Vera IVANOVITSOVA, an employee of the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, tells a correspondent of "Inostranets" about the features of this program.
- Ms. Ivanovitsova, is your project already actually working?
- Yes, it was launched back on July 28.
- And how many applications have been received during this time?
- We have received 126 applications, of which 100 from Bulgarians, 21 from Kazakhs, and five from Croats. 114 people passed the selection.
- Why was such a project needed at all?
- Because the population of the Czech Republic is declining and the country lacks skilled labour. Paradoxical as it may seem, with the current unemployment we need foreign workers. Furthermore, employees of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs have calculated that by 2030 our labour market will have a shortfall of 420,000 people. That is a great many. The goal of the project, of course, is not to fully compensate for all those missing hands. But it is one of the measures in the overall labour policy.
- Why were these three particular countries chosen?
- This is a test, pilot project. Its first phase is currently underway - an attempt to fine-tune the overall working mechanism, the technical and administrative side. This means we have to process a huge number of documents that are new to us. If we had immediately included a country many of whose citizens already work in the Czech Republic, we simply would not have coped with such a volume of work. And there are relatively few people from these three countries here. Before the project’s start, about 1,200 Bulgarians, 54 Kazakhs, and 60 Croats lived and worked on the territory of the Czech Republic. The regulation states that citizens of these three countries may participate in the project if they have a work permit (which a Czech employer must obtain for them) and a visa for more than 90 days - that is, not a guest or tourist visa, but a work or student visa. These are mandatory conditions.
This year the project is open to 300 people: 150 will be selected from applicants who are already in the Czech Republic and working, and 150 from those who submitted applications in Almaty, Sofia, and Zagreb. This time, since we only started in July, two selection rounds were held - one in October, the other at the beginning of January. And of all the foreign applicants, only one was accepted - from Kazakhstan. That is not surprising: to apply for immigration, a foreigner must find a job in the Czech Republic. And that is not at all easy. An employer hiring a foreigner must prove that he cannot hire a Czech worker for the same position.
Unlike the current practice, when a foreigner working in the Czech Republic can apply for permanent residence only after ten years, a program participant receives this right after two and a half years. In addition, a foreigner who loses his job in the Czech Republic automatically loses his visa as well. Participation in the project, however, gives him a month to look for a new job.
- Just one month?
- Yes, it is a short period of time, but we know that even this greatly facilitates the lives of foreigners.
- And how many years after obtaining permanent residence can one get citizenship?
- After five.
- Don’t you think that a paradoxical situation is emerging: you say the program is needed to attract skilled labour to the Czech Republic, but at the same time it is mainly intended for those foreigners who already officially work in the Czech Republic?
- A fair point. The program was indeed adopted to attract labour. At present, about 45,000 foreigners work in the Czech Republic on the basis of work permits. And this is an asset. These people are already integrated into Czech society; they pay taxes and insurance. And it would be extremely unfair not to include them in the project. But only those of them who can prove that they were legally living in the Czech Republic on July 28, 2003 can participate in it. Otherwise, they will have to apply in their home country.
- But those who apply in their own country must also have a work permit in the Czech Republic?
- Certainly. The only concession: consulates accept immigration applications from foreigners simultaneously with an application for a work visa. But they are included in the project only after receiving the visa.
- So it turns out the program does not attract new people?
- Well, why not? In the current conditions, many simply will not go to the Czech Republic, knowing they would have to wait 10 years for permanent residence - that is too long. Imagine: a person wants to go abroad, he likes the Czech Republic - a country that is close to him in language and culture. But he thinks: "Wait ten years for a residence permit? No, I'd rather go and work in Germany." Now we have something to offer him.
- When is it planned to include other countries in the project?
- Apparently, next summer, when the project has been running for a year. Which countries will be included? That depends not on whether we like a country or not, but on how many application forms we can process. But in five years, all countries will be able to participate in the program. By the way, one of the changes we will definitely make to the project is that students studying here will not be obliged, as they currently are, to leave for their home country after graduating, look for work in the Czech Republic from there, and then submit an application. They will be able to do so while still in the Czech Republic.
- Who is the program mainly designed for?
- Our ideal candidate is a person aged 23 to 35 with a higher education, and even better - a PhD, having two children and a spouse (wife or husband) also with a higher education.
- Does it not turn out that people who apply to the program from abroad are initially in a worse position than those who already work in the Czech Republic? After all, points are also awarded for the length of stay in the country.
— No, because the quotas for those who applied in the Czech Republic and abroad are separate. I will repeat once again: we are talking exclusively about qualified workers who tie their long-term plans to the Czech Republic. Our program is designed for people who want to integrate into Czech society. But to integrate does not necessarily mean to assimilate. We are interested in the cultural diversity of the Czech Republic.
— Is there a list of priority professions?
— At first we wanted to introduce it, but then we decided not to do so. The labor market is a very dynamic sphere. Moreover, in the Czech Republic its structure varies greatly by region. We studied foreign models and saw that introducing a list of priority specialties could have negative consequences. For example, the United States once announced a recruitment of medical personnel from the Philippines. And immediately in the United States itself the number of people wishing to study in medical schools fell sharply — applicants decided that because of the influx of Filipinos it would be difficult for doctors to find work and salaries would fall. We do not want to make such a mistake.
— What advantages do your immigration programs have over immigration programs already existing or being prepared in other countries? What will make people choose the Czech Republic rather than, say, Canada or Germany?
— We are realists and perfectly understand that we have no competitive advantages over countries like Canada, the United States, or Germany, except the personal desire of a person to live precisely in the Czech Republic. We think that people with a similar language and culture may be more willing to come to us. Perhaps the main advantage of our project is that we are the first country of the former Eastern bloc to undertake something like this. Immigration cannot be stopped. The more restricted legal immigration is, the higher illegal immigration is. Therefore, the motto of our project is “Legal immigration, an open chance.”