Is there an integration policy being formed in Czechia?

Abstract

This article critically reviews the development of Czech immigration and integration policy with special emphasis on that part of migration policy that Czechia implements relatively independently of the EU. The main objective, then, is to shed light on factors that have influenced immigration and integration policy formation. The key question of whether integration policy is being formed in Czechia and what direction Czechia is taking is answered in the following steps: description of migration policy including the role of the EU, discussion of the influence of the apolitical nature of the migration policy and analysis of the influence of alien and security discourse on the integration of immigrants into Czech society.

Keywords:

• immigration
• integration
• policy
• foreigners
• alien rhetoric
• Czechia

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dušan Drbohlav and Dietmar Loch for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper and two anonymous reviewers for their very constructive critique.

This article has been supported by PRVOUK P43–Geografie.

Notes

1. Source: Czech Statistical Office (http://www.czso.cz).

2. Third countries are all countries except for EU member states, Lichtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

3. Long-term residence is issued for a specific purpose, strictly tied to its validity, and once the purpose expires the permit expires too; this type is mostly under control of the Czech government. After 5 years of a long-term residence, both EU and non-EU immigrants are entitled to obtain a permanent residence permit (in the EU legislation known as a long-term residence) if they meet conditions of impunity, knowledge of the Czech language at an A1 level, and if they do not have debt. This type is not issued for a specific purpose, is very stable and can be taken away only in very specific situations.

4. Source: Czech Statistical Office (http://www.czso.cz).

5. In the past, Czechs were leaving their country mainly for political reasons (Protestants during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Jews in World War II, anti-communists during socialism), but also for economic reasons (to the USA, Western Europe and former Tsarist Russia).

6. The article describes the legal situation to December 2012.

7. Set of rules that regulate conditions of entry and stay in a country.

8. Set of rules that regulate conditions of incorporation of immigrants into the majority society in various spheres such as social, cultural, economic and political.

9. This act was in force from 1992 to 2000, when it was replaced by the Alien Act No. 326/1999.

10. The second and last decline since 1989 occurred in 2008, when the global economic crisis hit the Czech economy and labour market. In response, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs started limiting the issuing and extending of working permits for long-term residence permit holders.

11. Zásady Koncepce integrace cizinců.

12. Koncepce integrace cizinců (KIC).

13. Proactive immigration projects: Pilot Project of Recruitment of High Qualified Foreign Workers, which ended as an unsuccessful attempt in 2010, and the working and residential permit called Green Cards.

14. The ODS (Civic Democratic Party) declared that it wanted to prevent economic migration and was against common European migration policy, the ČSSD (Czech Social Democratic Party) favoured the common EU migration policy and proposed to establish a migration office.

15. The Czech word cizinec can be translated into English either as a stranger, foreigner or alien.

16. In 2009, a conflict between Czech and Vietnamese neighbours occurred in one particular residential house in Prague-Libuš. Even though the conflict was rather a problem between neighbours than different ethnicities, and was fixed within a few weeks, media has paid it so much attention that the discussion on communal cohabitation of Vietnamese and Czechs in Prague has become a national topic, opening a long series of reports on maladaptation and criminal and illegal economic activities of the Vietnamese. In Prague-Libuš, the topic has turned into open hostility with xenophobic rhetoric and overall, the seemingly meaningless incident has resulted in the securitisation of the issue of immigration as a whole.

17. Source Usnesení vlády ze dne 16. února 2009 č. 183 and Usnesení vlády ze dne 4. ledna 2012 č. 6.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tereza Kušniráková

TEREZA KUŠNIRÁKOVÁ is a researcher in the GEOMIGRACE Centre, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development at Charles University, Prague.