Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Marek Ševela

A Comparative Analysis of the British and Czech Responses to the Current Migrant Crisis in Europe

Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D.

2016

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. for his patient guidance and taking the trouble to help me. Furthermore, I would like to say many thanks to my family and friends who have supported me on the road.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 6

Chapter One: Historical Background ...... 10

1.1 Global History ...... 10

1.2 History of Migration Movements in the Czech Republic ...... 18

1.3 History of Migration Movements in the United Kingdom...... 24

Chapter Two: The Current Situation in the Context of Migration Crisis ...... 31

2.1 The Current World Situation ...... 31

2.2 The Current Situation in the Czech Republic ...... 37

2.3 The Current Situation in the United Kingdom ...... 39

Chapter Three: The Social Aspects of Migration ...... 41

3.1 Introduction ...... 41

3.2 Push and Pull Factors ...... 41

3.3 The Social Impacts of Migration on the Target and Source Countries ...... 43

3.4 Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Fear of Terrorism ...... 44

3.5 The Social Impacts in the Context of the Czech Republic...... 46

3.6 The Social Impacts in the Context of the United Kingdom ...... 47

3.7 Conclusion ...... 49

Chapter Four: The Economic Aspects of Migration ...... 51

4.1 Introduction ...... 51

4.2 The Economic Impacts of Migration on the Target Countries ...... 51

4.3 The Economic Impacts of Migration on the Source Countries ...... 57 4.4 The Economic Effects of Migration in the Context of the CR ...... 59

4.5 The Economic Effects of Migration in the Context of the UK ...... 61

4.6 Conclusion ...... 63

Chapter Five: The Comparison and the Final Conclusion ...... 64

5.2 The Comparison from the Historical Point of View ...... 64

5.3 The Comparison from the Current Point of View ...... 66

5.4 The Comparison from the Social Point of View ...... 68

5.5 The Comparison from the Economic Point of View ...... 79

5.6 The Final Conclusion ...... 70

Works Cited ...... 72

Resumé (English) ...... 82

Résumé (Czech) ...... 83

Introduction

Newspapers, the internet, television channels and all the other mass media are currently congested with news about the most recent migrant crisis and the horrible acts of terrorism. Being the worst since World War II, the whole Europe is shattered by the situation, forced to make critical decisions on a daily basis. The strength and stability of the European Union are being tested more than they ever were. It is January 2016 and the problems with migration have escalated so sharply that it became a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most discussed topics when it comes to politics, economics, and sociology.

This thesis will work within the frame of these events, providing its readers with a comparative analysis of the two chosen countries: the Czech Republic and the United

Kingdom in the context of their attitudes towards the current situation. The structure of the thesis will give the reader a compact and comprehensive interpretation of the problem on all the necessary levels required for a fundamental understanding of today’s reality while considering these two countries and the world.

The structure of the work consists of chapters that focus on different aspects of the problem, supporting the thesis from many different angles and points of view. All these chapters and their analyses work as a solid background for the thesis statement that has been established as following: putting the Czech Republic and the United

Kingdom into context of the current European refugee crisis, it seems, that both countries, despite their completely different historical development and political attitude towards the immigration, respond very similarly in social terms and share a few effects that the influx of foreign labor has on their economies.

Firstly, the thesis goes back in time in Chapter One in order to contribute to the whole work in terms of the historical background that these two countries have. The

~ 6 ~ history of migration is very specific for both of the countries and played a vital role in the shaping of their nationalities as such. Furthermore, it is possible to express an opinion that these historical flows mentioned in this chapter play a significant role in the creation of today’s attitudes towards the current refugee crisis. The history of immigration is firstly examined from the general point of view, analyzing migrant flows in Europe as well as the movements happening in the countries around. Various sources had been used in this chapter, mostly consisted of books that were dealing with the history of immigration. However, the most helpful source of information, in terms of the historical analysis, appeared to be Stephen Castle’s The Age of Migration:

International Population Movements in the Modern World which provided valuable information on specific periods of time from which the sections considering the information about the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and the whole Europe had been chosen and implemented in order to support the thesis. The second most valuable pool of information was found in the work of Klaus J. Bade and his Migration in

European History. His work focuses rather globally on the history of the European continent, therefore it proved to be much helpful, especially in the sections where

Europe as a continent is historically analyzed.

Secondly, it is important to introduce the reader to the current situation of the problem with all its essential elements. The second chapter plays this role, leading the reader to all the important features of the current situation, helping him to understand the reality in which he might find himself while reading this piece of academic work.

Despite the fact that the word “current” is used, all the mentioned events are taken into consideration only up to March 22, 2016. This limitation has been set because of many reasons connected with the practicality and actual writing of this bachelor thesis. The sources used for this particular chapter mostly consist of various internet articles and

~ 7 ~ handbooks that are up to date and fresh with information that currently no books can provide. The Guardian - an internet medium, based on a British national daily newspaper that holds the exact same name, belongs among the most used sources of information. Also, The Observer and The Independent news websites are among these sources that helped to construct the first chapter and support its function. With the help from all these sources and many others, this chapter answers the questions of what, where and why, giving the reader all the fundamental information needed for the further reading of this bachelor thesis.

The third chapter is aimed at the social aspects of the problems, sharing with the reader all the disputes and obstacles in the sphere of politics, society and actual integration of refugees. From these subsections, the chapter interprets the essential highlights and creates the right environment for a proper understanding of this particular background section. A good understanding of the socio-political aspects is required and very important because the last chapter, dealing with actual comparison of the two countries, assumes that the reader has the knowledge of certain aspects of the problem and can follow the propulsion of the analysis as given. When it comes to the sources used for this part of the thesis, Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan form in their work How Migration Shaped Our World And Will Define Our Future many interesting ideas and their points of view appear to be rather positive when considering the inflow of immigrants into the western countries. The authors speak about the inevitability of the whole process and also give an additional opinion on the economic aspects of the phenomenon which makes their book a good source of information not only for this chapter but for the following one as well.

The fourth chapter helps to establish an economic background for the reader.

