukrainian migration and answer the second research question. It provides the overview of Ukrainian migration with the focus on the Ukrainian immigration and diaspora in the Czech Republic. This chapter also introduces the impact of high emigration rates from Ukraine on Ukrainian society.
Chapter 4 focuses on the integration process of Ukrainian immigrants in the Czech Republic using the following criteria: socio-economic, cultural, political, and attitudes of the local population. Those criteria will be applied to evaluate the level of integration of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic. This chapter includes the experiences of Ukrainian immigrants, who came to the Czech Republic during different times since 1993. The author uses the findings from the semi-structured interviews the author conducted in Prague.
Chapter 5 provides a conclusion of the findings and results of this research and suggestions for the further study.
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Chapter 2
Immigration and Integration Policy Context
It is not possible to understand the immigration situation in the Czech Republic without understanding the Czech government approach towards immigration and integration questions.
Because the immigration to the Czech Republic is mainly due to the economic reasons, the immigration policies are mainly influenced by the economic situation in the country. Economic expansion usually calls for policies to attract foreign labour force, while economic regression calls for more restrictive policies. Generally, applying to a work permit and working in the country legally is hard for a foreigner, so there is a question of illegal immigration as well. From the 2000s, the Czech government has also raised the question of the integration of foreigners, who live in the Czech Republic permanently. Chapter 2 focuses on integration efforts from the Czech governments perspective, introducing steps the government takes to improve the integration of foreigners and problems the government recognizes such as health insurance for foreigners and the knowledge of the Czech language.
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2.1 Immigration Overview
Even though in comparison to the established western democracies, the Czech Republic has a low immigration population and can be considered a culturally homogenous country, since 1993 the foreign population in the country has been growing steadily (Leontiyeva and Vavra 2009).
Figure 2.1
Source: Czech Statistical Office (2016)
The data show that among the Central European countries the Czech Republic has a considerable higher percentage of foreigners among the population (4.3 percent as to 2015), but lower than the number of foreigners in the Western European countries.
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Figure 2.2
Source: Czech Statistical Office (2016)
The data obtained from the Czech Statistical Office show that there has been steady growth of foreign population in the Czech Republic since 1993. Between the years 1993 and 2015, the foreign population grew from 78,000 to 465,000. The slight decrease is seen in the end of 90’s due to the change in the migration policy and in the end of 2000s due to the financial crisis.
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Figure 2.3
Source: Czech Statistical Office (2016)
The data shows that the numbers of long-term residence holders are more volatile to the changes of the migration policy and the economic situation than the permanent residence holders.
The number of permanent residence holders has grown steadily since 1993.
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Figure 2.4
According to the Czech Statistical Office (2016), in 2015, the highest numbers of foreigners come from Ukraine, followed by Slovakia, and Vietnam. The demographic characteristics of the immigrants show that the majority of immigration to the Czech Republic is labour oriented (Drbohlav et al 2009). Labour oriented migrants are usually men in productive age, holding long-term residence permit. According to the CSO (2016), the majority of long long-term residence permit holders are men, and the number of women holding long-term residence permits is under 35 percent. More than half of immigrants, who come to the Czech Republic, are in their productive age between 20 and 39 years old. The immigrants, who come from the Western countries, are
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usually older than immigrants coming from the East. Children are still a small percentage of immigrants, most of them come with their families from Vietnam, Russia or China. The main reason for obtaining permanent residence permit is settlement and family reunion and creation. 70 percent of long-term residence applicants stated their reason to be employment, which supports the argument of labour oriented immigration. The majority of immigrants are also concentrated in the urban areas such as the capital city of Prague and the Central Bohemia region, due to higher employment opportunities (Drbohlav et al 2009).
The majority of labour immigrants are employed in unskilled jobs or are small entrepreneurs holding a business license. Many foreigners are employed in trading, particularly street trading, domestic work, and catering (Horáková 2000). Vietnamese nationals dominate the trading sector, especially the trade in textiles, providing cheaper alternatives to department store clothing. In recent years, Vietnamese also started opening nail salons, and the numbers of Vietnamese operated salons continue to grow thanks to price competitiveness (Nosalkova 2009). Operating a nail salon requires communication with clients in Czech language. Nosalkova (2009) suggests that this trend might lead to more understanding of the Vietnamese community, because Czechs would have more opportunities to have a contact with them.
