Migrants are to Salvage the Czech Republic
Právo, Leoš Kyša (28. 4. 2007).
It looks like an appeal from an Austro-Hungarian Army recruitment circular or detergent advertising: Come to live and work in the Czech Republic, country with high quality of life and good potential for development.
„The Czech Republic is a developed democratic country with market economy, member of the European Union, NATO and OECD. Living standard is high in the Czech Republic; according to the UN Development Programme assessment The Czech Republic occupied 31st position among 177 countries of the world in 2005. Czech society is not xenophobic one and everybody who makes his living in legal way is appreciated,“ says a document of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs aiming at attracting foreigners to join the pilot project called „Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers“. Thanks to this project 139 foreigners together with members of their families have been granted with permanent residence permits in the Czech Republic in shortened terms.
Bulgarian Engineer
„This project has a target to prepare our country and society for further influx of foreigners in the years to come. Despite of the fact that the birth rate was higher than mortality rate the last year, the Czech nation is dying out in the long-term horizon. Immigrants could mitigate this trend, and it is always better if you can choose and attract qualified and skilled people to come and settle here. Fortunately, the Czech Republic has a lot to offer to such people, and seeing those who were successful in this process it seems that foreigners who could enrich and be of use to this country are coming in the frame of this project,“ says Zdena Caisová, officer of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
Bulgarian engineer Vladimír Iliev with his family is one of them. He has been living in the Czech Republic for already six years. Four years ago, his family joined him. „I work as a welding engineer and quality manager. I specialise in production and assembly of high-capacity tanks for refineries and chemical industry. Czechs offered me work for half a year.
I accepted it but I wanted to return home to my family. However, company needs me and finally they have convinced me to settle down in Prague. I have accepted that offer and moved to Prague,“ thirty six years old specialist explains in very reasonable Czech language.
He hired a teacher to learn it after one year of staying here. „You know, I learned Czech from friends in pubs at the beginning, and that is probably not the best school for appropriate Czech words,“ he laughs.
Two years ago his wife Liliana delivered their son Michail in Prague. Now they are expecting the delivery of another child. Their oldest son, called after his father, is already thirteen. He speaks Czech so well that it is impossible to distinguish him from Prague-born boys. „At the beginning I perceived it as being here just for a short time, so I suffered with no homesick for Sofia. The longer we were living here, the more used to it I became,“ next year student of grammar school (high school) explains to me.
As the company needed Mr. Iliev, the family faced no big problems in settling down here. The company even found a suitable flat for him. The only complications he faced was annual arrangement of documents with Foreigners´ police. „That is a kind of bureaucracy classics. There is absolutely different information on internet and in leaflets than the one officers provide to foreigners. It happened to me sometimes that I did not have all necessary documents, other time I had more of them than they required.
Surprisingly he faced more problems when opening a bank account. The first one he opened with Union Bank. After the bankruptcy of Union Bank he wanted to open more accounts with different banks. However two banks refused him. They even did not explain why. Just the third one satisfied him and opened an account for him. „Maybe they were afraid I would use their services for money laundering? I don´t know“, he thinks.
His family has always had very warm relations to the Czech Republic. His grandfather and grandmother studied medicine at Charles University in thirties.
„Difference between Czechs and Bulgarians? That has been explained to me by my colleague when we were working on one big project our company had in Lithuania. There were dozens of Czechs, Bulgarians and Lithuanians working. He than told me that when you introduce a supervisor to Czechs they have no problems to accept him and listen to him. Bulgarians do not accept authority which is not built up by a person itself. They ignore such person. As soon as the supervisor drops his efforts, he is dead. Czechs are rather team makers“.
His wife thinks they are also more calm and relaxed. However she was surprised with the lack of knowledge about an interesting history of Czechs in Bulgaria. „Many important Bulgarian painters are of the Czech origin, as well as former entrepreneurs. Czech was an important minister of education and also director of the National Library in Sofia. After all, the first Bulgarian brewery was founded by a Czech“.
Serbian-Croatian marriage
Father of thirty five years old Serbian Ivan Milovanovitch loved Czech literature. His passion has predetermined the fate of his children. He convinced his oldest daughter to study Czech philology. She together with her boyfriend left for Prague to study there, and they both have settled down here.
In 1999, when NATO airplanes started bombing of Belgrad, Ivan – student of economy at that time - escaped from the capital and went to his sister. He did not assume he would stay in Prague forever. He met five years younger girl Maja from Vukovar, Croatia, who had already lived and worked in Prague. She lived with her brother who married a Czech girl.
„We were thinking what to do after the war. It would be difficult for us to find jobs in Belgrad, and I did not want to go to Croatian Vukovar. I would never go there. I am Serbian and Vukovar was one of the worst symbols of Serbian-Croatian conflict. That is why we decided to stay in Prague“, explains Ivan. They have married and both their daughters, Aneta and Sofia, were born in Prague. Ivan works as graphic designer and he manages to maintain his family quite well although his wife is on maternity leave now.
To go back to Vukovar or Belgrad? No way. Vukovar – it would be like to change a horse for a donkey, and life in Serbia is still difficult. We like the Czech Republic. It is our home now and we would like to stay here forever“, states Maja Milovanovitch. They go to visit their parents and relatives either to Croatia or to Serbia. „Difference between Czechs and Balkan peninsula nationalities? It is clear. Czechs are not „drawing swords” for any triviality“, Ivan laughs.
„It is a matter of temperament. The Czech one is calmer and more relaxed, quiet. I know that Czechs are sometimes criticising themselves that they are lacking passion and persistence of Southern nations. But that is only for good. That is one of the reasons why splitting your country with Slovaks you separated in a cultured and sophisticated way and were not shooting each other as we did. You should be proud of it“, chunk mother of two girls thinks.
Russian from Kazakhstan
Thirty two years old Nadyezda Abashina comes from Kazakhstan, from Astana city. Her parents are Russians. As many young people, they left for the wide Soviet Union republic where there was an opportunity to get good jobs at that time. Beyond Russians, there were several generations of descendants of immigrated Germans as well as Czechs living.
However the situation changed with the fall of Soviet Union. „There was great poverty. But not only that. Kazakhs ordered to speak Kazakh language everywhere. But just few people could speak it. Even young Kazakhs faced problems. Russians were going back to Russia. German and Czech governments helped Germans and Czechs to return back to the countries of their forefathers. My parents were among few ones who stayed“, graduated nurse speaks.
She was twenty two, she had two years old son. Her marriage broke down, and she decided to go to a Western country for a while to earn some money. Her friend gave her contact to a friend working in the Czech Republic. Nadyezda came to join her. She arranged for a Trade Licence and was earning money working as a cleaning lady. „It was difficult at the beginning. I was often crying and I wanted to go back home. I was alone here - my son was with my mother in Kazakhstan. But there was nothing else to do than to stand it“. When she learned Czech she looked around and found out that she could find a job in her professional specialisation. She applied for job in all Prague hospitals and finally she was offered a job in university hospital. She works there even now. As she joined the project „Selection of qualified foreign workers“, it means legal migration, she was granted with the permanent residence permit in a shortened period, as well as her today already eleven years old son. „Difference between Czechs and Kazakhs? It is clear. Czech men are more flexible. They stand the things from their partners which Russians or Kazakhs would not bear,“ the nurse claims. „I want to stay here forever. It is wonderful country. Czechs even do not realize how great lives they have here. Those who work and are not prodigal, they have good lives here, they have where to live and what to eat“.