While analyzing the economic components and consequences of immigration, the

~ 8 ~ reader is given a set of information that gives him an opportunity to understand the realities behind the scenes of immigration flows from an economic point of view. This obtained awareness of economic patterns can help the reader to find many answers to questions that were left unanswered before. What is the effect of immigration on labor markets and wages of people? How does it differ when considering low-skilled and high-skilled workers? What is the effect on fiscal realities such as taxes and pensions of the countries that undergo strong immigration inflows? Is actual immigration beneficial or hurtful? These and many other questions come to mind while examining the matters of immigration and this chapter tries to find the answers. When considering the chosen sources for this chapter, two most influential books need to be mentioned. Labor

Economics as written by Jorge Jesús Borjas and Exceptional People: How Migration

Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future as already mentioned in the social chapter. These two books are the ones that answer all the raised questions above. Even though Labor Economics from Jorge Jesús Borjas focuses more on the aspects of labor markets in general, it still provides a comprehensive level of information on elements of immigration. The rest of the required information is covered in Exceptional People:

How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future.

The final chapter, dealing with the actual comparison of the two countries, plays the role of the closer, putting all the elements together, looking for a conclusion between the lines, this chapter comes with results and implications. These are based on the information collected during the whole research, throughout the spectrum of all the chapters and its topics. During this process, no additional sources are needed since all the required sections have been analyzed in the chapters before.

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CHAPTER 1: Historical Background of Migration

1.1 Global History

Migration from Africa belongs among the very first migration flows that took place 2 million years ago and helped our predecessor, homo erectus, to spread all over the world. This particular chapter, however, will not analyze these early events because the author finds it unnecessary for the purposes of the thesis. Instead, the first main focus is on the events that were happening in times when the British colonization was at its peak and slavery, as a form of highly profitable business, was already cut-and-dried.

For this reason, the chapter starts with the second half of the 18th century and leads the reader through all the historical events that might prove helpful in the interpretation of the current problems. The chapter is divided into three parts, starting with a summary of global European migration movements both internal and external. The second part covers the historical background of the Czech Republic and the last part focuses on the immigration flows concerning the United Kingdom.

Though, playing a major part in colonization, it was not only the British Empire that started expanding its territory during the 18th and 19th century. Spain, Portugal,

Netherlands, France and later also Germany and Belgium started their colonies in

Africa, America, and Asia. The south of America belonged mostly to Spain and

Portugal whilst Southeastern Asia was conquered by the Netherlands. Finally, North

America and Africa were divided between the powers of France and Great Britain. By the second half of the 18th century, the transatlantic slavery trade was already wide- spread throughout the colonies. It is possible to say, from today’s point of view, that this might have been perceived as the very first and the biggest forced migration in the history of the world. Reginal Thomas Appleyard claims in his book International

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Migration: Challenge for the Nineties that it was approximately 15 million slaves that had been taken to America before the 1850s even started. (Appleyard 11) Neither before nor after has there been such massive movements of people that would be caused by human intervention.

What is also worth mentioning, in conjunction with this period, is that until the

1880s there was no regulation of migration from Europe to America. As Steven Castles with Mark Miller claim in the book The Age of Migration, everyone, if in possession of enough money, could cross the see and seek new life opportunities in the Promised

Land. In addition, this was possible until the US Supreme Court decided to regulate international migration and started restricting Irish migrant inflows. (Castle, Miller 56)

The slaves, brought through the use of the triangular trade system, were not the only source of capital accumulation. Europeans were also present among those migration flows, especially from France and Britain, as they wanted to escape their poor living standards or were religiously dissimilar to the religion conditions established at home. Monika Kolářová’s bachelor thesis claims that the combination of all these migrant inflows to America between the years 1600 and 1850 consisted of more or less

65 million people who managed to get into the so-called “New World”. (Kolářová 8)

When slavery was abolished with the use of The Slavery Abolition Act that passed in The House of Commons in July 1833, its validity has been applied on all the parts of the British Empire. (“Why Was Slavery Finally Abolished…?”) In light of these events, other huge migration flows followed among the colonies, the European continent and the rest of the world. The Public Library of E-objects, made accessible by the Mendel University on the internet, speaks about the post-slavery period and blames the huge deficit in the labor force for an increase in colonial agriculture and technological advancements that created such a need. It is claimed that between the

~ 11 ~ years 1830 and 1880 approximately 50 million people from Asian countries (China,

India, Japan) had left their places of origin and took part in British, Dutch, Spanish,

French and Portugal colonies in order to satisfy the needs of their labor markets.

(“Migrace Obyvatelstva –…”)

When European countries are considered, their biggest outflow of people to the colonies started from the 1870s and ended when World War I began in 1913. This was the biggest migration wave from Europe up to this day and even the current increased influx of immigrants is not going to change that fact. According to the Public Library of

Mendel University, it was a movement of labor counting up to 50 million people whereas two-thirds found its place in the USA, the last third settled in Canada,

Australia, and Africa. (“Migrace Obyvatelstva –…”)

With the beginning of World War I, other considerable movements of people were recorded in history. The coming war started a new chapter in history, narrowed the migration flows as the countries were being more protective and self-dependent. In addition to this, the only migrant flows that were strengthened during this period were the flows into Europe, thus the clear opposite to what had been happening during the period before.

Aside from this, Castle and Miller also claim that a perceptible lack of labor force in Europe was another reason for such a sudden remigration. People from all over the world were encouraged to re-enter their countries of origin in order to join military services or munition production, especially in France and Germany. (Castle, Miller 59)

Despite the strong motivation campaigns, there was still a labor shortage in arising

European war economies. Germany was the worst case because its economy was strongly dependent on seasonal foreign workers from the East and these inflows were closed off now.

~ 12 ~

Furthermore, Libor Žídek in his work Dějiny Světového Hospodářství (The

History of the World Economy) ascribes, among many other reasons, the inevitable failure of Germans in the war to this deficient labor force supply that could not meet the requirements of the war economy. (Žídek 105) The lack of primary commodities and labor force had led to the decay of the system that preceded its complete breakdown.

