Key Findings
Best practice (100% score)
Rights associated with employment
Favourable
Implementation policies for political participation
Unfavourable
Eligibility for nationality
Fields of application of anti-discrimination law
Critically unfavourable (0% score)
Labour market integration measures
Electoral rights
Equality policies
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Overview
Cross-border mobility is the largest and historic source of migrant workers in the Czech Republic, mostly from SK, PL, the CIS and Balkan countries. Many Vietnamese were invited out of communist solidarity in the 1970s
and 1980s and now represent the largest group of permanent residents and migrant entrepreneurs. Third-country nationals (hereafter ‘migrants') are over twice as likely to be temporarily employed as nationals.
The state Integration Programme has only targeted recognised refugees and recipients of subsidiary protection. The government's recent action on migration aimed primarily at meeting EU obligations. Integration efforts have been frustrated by a lack of resources and disagreements over a proposed anti-discrimination act and integration measures for permanent residents. The government has tried to attract highly-skilled non-EU workers through the "Active Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers" pilot programme.
Long-term residence policies are slightly favourable, whilst labour market access, family reunion, access to nationality and political participation all score on or around halfway to best practice. Anti-discrimination law is worse still: second from the bottom out of the 28 MIPEX countries and just over a quarter of the way to best practice.
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Integration Policy Timeline
24/11/2005
Amendment No.428/2005 Coll. to Act on the Residency of Aliens transposed EC Directive on family reunion
05/2006
Parliament failed to override veto on Anti-Discrimination Act by Senate, which found its definitions vague and difficult to implement
27/04/2006
Amendment No. 161/2006 to Alien Act on long-term residence transposed EC Directive on long-term residents
10/2006
"Active Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers" pilot programme launched
2006
Exploitation in several Czech factories of North Korean seamstresses sparks calls to action on living and working conditions of legal migrants as alternative to ‘client system'
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Migrant Profile
Footnotes
1 More labour market contextual data coming soon
2 Eurostat (non EU-27, 01.01.2006)
3 OECD, SOPEMI, 2007 (all non-nationals and foreign-born nationals)
4 Eurostat (non EU-27, 01.01.2006)
5 Urban Audit (non EU-15)
6 Eurostat (non EU-25)
7 Eurostat (non EU-15)
8 OECD, SOPEMI, 2007 (based largely on standardised residence and work permit data)
9 MPG, Migration News Sheet, April 2007
10 OECD, Education at a Glance, 2006 (non EU-25)
11 unreliable data
12 unreliable data
13 Eurostat (includes EU nationals)
14 Eurostat (non EU-25)
15 See www.migrationonline.cz