Ukrainian men are often employed in construction, on the other hand, women are employed in cleaning services, restaurants, and some are employed in textile sector (Horáková 2000). Those jobs are unskilled and the labour demand cannot be satisfied by the local supply due to the low wages.
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2.1.1 Work Permit Application Procedure
The immigration to the Czech Republic is mainly for economic reasons, so it is important to understand the process of getting permit to work in the country. The majority of foreigners come to the Czech Republic in their productive age, 82.5 percent of foreigners in the Czech Republic are between 19 and 65 years old (Ministry of Interior 2016). The majority of foreigners live in Prague (36.9 percent) and the middle of the Czech Republic (13.2 percent), the urban area with the highest work opportunities. The other regions show percentage between 1.7 and 8.7 percent. In this section, the ways to get the work permit, the process of getting the documents, the process of getting a trade license and the question of illegal employment are introduced.
In the Czech Republic, a foreigner can get legally employed in three different ways:
I. Marriage with a Czech citizen
II. Opening a company with a Czech citizen co-owner and applying for a business license III. Applying for a work permit
I. Marriage with a Czech citizen
Marrying a Czech citizen might be the easiest way to obtain a permit to work in the country legally, but so called fictive marriage (marriage registered only for the reason of obtaining a legal status in the country) is prosecuted by law. The part of applying for the visa for a foreign spouse is investigation, whether the marriage and relationship is real. Marriage and family reunification is one of the most frequent reasons to grant a permanent residence status, but the number of Czech citizens marrying foreigners is still small (Janska and Drbohlav 2008).
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II. Opening a company with a Czech citizen co-owner and applying for a business license Opening a company might be an option for foreigners, who have capital. Foreign nationals can run business in the Czech Republic without a need to obtain a residence status, so they do not need to be present in the country (Horáková 2000). However, in this case, they need to appoint local representative, who is a Czech citizen. Business license grants a long term residence, if a business license holder wishes to stay in the Czech Republic. Obtaining a business license is also a way to obtain a residence permit. Some kinds of business license require qualifications in the field, while a free trade license does not require any qualifications (Horáková 2000).
Trade license is misused by employers and employees, who do not want to obey the Labour Code and also for tax reasons (Leontiyeva 2016). This practice is called “Svarc system”, when employee with a trade license is basically working regular working hours, as an employee. Such workers are not protected by law, and are vulnerable in terms of working conditions, pay, working hours, and job security.
III. Applying for a work permit
Others have an option to apply for a work permit. The trick is that in order to apply for a work permit, a foreigner needs a job offer, but in order to get a job offer you need to have a work permit (Popov 2007). Only foreign nationals who have a long term or permanent residence status with work permit or refugee status can work legally in the Czech Republic (Horáková 2000). Work permit is issued by the Employment Office. The Employment Office issues permits for specific jobs and a specific employer, taking into consideration the labour market in the Czech Republic and
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misuse work permit to obtain long term residence and to start illegal work activities. Foreign workers sent to the Czech Republic by a foreign employer for a specific project also need to obtain work permits.
2.1.2 Illegal Employment
Being employed legally has its benefits both for employer and employees. Employees get their social and health insurance benefits and employer gets more reliability (Horáková 2000). In some cases, however, it might be more lucrative for both parties to be engaged in illegal employment relationship.
Employers can reduce their costs by employing foreign illegal workers as they do not need to pay social and health insurance for them, which can add up to a considerable sum of money.
They also do not need to comply with the safety requirements. Workers can also get higher wage than they would get from a legal employment, because the taxes, social and health security tax are not subtracted (Horáková 2000). Some locals also work “načerno” (Czech expression meaning illegal employment). For instance, a worker would be registered with the Employment Office as unemployed and getting unemployment benefits and at the same time working illegally to get extra income. In some cases, such illegal behavior results in more income than if this worker is employed legally.