Even though Germany was incapable of bringing enough labor force to keep the war machine going, the work Migration in European History written by Klaus J. Bade still puts some emphasis on the greatness of their efforts to import labor making

Germany the “second-largest labor-importing country in the world, after the United

States.” (Bade 71)

Klaus Jürgen Bade also describes the relationship formed between foreign laborers and native workers while meeting each other on the labor market or the workplaces itself. He claims that since the native workers were untrained and not intelligent enough, they would be used exclusively for the jobs that were poorly paid or for those that required little or no skill. Because of this, native workers were given more profitable jobs which made them superior and provided them with a possibility to gain a certain type of control over foreigners. (Bade 75)

As a consequence of this, there was a significant gap between wages of native and foreign workers. Native workers could have become well off in a relatively young age which, in comparison with foreign workers, gave them a certain advantage while building their position in society. These and many other effects are more deeply analyzed in the fifth chapter of this thesis which deals with economic aspects of the immigration phenomenon, thus their further analysis is not necessary here.

To put the interwar period into context with the flows of migration, the expulsion, and escapes of people from their countries of origin were still present. Peace

~ 13 ~ treaty agreements that were signed in order to put an end to the conflict could not stop the runaways and the deportation. Kateřina Ocásková in her diploma thesis Evropská

Migrace a Multikulturní Společnost (European Migration and Multicultural Society) refers to three major reasons behind these new streams of migration. Firstly, it was the

Russian Civil War between 1918 and 1921 that led to many forced deportations or escapes of people who would seek asylum mostly in European countries. Secondly, the newly emerging threats of dictatorships in Europe created massive outflows of people leaving for political reasons. Finally, World War I changed the attitude of European countries towards the idea of migration itself and gave rise to new economic policies that were strongly restrictive, self-contained and isolated. (Ocásková 26)

Stephen Castles with Mark J. Miller in their work The Age of Migration, as already mentioned above, emphasize the differences of pre-war huge immigration influxes and the interwar features of migration. What they describe is their completely opposite nature. While the pre-war situation was characterized by massive inflows of people to European countries, the inter-war period with its restrictions and threats of newly arising dictatorships was rather the opposite. (Castle, Miller 69)

The migration movements happening throughout the period of World War II can be defined by three major groups. The first group are the refugees who fled their countries because of the perilous movement of troops and bombings. The second group were those who were deported by force or held against their will in the German territory that gradually started spreading all over Europe. The last group included those banished after the war was over. This group consisted mostly of Germans expelled from the territories of the former Nazi Germany who would be driven back to Germany, leaving the last bits of the disintegrated Empire behind.

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The trio of writers Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan mentions in their book Exceptional People that by the time World War II was over, approximately 30 million people were on the move, including approximately 12

German ethnics expelled from the USSR. During the war, up to 7.5 million foreign workers were forcibly recruited in order to replace the missing Germans conscripted for the military service. (Goldin, Cameron, Balarajan 83) As mentioned in the previous lines, there was a significant lack of labor force during World War I from which

Germans learned their lesson and rapidly improved the effectiveness and quantity of the distribution of labor in the economy of Nazi Germany.

To back up this argument, we can read in the work of Dr. Dohse Knuth,

Ausländische Arbeiter und bürgerlicher Staat, that the occupation of Poland was also motivated by the need of labor that was heavily needed for the survival of the Nazi war machinery from its very beginning. It is said that only after a few weeks after the invasion, the Labor recruitment offices were already set up and ready to adjust the

Poland labor force for the needs of the Reich war economy. (Dohse 121) The overall exploitation was typical for the Nazi regime during the war. Every newly conquered area had led to another influx of labor force and bigger movements of people that made

World War II part of the most distinctive migration periods in the history of mankind.

The migration situation in the second half of the 20th century was characterized by the final disintegration of colonies which is claimed to having been accelerated on account of the events of World War II, as Klaus J. Bade states in his book Migration in

European History. (Bade 221) In terms of migration movements, a variety of national minorities started coming back to its countries of origin. There was a general inflow of people into the countries of Europe that were now in a stage of economic restoration.

Monika Kolářová mentions that the reason for these movements was the omnipresent

~ 15 ~ belief that “a state should be rather composed of its own nation”. (Kolářová 8) This seems to be a good description of the post-war situation and the protectionist moods that dominated European countries after the fall of the Nazi Germany.

What is also worth mentioning in connection with this period is the founding of the United Nations and the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees that established a system of protection for people who would be persecuted for their religious beliefs, nationality or race in their own country of origin. These people would have been given the protection status as Asylum seekers whether they entered legally or illegally. The country they entered must have provided them with all the needs necessary for their survival and safety. (Goldin, Reinert 156)

To put this into context with today’s reality, it seems that many scholars and economists share a common ground in the matter that the whole system is outdated and incompatible with recent events that have a completely different character in comparison with those that took place by the time the Geneva system was established.

Adrienne Millbank belongs to them and claims in his research paper “The Problem with the 1951 Refugee Convention” that many governments would refuse to sign the

Convention today. Furthermore, he claims, that the whole concept of the definition of a refugee is outdated, tailored for a completely different era and not considering such enormous flows of refugees as observable today. (Millbank)

The characteristics of migration for the period after the World War II can be divided into two phases from which the first phase includes Europeans who would leave their countries to live in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. These migrants are, from today’s point of view, economic migrants who abandoned their devastated homes in search for a better life. The quantity of people falling into this category is estimated to be around 9 million. (“Migrace Obyvatelstva –…”)

~ 16 ~

The second migration flow was from Asia and Africa where fragments of the last colonies turned into self-dependent territories with its own laws and governments.

Many people from India and Pakistan living in the Great Britain today are there by virtue of these migration flows. Additionally, France also absorbed vast portions of people from North Africa. Germany, aside from North Africans, also imported millions of Turks within the frame of the so-called “guest workers program”. (Goldin, Reinert

156)

The guest workers program was an answer to the needs for a bigger labor force that was vital for the economic renewal due to the fact that Germany had lost many young men in battle and such a huge reconstruction asked for more than was available at that time.

