Detailed information concerning some aspects of the project

1. The project target is to encourage foreign experts to settle in the Czech Republic
2. The project is limited to quotas set up annually, and will be modified according to needs
3. There is a lack of qualified experts on the labour market and the situation will get even worse in the future
4. In practice, qualified experts do not compete with each other and foreign experts are not likely to increase the number of unemployed persons
5. Experience gained from similar projects shows that a qualified expert creates more than one job to be occupied by Czech citizens
6. Foreign experts will contribute by net payments into the social insurance system
7. Foreign experts will contribute to the solution of an ageing population and problems relating to the pension system crisis
8. Migration is not a negative phenomenon, it cannot be avoided. It is better to manage it and gain benefits out of it

Arguments in figures

• Due to natural decrease, the CR is losing 20 thousand inhabitants every year. That is 600 thousand inhabitants in 30 years. (V. Špidla for Právo 10/2001)
• According to Eurostat, the CR reports the lowest birth rate of all EU candidate countries. In 1999 only 1,1 child was born in recalculation per one woman in productive age. Due to natural decrease, the CR preservation value loses 20 thousand inhabitants per year. 30 year population represents 2,1 children per a woman. Despite slightly increasing trends (1,3 child per one woman in productive age in the first half of the year 2006) the birth rate will not be sufficient even for simply reproducing the population.
• Even measures supporting population growth (i.e. flat family benefits) will not turn down the need for influx of people born abroad. Such measures can bring only a short-term effect similar to that of so called Husak´s children from the first half of the 70s (advantageous loans to young families, cheap children clothes etc.)
• Legal migrants represent less than three percent of the CR inhabitants at present while this figure reaches about 10 percent in other European countries. Nevertheless, even those countries are facing a lack of people. We have to prepare ourselves for the growth of the share of immigrants in the population in the future.
• About 90 percent of foreigners living legally in the CR are in the productive age (15-59) which is more than within the Czech population.

The project target to create attractive conditions for foreign experts to bring them to settle in the Czech Republi

• The effort focusing on the enhancement of the national labour market with the foreign experts is not unique to the Czech Republic. Most of the developed countries need immigrants. The population is ageing while the number of children born is decreasing, and the number of people active in the economy will decrease too. Immigration is a price we must pay for immobile domestic labour force.
• The importance of migration even in developed industrial countries is evident from the vast research, published in Germany under the title „Forming immigration - supporting integration“ which served as a basis for a new immigration act, beginning with the following words: „Germany needs immigrants“.
• Many UN, EU or Council of Europe reports highlight the great importance of immigration. In this sense, the importance of equal employment and education opportunities for immigrants and ethnic minorities is stressed. Many people agree with the opinion that a number of positive measures providing immigrants with both quality opportunities and assistance in overcoming language and other knowledge deficit need to be adopted. The Czech project does not go so far yet. Although shortening the term necessary for getting permanent residence in the CR not only for project participants but also for their family members gives them a guarantee of stay. Thanks to this provision they need not prolong their visa for over 90 days with the purpose of employment. It also allows them to better plan their future. .
• In the CR, the green card system, with foreign experts getting the chance to work abroad for several years, is not applied. The projects aims at permanent integration of qualified foreign workers into the Czech society. The project does not apply to non-qualified labour force. The need of this group of workers is fully satisfied in the present system of short-term employment for foreigners.

The project is limited by quotas set up annually, and will be modified according to needs

• In the preparation of the Czech project, the emphasis was given to its pilot character, which will be highlighted especially in the first years of the project implementation when the new system set-up and functioning will be tested on a relatively small group of people. The system has a potential for further expansion in respect of numbers of people as well as spheres to which it might apply.
• With respect to this conception and the period of the pilot project duration set up for five years, various aspects of the system may be tested in each of its stages, i.e. information flows, selection criteria set-up or the ability to manage the great number of persons entering and leaving the system.
• In the first years it is necessary to test , for instance, the mechanisms of accepting applications both in the CR and at Czech Embassies abroad, the functioning of the selection procedure computer program, the communication between the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and project applicants, the maintenance of the database of accepted participants and rejected applicants etc. Only when a problem-free system functioning is assured, will it be possible to expand the project to other countries.
• The project focuses not only on foreign workers coming from the East. As the CR has become an EU member, very liberal rules of free movement of people apply to all the citizens of EU member states also in the area of employment and residence of foreigners, so it would make no sense to test the project in western European countries. That is why countries with similar characteristics have been chosen for the project in order to enable the comparison when assessing the criteria set-up. These are countries with a relatively comparable number of inhabitants, with similar historical background, with more or less similar educational systems and levels of education as well as language similarities.
• The project does not concern great numbers of people at the time. Only several hundreds of persons will be accepted in the first project years while the total migration growth of the CR has reached the level of about 15,000 persons per year in the recent years.
• The pilot sample of several hundreds persons per year does not pretend to be highly contributory from the demographical point of view. Quotas for numbers of workers to be accepted will be evaluated annually in accordance with the actual situation on the labour market. The project is based on the principle of regular evaluation and possible review to make it ready in all aspects for the possible expansion also to all countries.