Bureaucracy might be another reason for illegal employment (Horáková 2000). As it was stated above, work permits need to be reapplied with every change of work position, employer, or work location. So, for instance, in the construction industry, where location is changed with every project, employer needs to reapply for work permit every time. Some employers choose not to apply for a new work permit or choose a subcontractor agency to obtain workers. Not all foreign workers have information or motivation to work legally. They might trust subcontractor agency and
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do not have language skills. For instance, a temporary worker is trying to make money as quickly as possible and go home, so he might avoid the legal employment.
Since 2008, Ukrainians were the largest illegal immigrant population in the Czech Republic, while in the 2015 the situation has changed due to migration crisis in Europe and Syrians becoming the largest illegal immigrant population (Ministry of Interior 2016). The main difference is that for the majority of Syrians, the Czech Republic is a country of transit, while for Ukrainians it is a final destination.
2.2 Czech Immigration Policy
In order to understand the process of moving to the Czech Republic and integrating into the Czech society, it is important to understand the legal environment the immigrants need to face. The Czech immigration policy could be divided into several periods, depending on the openness/
restriction of the policies, and important events that have influenced the immigration policy. The openness/restriction of the policies was mainly influenced by economic environment in the country, because the immigration to the Czech Republic is mainly due to economic reasons. Financial crisis resulted in decrease of immigration to the country, while economic expansion and the need for the foreign labour called for the openness of the labour market to foreign applicants. In this section, the author would like to introduce, how the immigration policy has evolved since 1993.
During the 90s, the Czech immigration policy was quite liberal. In January 1990, the Czech borders opened, which resulted both in emigration of Czechs mainly to Germany and Switzerland,
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are low, because Czechs are only willing to temporary migrate for experience of foreign internships, seasonal jobs, and studying.
In the 90s, a part of immigration wave were Czech nationals, who have returned to the Czech Republic after the years spent in exile (Horáková 2000). However, most immigrants to the country have been coming from the post-Soviet Republics. In 1990, 37 percent of foreigners in the Czechoslovakia were Polish, 10 percent were former USSR citizens, and 10 percent Bulgarians (Horáková 2000). In the end of 1990s, 24 percent of permanent residents holders were Ukrainians, 23 percent Slovaks, and 10 percent were Vietnamese.
The split of the Czechoslovakia raised the question of the citizenship of its formal residents.
Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, so the former Slovak citizens became foreign nationals. After the split of the Czechoslovakia, almost 400,000 Slovaks claimed the Czech citizenship (Drbohlav et al 2009). The number of Slovaks holding permanent residence permits increased from 2,960 persons in 1994 to 14,127 persons in 1998 (Horakova 2000). After the split of Czechoslovakia most Slovaks come to the Czech Republic for temporary employment, business purpose, and studies. Czechs and Slovaks have strong historical and cultural ties and therefore, Slovaks have a special status in the Czech immigration law. The legal requirements for Slovak citizens are easier than for the other countries. Slovaks do not require work permits to work in the Czech Republic, only need the registration in the Employment Office. They also do not need to apply for a long term visa (Drbohlav et al 2009). Taking into consideration lower legal barriers to entry the Czech labour market and the lower language barriers (most Czechs understand Slovak language), it is easier for Slovaks to work in the higher skilled jobs.
There is also a significant Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. The Czech
in the year 1980 was regarding employment in the machinery and the third agreement in the same year was regarding the work in textile, machinery, and other industries. In 1983, about 23,000 Vietnamese worked in Czechoslovakia.
Ukrainians are a significant part of foreign labour force in the Czech Republic. Ukrainians started to migrate to the Czech Republic during the country’s transformation in 1990s (Cermakova and Nekorjak 2008). The first wave of immigration was unorganized and irregular thanks to the liberal visa regime and high demand for cheap labour mostly in the construction industry.
In 1991, only 240 Ukrainians had work permits, when in 1996 this number peaked to 42,000 (Horáková 2000). Since then, the number of issued work permits was decreasing thanks to bilateral agreement between the Czech Republic and Ukraine that controlled immigration quota between two countries and restricted illegal employment on tourist visas.