The 1970s, as decade of economic stagnation, oil crises and still ongoing Cold

War, was the decade when flows of migration into Europe experienced their downturn.

According to the book Exceptional People written by authors Goldin, Cameron and

Balarajan, the Gulf region, however, appeared to be the right opposite because of its rapid escalation of oil prices that led to a recruitment of local labor as well as foreign one. Additionally, it were the Western oil companies that searched for a new labor and turned Venezuela and Nigeria into new regional centers of migration. (Goldin,

Cameron, Balarajan 89)

European states, economically stagnating within the period of 1970-1990, experienced very strict requirements on the new-coming immigrants who were supposed to be skilled and educated for their jobs. This appeared to be a problem which resulted in a reorientation of migration flows. The USA, Canada, and Australia were the countries that were the new desirable destinations for these migrants. It is claimed that,

~ 17 ~ during this period, about 12 million people from all the different parts of the world took part in these migration movements. (“Migrace Obyvatelstva –…”)

The period starting from the 1990s takes us to the last fragment of history which links itself right to the present situation as observable today. Western Europe is starting to see the uncontrolled influx from the East and South as a real threat, therefore the entry rules have tightened even more. This omnipresent sense of disallowance is not only the case of Western Europe. For example, strict border controls and building of walls on the US-Mexico borders, enhanced marine surveillance in the Caribbean and

Mediterranean, all these precautions foreshadow the oncoming future inability of developed countries to keep their immigration flows under control. As Castles and

Millers state in The Age of Migration, there is an escalating “conflict between migratory pressures and state measures”. (Castles, Miller 54) This on-going struggle grows stronger and plays a significant role in today’s development of the migrant crisis.

1.2 History of Migration Movements in the Czech Republic:

The Czech Republic, as a land situated in the heart of the European continent, has a rich history of migration movements across its territory. The land has survived many years of atrocious dictatorships, occupations and various periods of national disintegration which gradually shaped its image and led to the stage as observable today.

The territory of the Czech Republic experienced its first significant migration movements as soon as it found itself in the 13th and 14th century while dealing with arrivals of immigrants from German territories. For the purposes of this thesis, however, these early years are not to be a subject of deeper analysis. The data, analyzed in this

~ 18 ~ chapter, go back as far as the first half of the 19th century for the very same reasons as mentioned in the first paragraph of this chapter.

As Dušan Drbohlav from The Migration Policy Institute claims, between years

1850 and 1914, about 1.6 million people of the Czech citizen migrated to United States,

Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Austria, Hungary, Russia and countries of the former

Yugoslavia where they would search for economic opportunities. (Drbohlav, “The

Czech Republic: From Liberal Policy”) History shows that there were various occasions like these when the people of Czech nationality would migrate rather for the economic reasons than for the reasons of safety or plain survival. This reality creates a certain element of hypocrisy if put into context with the current migrant problems and the dismissive attitude that prevails among the citizens of the Czech Republic.

Another peak of migration flows took place after the formation of

Czechoslovakia in the early 1920s and kept its pace for as long as 10 years. The majority of the migrating people were economic migrants and people who migrated for reasons of family reunification into the United States, France, and Germany. When

World War I ended, 40.000 Czechs returned from the US along with another 100.000 people who returned from Austria. As long as this flow of returnees was smaller than the outflow of migrants, we can consider this interwar period as having a negative effect on the population of the Czech Republic. (Drbohlav, “The Czech Republic: From

Liberal Policy”)

What is also worth mentioning is the composition of the population in this interwar period. As Dagmar Bartoňová claims in her research paper “Development of

National Structure of Population in the Czech Republic and Impact of International

Migration of Foreigners after 1990”, more than 30% of the Czech population was of

German nationality in 1921. These people of German descent mostly lived in the border

~ 19 ~ regions and worked in the industrial branches such as glass and textile manufacturing where they would even exceed the number of working Czech manufacturers.

(Bartoňová 147)

After World War II was brought to its end, some other momentous migration movements occurred. It is claimed that the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from the border regions is something that the Czech Republic, former Czechoslovakia, is historically known for today. Moreover, Piotr Pykel claims in the collective working paper “The Expulsion of the “German” Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War” that “the concept of collective responsibility of the Germans for the war crimes, have been seen as an example of human rights and minority rights violation.” (Pykel 10)

As claimed in the academic review “International Migration in the Czech

Republic and Slovakia and the Outlook for East Central Europe” written by Dušan

Drbohlav, approximately 2.3 to 2.8 million Germans were transferred from

Czechoslovakia under mostly humiliating conditions which was as much as 25% of

Czechoslovakia’s population of that time. (Drbohlav, “International Migration in the

Czech Republic” 90) These revengeful acts of violence and humiliation against Sudeten

Germans are still a matter of debates today. The story is being revised, commented upon and the decisions made within this period are still being rather criticized for their inhuman character.

When the communist regime fell upon Czechoslovakia in 1948, thousands of people left the country for various reasons, most of them highly skilled and educated. It is claimed that more than 550.000 people left for mostly political and economic reasons.

Persecution of elites, confiscation of possessions and discrimination of relatives,

Czechoslovakia experienced a significant brain drain of high-skilled workers which

~ 20 ~ negatively affected the economic situation in the country. (Drbohlav, “The Czech

Republic: From Liberal Policy”)

Following the fall of the regime in 1989, there was an omnipresent concern in

Western Europe that the countries of the former Eastern bloc would overrun the labor markets in search for better life opportunities. According to Hana Červínková and

Marek Pawlak, expressing their thoughts in the book Nová emigrace z České Republiky po roce 1989 a návratová politika (New Emigration from the Czech Republic and the re-entry policy after 1989), the Western media spoke about 25 million immigrants who were about to flood their countries as soon as the Iron Curtain would be lifted. This fearsome prediction should have caused an immediate economic breakdown but the real numbers of immigrants did not follow this prognosis. Despite the fact that the migrant mobility rate had increased, there were no dramatic results such as congested labor markets or economic collapses in the Western economies. (Červinková, Pawlak 179)

If we try to find a resemblance with the current migrant crisis, we can easily observe very similar patterns of negative media predictions and public concerns from impacts of immigration. As this particular event in history shows, these fears do not have to be necessarily fulfilled and true. It is really hard to predict the future in this matter as well as it was challenging 27 years ago.

