Labour Market Inclusion of International Protection Applicants and Beneficiaries

Abstract

IntroductionLabour market inclusion of international protection applicants and beneficiaries represents an important issue of migration and integration policies of various EU Member States.Strielkowski (2012) and Milaszewicz et al. (2015) show that immigrants often choose host countries according to the ability to absorb an additional labour supply that they constitute. As a result, certain EU Member States experience the influx of the large amount of immigrants that might potentially cause disturbances on their labour markets. The stakeholders and migration policy-makers, as well as labour associations, trade unions and members of general society confront the constant dilemma of allowing migrants to enter their respective countries and facing consequences that might follow including social unrests, unease, the rise of populism and xenophobia. With regard to the above, there is no wonder that the recent Brexit campaign recently waging in the United Kingdom and shaking up the political and economic scenes prior to the referendum held on the 23rd of June 2016 was largely drawing from the fears of migration and flooding the UK labour market (Vasilopoulou, 2016). In fact, the Brexiteers used migration as their main card a week or two before the day of the referendum trying to tip the vote to their side. It is ironic that possible consequences of Brexit might turn this debate around. According to the Office of National Statistics (2011), in 2011 alone, 2.68 million people born in other EU countries resided in the United Kingdom. This number reached 3.03 million by 2014 (Office of National Statistics, 2014). In the same time, there might be from 1.2 to almost 3 million people born in the UK or having the UK passport who live and work in other EU countries (Parliament, 2016). What might follow would be naturalization of migrants on either sides or the massive exodus if all other measures and solutions fail to resolve the situation.A common concern about the phenomenon of international migration that might shape the policies and the public attitudes is the common perception that migrants come into a country without any contribution to society and that they might only take the advantage of the conditions local labour markets and welfare states offer.In order to measure levels of integration and labour market inclusion, Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) is often employed (Niessen et al., 2010). The MIPEX is a tool that allows measuring and comparing diverse levels of integration with regard to different migration policy areas such as labour market mobility, education and access to long term residence, among other things. With the data contained in this index, the impact of integration in the might be explained and then used to generate advices that might improve integration and thus enhance economic benefits for local economy.The rest of this paper is structured as follows: Section 1 describes the situation with the international protection in the Czech Republic. Section 2 discusses the Czech migration policy and provisions with regard to the international protection applicants and beneficiaries. Section 3 analyses the issues of immigration surplus and MIPEX for the particular case of the Czech Republic. Finally, Section 4 summarizes the main findings and provides brief conclusions and policy implications.1. International protection regimes in the Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic has never been a very popular country for international migrants (except for the Ukrainians, Vietnamese of the citizens of the neighbouring Poland and Slovakia). Moreover, the number of applications for international protection in the Czech Republic has never been high in comparison with the other EU countries.In 2015, foreign nationals filed 1525 applications for international protection in the Czech Republic. The asylum was granted to 71 people and 399 people were put under the supplementary procedure (permission to stay in the country for a period from 1 to 3 years). …