There is a lack of qualified experts on the labour market already now, and the situation will get even worse in the future

• The active management of migration is not a new phenomenon although it is used actively by only a few countries (e.g. Canada, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom). The target is to use easily manageable, simple and cheap instruments for moving from passive reaction to existing migration towards an active management of one component of economically motivated migration.
• In Europe, a programme similar to the Czech project has been implemented only by the United Kingdom and Germany. Other countries have only isolated programmes limited to some professions. We are not following Europe’s example in this aspect, we are ahead of it. The approaches similar to the Czech project may find support also in the Announcement of the European Commission to the Council and the European Parliament no. 336, on migration, integration and employment, from June 2003.
• EU policy strives for competitiveness, for a managed migration while using its potential. The CR has a chance to be among the first countries and to gain benefits of quality selection.

EXPERTS BELIEVE THE PROJECT WILL BE OF BENEFIT TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC:

• „I perceive the whole matter positively. As it should concern people with university education, the project will contribute to economic development as well as to development of knowledge“, says David Marek from Patria Finance. He believes such approach is necessary for the republic. „Focusing on lower production costs is not sustainable forever. Already today Eastern European countries are competing with us. The future of the Czech economy lies in the export of goods with higher price levels. And we need highly qualified employees for that,“ added Marek. (ÈTK, 15. 7. 2003).
• „ Sure we welcome it. The influx of foreign investment will continue, and investors need qualified employees“, stated Martin Jahn, former Deputy Prime Minister responsible for economics. And he added that if we assume there will be further foreign investment there will soon be a deficit of toolmakers and software engineers soon. (Tereza Zavadilová, Lidové noviny, 11.1. 2002).
• „We feel the deficit of experts in many areas already today, and we are forced to seek some specialised blue-collar professionals abroad,“ confirmed Michal Kraus, former HR manager of Skoda Holding, Plzeò. Even trade unions do not oppose the project. (Jitka Hrivòáková, Moravské deníky Bohemia, 31. 10. 2001)
• With respect to the EU accession we can expect the outflow of Czech employees reacting to offers from countries facing the same problem. In February and March 2003 a survey took place for the third time as part of the CAPE programme, organised by the European Association of Commercial and Industrial Chambers EUROCHAMBERS, and financed by the PHARE programme. It took the form of a questionnaire concerning the level of preparedness of companies for a single European market and it was held among entrepreneurs of the ten candidate states. Sharper competition on the domestic market is amongst the negative impacts of the EU accession. The same applies to the deficit of qualified labour force caused by migration. For instance, among companies which import between 30 and 50 percent of their production, the number of those afraid of the drain of qualified employees to foreign countries has increased from previous 4,1 percent to contemporary 7,4 percent. Czech companies worry more than all other candidate states. (Entrepreneurs are afraid of migration consequences, Mladá fronta Dnes, 17. 6. 2003).

In practice qualified experts do not compete with each other, and foreign experts are not likely to increase the number of unemployed persons

• Entry into the selection procedure will be possible only under the condition of already having arranged for employment in the CR and having obtained previous working experience somewhere else. These principles should guarantee the least possible negative impact on the labour market and should secure the requested level of applicants’ working experience. In practice employment arranged in the Czech Republic means a work permit has been issued by a local Employment Office with respect to the labour market situation. That should ensure that situations where a foreign expert receives a job which could have been occupied by a qualified Czech expert do not occur.
• The project will not endanger the Czech Republic inhabitants’ job opportunities. What is called “employment paradox” is well documented in the CR, as well as in other developed countries. This means that while there is relatively high unemployment there is, at the same time, an increasing number of vacancies in the same sectors, which cannot be occupied by local employees either due to insufficient qualification or due to lack of mobility.
• On the other hand, according to the German research paper „Forming immigration - supporting integration“, qualified immigrants may increase the demand for less qualified work, and thus contribute to the reduction of unemployment.
• Even foreigners already living and working in the CR may enter the selection procedure. That shows that there is a demand for them on the labour market. The employers are facing a deficit in several specific professions. As the labour market does not provide some professions, the employers are forced to seek employees for them abroad. That is why besides 83 thousand Slovak citizens there also are 64 thousand foreigners from various states legally employed in the CR.
• Foreigners had mostly worked in blue-collar jobs in the past but we have been watching certain changes in the recent years when professions requiring secondary school education have been increasing their share. What is positive is the fact that the number of foreigners working in professions requiring university education continuously increases. Their share represents 15% at present, and the share of women is also growing.
• At present we are facing a deficit of qualified employees in mechanical engineering for instance. This is a consequence of the situation at the beginning of 90s when the restructuring of industry and mass dismissals of workers took place, and young people were not interested in these professions.