After 4 years of continuous increase in migration mobility, another drop followed in

1993 as depicted on the graph acquired from the website of The Czech Statistical

Office:

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Source: Graph 1, Czech Statistical Office

Furthermore, another observable aspect is the proportion of immigrants and emigrants. Since 1993, the outflow of emigrants drastically reduced in comparison with quite a steady pace of migrant inflows that lasted until 2002 where the both figures expanded again.

The reasons for such a vivid growth can be found in the adjustments of the migration policy that made it easier for migrants to deal with the problems they were facing while migrating inwards or outwards. However, a much more distinctive surge of migrant mobility occurred in 2004 when the Czech Republic became a member of

European Union and the migrant mobility skyrocketed. The trio of writers Boris Burcin,

Ludmila Fialová and Jitka Rychtaříková in their book The Demographic Situation in the

Czech Republic further mentions that the number of incoming foreigners was even higher than the number of those immigrants who were of the Czech citizenship. Despite these huge migration movements, the real peak of the escalation occurred in 2007 when

~ 22 ~ there were 125.000 registered incomers, the biggest recorded quantity since 1993.

(Burcin, Fialová, Rychtaříková 91)

The very last turning point in the history of the Czech Republic came with the world financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. The world economy faced its most dangerous crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Czech Republic experienced a sharp decrease in migration inflows due to these economic changes. According to

OECD’s outlook published in 2011, “About 39.000 immigrants entered the country in

2009, which was nearly half the number of entries registered in the previous year.”

Furthermore, the research shows that the outflows almost doubled, growing from 6.000 up to 12.000 which resulted in declined net migration by almost two-thirds. (OECD

2011)

To finalize this part of the chapter, we can shortly examine the last data from the

Czech Statistical Office that provides the information from 2014 when the last complete research has been published. According to these statistics, the total number of foreigners for the year 2014 was 439.189. The major group of immigrants consisted of Ukrainians

– 104.388 and Slovaks – 96 222. The third group was the Vietnamese who covered

12.6% (56.666) from the overall number of registered foreigners. (“Foreigners in the

Czech Republic”) The trend of migration inflows into the Czech Republic, lasting for the last 3 years, seems to have rather an ascending character. This reality, however, might prove to be different in the following years under the influence of the current events.

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1.3 History of Migration Movements in the United Kingdom:

When the British Parliament banned the slavery trade in 1807, slavery itself was not banned yet. Slaving ships still operated, bringing thousands of people from Africa as slaves to the New World and Britain itself. The only difference it made was that when the captains faced the risk of being caught, they would throw the captives overboard in order to avoid the sanctions. The final agreements were made as late as 1807 and slavery was officially forbidden for good. (“Short History of Immigration”)

What it meant for Britain and migration as such was almost an immediate close- down of all the transportations of slaves out of Africa to Britain or the New World.

Conversely, the immigration from Europe started increasing significantly and played a major part in migrant flows within this period. Additionally to these movements, some other tens of thousands of Irish immigrants came to Britain, escaping from poverty and horrible conditions seen today as the Great Famine of Ireland that happened between the years 1830 and 1850. (Short History of Immigration)

It is said that the inflow of Irish population played a significant part in the shaping of the population. Especially in London, Liverpool and Bristol. Panikos Panayi in his book An Immigration History of Britain: Multicultural Racism Since 1800 states that there were great numbers of Irish people, who worked as summer harvesters in the countryside. However, their conditions were rather unpleasant as they worked in occupations at the very bottom of the social scale. Panayi sees these conditions of Irish people to be very similar to what was happening during the Victorian years in general.

Unsanitary conditions, begging and stealing was an ubiquitous reality that appeared to be even twice as worse for the immigrant workers of that time. (Panayi 20)

The late 19th century was also especially hard for the Jewish population which was facing persecution and economic hardship in Russia, Poland and the Hapsburg

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Empire. Between the years 1881 and 1914, over 2 million Jewish people left these countries in order to get to the United States or settle in Britain. They would mainly occupy the near areas of the docks in the East End of London as well as in regional centers such as Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, and Liverpool. As in the case of Irish immigrants, the Jewish immigrants found employment only in low-wage and labor- intensive industries such as tailoring and cabinet-making. (Hanukoglu)

The Master’s Thesis “Immigration in Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands:

A Comparison” written by Nicole Svoboda distinguishes two major migration waves as milestones of post-1945 migration to Britain. Following the Second World War, the

United Kingdom was in great need for labor. The workers were attracted to work in

Britain and were recruited either from former colonies or from Europe itself. (Svoboda

32)

The BBC channel mentions 157.000 Poles as being “the first groups to be allowed to settle in the UK, partly because of ties made during the war years.” Despite the fact that these arrivals of Poles were complemented with Italian immigrants, the needs of labor market were still not satisfied. (Short History of Immigration)

The year 1958 was marked by the first race riots in Notting Hill, London, and

Nottingham. These actions were orchestrated by white extremists who protested against the black population and immigration to Britain in general. Adrian Favell states in his book Philosophies of Integration that these riots triggered public and political interest in such a way that it became a central political concern. Favell sees the government reaction as being “hard and populist”, describing The 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants

Act as being strongly restrictive on immigration especially coming from the New

Commonwealth. These new restriction agreements created a racist background, limiting future colored immigrants and favoring those of white skin and origin. (Favell 103)

~ 25 ~

The second migration period as mentioned by Nicole Svoboda was marked by an economic downturn in the early 1970s. The demand for labor reduced, and as a consequence of this, the number of labor recruitments plummeted. (Svoboda 32) There was also a certain aspect of political pressure that made immigration much harder, especially for non-white people. By 1972, the legislation amendments restricted the settlement in Britain only to those immigrants who had a work permit and could prove that they have a parent or grandparent who had been born in the United Kingdom. What it meant, in reality, was that “children born to white families in the remnants of Empire or the former colonies could enter Britain. Their black counterparts could not.” (Short

