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Thursday, May 30, 2002
As the Czech Republic enters the last three weeks of its parliamentary election campaign, the issues of immigration and asylum have become increasingly prominent, with the opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) criticizing the "constant growth in asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants."

Last week saw the ODS begin to attack "the dishonest business practices of some businessmen in outdoor markets who are destroying Czech producers by selling smuggled goods." Although no nationalities were named, the targets were commonly viewed as the Vietnamese, who man a sizable proportion of such stands. The week then culminated in an interview given by the party's leader and former prime minister, Vaclav Klaus, to the left-wing daily Pravo in which he asserted that the "vast majority of [asylum-seekers] ... are, at most, economic refugees." Klaus broadened his attack to welcome the "twilight" of multiculturalism and the growing number of countries that are "beginning to become aware of the risks and social instability that it brings." A risk he identified was the "risk of losing the basic homogeneity, consistency, coherence, comradeship of that group in which I live, was born, and in which I wish to die."

Previously, one of the ODS's candidates in Prague, Marek Benda, had claimed that many illegal immigrants are involved in crime. He also asserted that asylum-seekers are abusing the existing procedures. "They simply apply for asylum and live off our account for years while they wait for a decision," he told TOL on 17 May. He is calling for the two-round review of applications to be reduced to one.

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Anna Grusova, head of the Center for Refugees, told TOL that asylum-seekers are left to languish in refugee camps for three years "and sometimes even longer." She argues that this is the "main problem" faced by asylum-seekers. A new law that came into effect on 1 January has not improved their situation, she said. "In the past, refugees were allowed to work while they waited for a decision, but now they are not allowed to work for the first 12 months of their stay in the Czech Republic." She argues that the new system, which prevents refugees from finding accommodation outside the camps, is merely fostering criminal activity by preventing refugees from making a new start.

The Czech opposition parties and media accuse the ODS of xenophobia and of deliberately seeking to emulate the political success of nationalist Western European leaders such as Austria's Jorg Haider and France's Jean-Marie Le Pen. The deputy chairman of the ODS, Ivan Langer, refuted such accusations on 14 May, saying that "we want to limit the risks of uncontrolled immigration and eliminate people who are involved in criminal activities," and that to ignore the problem might give rise to another Le Pen.

Some commentators in the media, meanwhile, have questioned the ODS's right to call itself a liberal party, while Respekt a weekly once sued by the Social Democrats (CSSD) and frequently criticized by the ODS, contrasted the ODS's campaign against owners of market stands with its repeated protests against what it views as the "criminalization of businessmen" by the sitting government and the media.

The issues of immigration and asylum form two elements of an election campaign in which "national interests" have featured prominently. The notion of a foreign threat also appears to have been invoked in ODS leaflets and posters colored yellow and black, colors that commonly warn of danger. The posters, which read, "the ODS votes for the country's security," show the Czech Republic in yellow, and neighboring countries in black.

By Western European standards, the number of foreigners in the Czech Republic is small, at 2% of the population — a quarter of the E.U. average. However, this is a higher figure than in Austria, Hungary, or Finland, and many times higher than in Poland, where 0.1% of the population are foreigners.

The figures for illegal immigration are substantially higher. Josef Vrabec, the Czech ambassador in Ukraine, was quoted in Respekt on 6 April as putting the number of Ukrainians working illegally in the country at 50,000. Much of the Czech construction industry relies on Ukrainians, and chronic unemployment and relative poverty make western Ukraine a deep labor pool for Czech employers who have trouble finding locals willing to work on building sites or cleaning the streets. According to the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, there were 17,921 Ukrainians working legally in the Czech Republic in March this year. The second-largest group comprises 6,671 Poles. The government acknowledges a gap in the market, and the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry projects that by 2030, the Czech labor market will need up to 420,000 additional workers.

In a proposal currently being attacked by the ODS, the labor minister and leader of the CSSD, Vladimir Spidla, in September 2001 unveiled plans to fill the gap by giving Ukrainian applicants for residency preferential treatment. He supports his argument by saying that they are an "ethnically close" group. However, under the point system that he is proposing, skilled workers would have a greater chance of winning permits. At the same time, he would not legalize the status of Ukrainians currently working without papers in the Czech Republic. A spokesman for Spidla's ministry argues that the Czech Republic's "responsibility to protect the common European labor market" prevents their legalization. A government report may hint at other, unexpressed reasons, saying that unskilled workers are not viewed positively by the public, which associates them with illegal activities and unfair competition.

Greece and Portugal, both members of the European Union, have begun to pardon illegal immigrant workers, legalizing their status. Portugal, which — like the Czech Republic — has a population of 10 million, last year gave work permits to 50,000 workers, many of them from Ukraine. Critics of the government's current policy argue that bureaucratic delays, overly tight regulations, and inflexibility encourage illegal migration, bribery of low-level bureaucrats, and the creation of informal labor pools to bring workers over the border, from whom the mafia then demands protection money.

This article was edited and adapted from Transitions Online www.tol.cz