Experience gained from similar projects shows that a qualified expert creates more than one job to be occupied by Czech citizens

• If the entry of a qualified expert into the Czech labour market has the same impact as that estimated by the German research work „Forming immigration - supporting integration“, the concept of which is very similar to the Czech model, then the creation of about two other jobs to be occupied by the Czech neighbours of the newcomer will be the side effect of one qualifiedworker’s involvement in the market.
• In practice, the immigrants substitute domestic low qualified labour force on the one hand (which is not the target of the Czech project), and on the other hand qualified immigrants create sufficient job opportunities for domestic inhabitants. „Immigration of qualified labour force may open additional possibilities to domestic people, especially in those cases when the immigrants bring special capabilities“, the German research work states.
• Labour market oriented immigration should not cause the invalidation of the process of adjustment to the labour market . Immigration of qualified labour force should not burden domestic educational efforts. Simultaneously, the flexibility of wages has to be maintained as it serves as an incentive for qualification improvement.
• Foreign experts contribute by net payments into the social insurance system
• The selection of foreigners follows strict criteria. Pursuant to project rules it is necessary to avoid the risk that residence permits be granted to applicants who, either themselves or their family members, risk dependence on social security assistance in the CR. The criteria will provide for ensuring that people with the best prerequisites for success come to the CR. These people will probably not become unemployed even in future.
• As all applicants arrange their visas and jobs in the CR themselves, they prove that they are active and capable enough to take care of themselves.
• People accepted by the selection procedure will have higher motivation to retain their jobs. On the other hand, the employers will get a perspective of not losing a good employee just because of the bureaucratic obstacles they will have to face until they finally decide to return home.

Foreign experts will partially contribute to the solution of an ageing population and the problems related to the pension system crisis

• Consequences of demographic development and its perspectives are one of the most decisive reasons for the active support of migration. Although the impact of demographic ageing on social insurance systems may be only partially solved through the influx of new payers with different family patterns, and labour market demand for more qualified experts cannot be satisfied only through immigration, the new young qualified experts from abroad who will settle in the CR and will integrate into the society may at least partially contribute to the solution of the above mentioned problems of the future.
• According to the research of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs „Analysis of demographic situation in the labour market by 2030“ in 2030 around 420 thousand persons in productive age will be missing from the Czech labour market . Crisis scenarios even mention a two million deficit of persons if the living standards of the older generation are to be maintained. The five-year pilot project should serve as a test for the CR whether it could manage to fill the gap in the labour market and partially solve the problems of the pension system. Although that should still be a side effect. The main aim of the project is not solving particular problems in the present labour market but selecting applicants for settlement in the CR who may be integrated without problems. Thanks to their education and other qualities they will represent a long-term benefit for the society.
• The project counts on the inclusion of the whole family into the Czech society, which is one of the most decisive factors of the successful integration. The family represents an important anchor for the immigrants in the society, especially through children and other generations as foreign experience shows. It also shows that the higher integration of persons active in the national labour market the higher benefits they bring to the economy of the host countries.

Migration is not a negative phenomenon, it cannot be avoided. It is better to manage it and gain benefits out of it

• International migration of people is a phenomenon affecting all civilised countries. By applying a passive approach to migration the state deprives itself of the possibility to regulate the influx of immigrants as well as to gain benefits out of it. Immigration increases the potential of the labour force and thus the production potential too, it helps to increase the demand, to reduce the decrease in the number of inhabitants and to encourage economic growth.
• Developed countries have already realized that those who orient their immigration policy in the right direction win. It is especially important in Europe as this continent is ageing faster than other regions. Although it is known that immigration cannot represent a permanent solution, it is worth it to exercise it. Although it cannot stop the ageing of the population, it may slow this process down significantly.

Foreign experience shows that liberal immigration policy brings benefits to everybody.

• The Czech Republic also needs an active immigration policy as it may contribute to the elimination of negative influences affecting the social insurance system due to the decrease in the number of inhabitants and their ageing.
• Immigrants experience minimum hostility in Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand. On the other hand, Europe and Japan perceives immigration as a new phenomenon. Their society is older and thus less able to accept change.
• The European integration policy is based on the fact that employment is a necessary prerequisite of the integration into the society – it provides regular income and economic independence, security, social status, opportunity to establish relations with members of the majority community as well as social integration. That is exactly the sense of the Czech project.
• Many immigrants initially accept jobs in less attractive areas of the labour market where the competition is not so high . They may lack recognized knowledge, education or language skills needed in the competition for the better jobs. They have to cope with discrimination, work not corresponding to their qualification or a higher unemployment rate compared to the rest of the population. The Czech project strives to assist them in an easier incorporation into the majority society.
• The governmental projects aim also at identifying so called bottlenecks of our legislation. That may concern also the act on citizenship or the act on residence of foreign inhabitants in the CR. The project may bring new experience in legal employment of foreigners in the CR. (The German research has also stated that there is no experience with the immigration of highly qualified labour force, but we must work on an assumption that it increases innovation abilities of the economy as well as of competitiveness).
• The project enhances control mechanisms of the foreign police and employment bodies.

Additional information

Additional information can be found at www.imigracecz.org or imigrace@mpsv.cz or may be obtained by telephone at:
Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí (MPSV), i.e. the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs: 221 922 809 (spokes man Jiří Sezemský)

[ home ] [ top ]