History of Immigration)

Klaus J. Bade differentiates between integration policies and immigration restrictions. In the late 1980s, the restrictions on immigration were still maintaining their tight grip similar to the previous two periods. However, and also due to the continuous reunification of migrant families, there were much stronger tendencies for a better integration of those who already had been settled in Britain. (Bade 254) The focus of the government was to deal with the internal problems of integrity and simultaneously set strict measures to those migrant inflows that caused these problems.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, more significant inflows to the

United Kingdom occurred and forced the policymaking institutions to make further adjustments in immigration laws. According to Migration Policy Institute and the data collected by Will Somervill, Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah and Maria Latorre, two major

Acts accounted for these changes. The 1993 Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act reduced asylum seekers’ benefit entitlements and created new and more restrictive rules

~ 26 ~ for asylum applications. The 1996 Immigration and Asylum Act followed suit and put another welfare restrictions on the newcomers. (Somervill, Sriskandarajah, and Latorre)

The terrorist attacks that shattered the United States and the whole world on

September 11, 2001, also affected the attitude held towards the illegal immigration and asylum seeking in the United Kingdom. Many various types of measures had been established along with new visa controls that played a vital part in this new policy setup.

(Somervill, Sriskandarajah, and Latorre)

With another extension of the European Union that took place in May 2004 and consisted of eight countries – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,

Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, many new questions arrived considering the newly coming waves of immigrants who would seek better life opportunities in the United

Kingdom. As long as the income levels in these countries were much lower than in the

United Kingdom, there was a general fear that these job seekers would overwhelm the labor market.

The political sphere had coined the term “A8 countries” while referring to these problems and decided to allow the access to the labor market under specific conditions.

To be able to work in the United Kingdom, A8 countries must have been registered in the Government’s Worker Registration Scheme in order to have access to basic benefits, such as Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Tax Credits. Those who have worked legally for at least a year without a break could have reached the social security benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance. (“Migrant Crisis: What Is the UK Doing to Help?”)

The online journal of the Migration Policy Institute claims further that “About

1.3 million people from the A8 arrived in the United Kingdom between May 2004 and

May 2009.” From these immigrants, the Polish nationals played a major part and

“jumped from being the United Kingdom’s 13th-largest foreign-national group at the

~ 27 ~ end of 2003 to number one by the end of 2008.” Eastern European migrants have been working mostly in low-paid jobs such as hospitality, catering or construction. It is said that in 2008, only 12% of these immigrant workers reached highly skilled occupations.

(Somervill, Sriskandarajah, and Latorre) These numbers seem to illustrate the general fact that it is highly unlikely that migration to another country will bring high paying career opportunities and carefree life while being a member of the upper-class society.

In reality, immigrant workers are treated as immigrant workers and their position in society is adjusted according to the needs of the country and its economy. These aspects are analyzed further in the chapter dealing with the economic impacts of immigration.

As in the other countries, the numbers of migrating people sharply plummeted as the financial crisis of 2008 started taking its toll. We can observe on the graph below how the trend of numbers of approved applications changed from being constantly increasing and cyclical to a rather steady decrease as a consequence of this financial crisis.

Source: Graph 2, Home Office

To link this historical overview to the current migrant situation, we can observe the last data from the immigration statistics published by the end of March 2015. These

~ 28 ~ data are publically available on the website of Home Office from which this table was created:

Applications and initial decisions for main applicants Refused Total Granted Total as a % of Year initial some form of Refused applications initial decisions protection (1) decisions Year ending 18,411 19,818 5,307 14,51 73% March 2011 Year ending 19,826 16,97 5,778 11,192 66% March 2012 Year ending 22,635 17,561 6,592 10,969 62% March 2013 Year ending 23,803 15,151 5,435 9,716 64% March 2014 Year ending 25,02 26,066 10,346 15,72 60% March 2015 Change: 1,217 10,915 4,911 6,004 - latest year Percentage 5% 72% 90% 62% - change Source: Table 1, Home Office

To focus again on the numbers of applications, we can see, that for March 2015, there had been 25.020 applicants from whose 60% were not given humanitarian protection. If we compare these figures to the previous years, we can see a quite steady increase in numbers of applications going from 18.411 for March 2011 up to March

2015 with 25.020 applications. What is interesting to observe is the fact that the

~ 29 ~ percentage of refused applicants is actually decreasing with time starting on 73% for

March 2011 and ending with 60% in March 2015.

Despite the fact that the number of refused applications decreased over time, the foreign policy of the United Kingdom still remains rather restrictive as it follows the patterns from the previous periods. Furthermore, if compared with other European countries such as Germany and Austria, the difference is even more evident. This type of analysis, however, will be a subject of the chapter focusing on the current situation and its problems.

~ 30 ~

CHAPTER 2: The Current Situation in the Context of the Migrant Crisis

2.1 The Current World Situation

The migration of people is a frequently recurring phenomenon. It is important to understand that migration as a concept is an ubiquitous element of our history and today’s problems are only a distinctive part of the whole piece. Though, in the context of history, the recent situation might be considered being among those many important turning points that happened and shaped the matters. The importance of the events and problems of 2014 and 2015 is indisputable. The trigger of the escalation seems to be the

Syrian Civil War. This conflict forced thousands of people to leave their lands and become refugees asking for help of any kind. It is said that the vast majority of all the asylum seekers consists of Syrian people running away from the previously mentioned conflict. (Kingsley)

To understand the escalation, it is important to mention the events happening a few years ago when the European Union paid large amounts of money to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his government to reduce the numbers of successful fleeing attempts. After his subversion, the direct passage to Europe has been opened and the Libyan/Syrian channel has become the leading one in terms of numbers of escaped refugees. (Fisher, Taub) Other areas that the refugees are leaving - Iraq in the Middle

East. Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Gambia in Africa. Afghanistan, Pakistan and

Bangladesh in South Asia. The last group includes Western Balkans, Kosovo, and

Albania. Considering the proportion of these nationalities, after Syria 54%, Afghanistan follows with 15% and Eritrea with 6%. (Noonan)

The next and major reason why Syria is dominant in its numbers of refugees is due to the fact that the country and its surroundings experienced massive waves of

~ 31 ~ protests which resulted in the collapse of many authoritarian regimes in the Arab world.