Until 1996, strong restrictions on immigration were not placed and the legislation towards immigration was quite liberal (Horakova 2000, Drbohlav et al 2009). Due to unemployment rates rising, the Czech government created quota for certain countries. This policy increased the number of foreigners wanting to stay in the country permanently and the number of workers staying in the country illegally because work permit was harder to obtain (Horakova 2000).
The first restrictive policy was the Amendment to the Alien Act coming into force in 1994 restricting and systemizing the immigration into the Czech Republic (Drbohlav et al 2009). The new law required foreigners to prove their financial ability to stay in the Czech Republic and made impossible for long term stay visa holders to change the purpose of their status. If a foreigner changed the purpose of their stay in the Czech Republic, he or she had to reapply for a visa.
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of getting asylum because the number of applicants rose considerably (8,788 applicants in 2000 and 18,094 applicants in 2001). 24 percent of the applicants in 2001 were the Ukrainian citizens. The amendment to the Asylum Act was approved in 2000 and restricted access to the Czech labour market during the 1 year of application, and had to stay in asylum centers while their application had been processed.
The government’s more restrictive approach on immigration came due to economic hardships, growing unemployment rates, and the raise of illegal workers. The adoption of the Alien Act and Asylum Act tightened the conditions for getting a work permit. The citizens of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus started to have a visa requirement starting in 2000 and had to apply for a visa at the Czech embassies abroad (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). Before 2000, foreigners could apply for a visa at the borders of the Czech Republic (Drbohlav et al 2009). The Applicants for a short term stay visa (issued for a less than 90 days stay) and stay exceeding 90 days had to provide the proof of health insurance for the duration of their stay and financial statements. The applicants applying for a visa exceeding 90 days had to provide two criminal records, one issued by the Czech Republic government, and the second from their country of origin. Foreigners applying for a permanent residence due to family reunification could do so only if their spouse was a Czech citizen (Drbohlav et al 2009). Many third country nationals had to leave the country due to restrictive policies (Janska and Drbohlav 2008).
As the Czech Republic became part of the EU on the 1st of May, 2004, the immigration legislation had to be harmonized with the EU immigration policy (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). The EU policy expected different treatment of the EU and third country nationals. Between the years 2003 to 2006 Common European Immigration Policy was implemented in the Czech migration policy (Janska and Drbohlav 2008).
In 2003, the Czech government adopted its own migration strategy called the Principles of
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support of migration that it beneficial for the Czech Republic and finding the solution for humanitarian crisis in the world (Sisova 2005).
In 2003, a pilot project “Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers” was created in order to lure qualified professionals to work in the Czech Republic, and to reduce the bureaucracy of applying for the work permits (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). The project was opened to specialists and highly skilled workers to help to fill the labour gaps in the chosen sectors (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). The project used Canadian immigration point system that helped to evaluate the applicants and found out those, who are the easiest to integrate and have the most economic benefit to the Czech society (Sisova 2005). The criteria included age, employment experience, education, knowledge of the Czech language. Successful candidates could apply for the permanent residence in 2.5 years, instead of 10 years. Firstly, the pilot program was offered to the citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, and Kazakhstan. Ukrainians could join the program since 2006 (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). By 2008, 1,035 professionals used this opportunity, which is still a small share of the labour market, because the selection criteria were strict and the selection of the countries that could apply
In 2003, a pilot project “Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers” was created in order to lure qualified professionals to work in the Czech Republic, and to reduce the bureaucracy of applying for the work permits (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). The project was opened to specialists and highly skilled workers to help to fill the labour gaps in the chosen sectors (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). The project used Canadian immigration point system that helped to evaluate the applicants and found out those, who are the easiest to integrate and have the most economic benefit to the Czech society (Sisova 2005). The criteria included age, employment experience, education, knowledge of the Czech language. Successful candidates could apply for the permanent residence in 2.5 years, instead of 10 years. Firstly, the pilot program was offered to the citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, and Kazakhstan. Ukrainians could join the program since 2006 (Janska and Drbohlav 2008). By 2008, 1,035 professionals used this opportunity, which is still a small share of the labour market, because the selection criteria were strict and the selection of the countries that could apply