However, in Syria, the long-ruling Al-Assad family refused to give up its governing position and triggered the civil war that destabilized the whole area.

Thousands of Syrians are now leaving the distorted country in search of a place that would provide them with safety and better living conditions. Neighboring countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan are packed with refugees who are coming mostly from Syria. It is said that these specific countries are taking care of up to

95% of all the refugees. What seems to be irritating for many countries and even for the whole world is a dismissive attitude that the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf hold towards the situation. These countries, (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar), though being wealthy and capable of helping, refused to accept refugees from Syria at all.

Amnesty International a global non-governmental organization focusing on human rights stated that such behavior is a shameful response to the refugee crisis of this size.

(Bayoumy)

The former territory of the Al-Assad family is now being divided into many different religious and ethnical groups which are fighting each other in order to establish and strengthen their beliefs and the overall position. Islamic Front, YPG, Hezbollah,

Opposition Forces, Government Forces and most importantly ISIL. The Islamic State of

Iraq and the Levant also sometimes called Daesh [ˈdaːʕiʃ] is the most dangerous and prolific extremist group of them all. Taking over from the Al-Qa’ida organization established by Osama bin Laden, ISIL now holds the supremacy as the most effective jihadi group in the world. Using the opportunity of the chaos, ISIL builds a totalitarian

Islamic caliphate and spreads all over the countries affected by the war situation.

(Cockburn) Terrible war crimes such as torture, public executions and attacks on civilians are natural for this jihadi organization. Furthermore, the civilian population

~ 32 ~ finds itself trapped between the regime, religious and rebel extremist groups on its own land.

As a consequence of all these events, Europe, as a continent of stable, democratic and advanced economies, is attracted by thousands of people who are looking for asylum of any kind. In the period of the last nine years, the European Union has invested more than two billion Euros in defenses of its borders. (Berteau, Sanders,

Fanlo, Doherty 7) What it was not prepared for, however, was an actual influx of refugees who flooded the bordering countries of the Union - Italy, Greek, Hungary and

Spain. These are the countries that were forced to take the biggest burden as long as the

Dublin Regulation law requires asylum seekers to stay in the very first country they arrive to. (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 35) As a result of this, many bordering countries are literally packed with refugees, losing the control over the situation, they pass the refugees on, letting them enter the heart of the European Union without a proper administrative treatment or examination.

What seems to be the goal or the primary destination of refugees are developed countries such as Germany, The United Kingdom, or Austria. Germany and Austria take the biggest amount of attraction for its generous and open-minded attitude towards the problem. According to The Guardian, there are the preparations for the influx of

800.000 refugees including €3 billion of extra payments for benefits and another €3 billion to help with housing in Germany. All the plans are set for the year 2015. To put these numbers into context, taking 800.000 refugees is even more than the whole

Europe accepted in year 2013. (Guardian News and Media) This fact shows and puts the accurate accent on the size of generosity that Germany is willing to provide in times like these.

~ 33 ~

There is, however, also a negative aspect coming along with Germany’s

“Willkommenskultur” as called by politicians who would coin the term years before the actual current problems, in times when there was a lack of skilled workers in areas such as Brandenburg and Macklenburg-Vorpommern. (Akrap) There is no doubt about the fact that not all the people in Germany share the same generosity and thoughtful approach. There is an ongoing criticism of the immigrant policy that Chancellor Angela

Merkel represents. This criticism comes not only from the opposition but is also starting to arise among those who are fellow politicians, co-partners, and long-time supporters.

Among the points of criticism belongs, for example, so-called “pull factor” stating that such a policy will encourage people to flee and encourage those people who would not come otherwise. Another factor is the “push factor” which works as the right opposite of the previous one. Sometimes called “Un-willkommenskultur”, stating that the current German immigrant policy actually makes it harder for coming refugees. It seems to be quite contrary that those who travel to Germany to seek safety, expecting all the promised generosity, find also anger and despair among citizens of Germany.

(Hecht) The theory of push and pull factors is deeply analyzed and explained in the chapter dealing with the social aspects of the problem.

Criticism of the German policy can also be found among other countries of

European Union. Many countries in Europe see this as a self-destructive behavior, feeling that Chancellor Merkel leads the whole Europe into hands of terrorists, setting the course of all the countries towards a fatal disaster. Europe as a whole peace is not united in terms of migrant policy, ways of understanding and reactions to the situation.

In such times when unity of Europe is most needed, countries do the right opposite and act for themselves and in their own interest. This disintegration among the countries

~ 34 ~ causes a tediously slow decision-making resulting in long discussions and in solving of inner problems instead of those that are really important and conclusive.

Furthermore, what escalated the situation was the incident in Paris that happened on 13 November, 2015. After a series of terrorist attacks, that shattered not only France but all the other countries of Europe, it seems that the passive approach of the European

Union might be just a matter of past now.

According to Hospodářské Noviny, President Holland is ready to take an immediate action against terrorism. He strengthens the bombing of ISIL headquarters and other key structures of the terrorist group. Moreover, he demands help from other countries that are part of NATO with a reference to the paragraph 42.7 of Treaty of

Lisbon that clearly states that while one country is being assaulted, others will join the fight in order to help. It is the very first time in history that France demands the application of this paragraph. (Radačičová 18)

The terrorist attack in France is not the only horrifying event that happened in the recent months between the end of 2015 and the first months of 2016 in Europe. In

January 2016, more acts of violence were committed as the women of the city of

Cologne were sexually assaulted on New Year’s Eve by those identified as asylum seekers. As in the previous case with France, these attacks brought a support to the anti- immigrant attitude that now prevails in Europe along with the protests that are getting stronger across European countries, as Alison Smale states in the article for The New

York Times. (Smale)

Unfortunately, the most recent bomb attacks in Brussels only worsened the situation. The CNBS news internet channel claims that the impact of these attacks will be very similar like in the case of Paris when 130 people were killed and the country

~ 35 ~ experienced an economic and social shock that paralyzed its functions. It is claimed, that in the case of Belgium, “Net airline bookings to Brussels fell by 136 percent in the seven days.” In comparison with France, this decline was even more significant since

Paris suffered from the 101 percent decline in the first weeks after the attack. (Barnato)

In the scope of the whole European Union and its reactions to the current situation, it seems that the major focus is now on the negotiation with the Turkish government. There is a tendency to get the situation under control before the problems even reach the shores and the countries of the European Union. The proposal of the

Union wants Turkey to take back every refugee who enters Greece illegally. In return, the European Union will accept the Syrian refugees that are registered in Turkey by the same portion.

This proposal, however, is not enough for the Turkish government which has encountered the offer by demanding the further 3 billion Euros needed for supplying of the refugees. Moreover, as Tiffany Ap, Gul Tuysuz, Erin McLaughlin and Tim Hume also state in the article written for the CNN news website, the Turkish government wants their citizens to be allowed to travel freely within the Schengen area and speed up the process of accession to the European Union. (Ap, Tuysuz, McLaughlin, Hume)

On 20 March, 2016, the negotiation is over and the agreement between Turkey and the EU comes into effect. As Cable News Network (CNN) informs, the three boats carrying 202 people are landing on Turkish soil and the deal is activated from this day on. Turkish people are allowed to have access to Schengen passport-free zone but not into the countries of non-Schengen space such as Britain. As promised, this deal also provides Turkey with 3.3 billion Euros and foreshadows the future accession of Turkey to the European Union. (Ap, Tuysuz, McLaughlin, Hume) The years ahead will show how this agreement will affect the development of the refugee crisis and whether its

~ 36 ~ contribution will be positive, bringing the desired control over the situation that is becoming gradually more unstable.

2.2 The current situation in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic still seems to maintain its negative attitude towards the refugees. In one of their public polls on immigration, the Public Opinion Research

Center states, that over 70% of the Czech population is against the acceptance of refugees from Syria and North Africa. The situation is slightly better for immigrants from Ukraine who are rejected by 44% of Czechs. (Public Opinion Research Center) As further analyzed in the chapter dealing with the social aspects of immigration, the Czech

Republic is a country with quite a high level of xenophobia and ethnic nationalism that creates an environment for such tendencies.

According to quotas directed by the European Commission, the Czech Republic is said to have accepted the amount of 4.306 refugees that should be placed in the country by the end of 2017. (Public Opinion Research Center) The country reacts with a strong note of disapproval on these decisions and the other countries of the Visegrád

Group follow the same pattern since they reject the system of quotas as well. Despite the fact that the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka often warns public against the unreasonable xenophobia and hatred for the Muslim refugees, his attitude towards the quotas is negative too. As Sobotka said in the interview for the Czech News Agency,

“We reject the system of quotas. I do not consider it effective, I do not think it would help bring any solution. It makes no sense to discuss any numbers for now.” (Czech

News Agency)

~ 37 ~

President Miloš Zeman’s attitude seems to reflect the voice of the majority of the population in the Czech Republic. While giving an interview for Radio Frekvence 1,

Zeman stated that a crushing majority of migrants came for economic reasons and some also came from poor countries that were not hit by war, such as Eritrea, Senegal,

Kosovo, Iran and Pakistan. Furthermore, according to Zeman, this kind of immigration brings three major risks – spread of infectious diseases, terrorism and the formation of ghettos. (Fraňková) Despite the great number of supporters among the common people,

President Zeman has also many enemies and opponents who oppose to his populistic behavior. The situation is very similar to the last election of the President when Zeman competed with Karel Schwarzenberg and the country was divided into two rival camps that represented substantially different attitudes either from the political or social point of view.

To present a different perspective on the situation in the Czech Republic, it seems that, according to Ondřej Houska and his article written for the online newspaper

EUobserver, not all the arguments presented in the country were proven wrong. When the European Commission proposed mandatory quotas for the distribution of refugees across Europe, the Czech Republic was the country arguing against, stating that the quotas should be the last thing that needs to be done and it is impossible to carry that out without the actual sealing of the Czech borders. The European Commission reached the deal on 21 September, 2015 and, from today’s point of view, the system works as predicted by the Czech Republic and the other countries of Eastern Europe. (Houska)

As in former times when the Iron Curtain created a line between east and west,

Europe appears to be ideologically divided once again in terms of the approach to the current refugee crisis. The Czech Republic seems to follow the model of the eastern countries that want to maintain their level of ethnic purity and do not sympathize with

~ 38 ~ the idea of multiculturalism as such. The chapters dealing with the social and historical aspects of immigration describe the reasons for such behavior and provide the reader with a comprehensive explanation of the problem.

2.3 The current situation in the United Kingdom

As the refugee crisis continues and deepens, there is a growing pressure for the government of the United Kingdom to accept more refugees and become more involved in the situation. According to the information provided by the House of Commons

Library and collected by Melanie Gower, Hannah Cromarty, and Ben Politowski, the

Government’s initial policy was to be “generous with humanitarian aid to Syria’s neighbors rather than to accept recognized Syrian refugees for resettlement in the UK.”

Despite the fact that the country decided to establish a “Syrian Vulnerable Person

Resettlement Programme”, which made it possible for selected refugees to come to the

UK, the country is still being criticized for its unwelcoming approach to those who come to Europe. (Gower, Cromarty, Politowski)

According to a new analysis made by Harry Lambert for The Independent online newspaper, the United Kingdom takes in 170.000 fewer refugees than it should in comparison with the other helping countries. Having a population of 65 million, the UK has provided refuge to just over 35.000 people over the past two years. When compared to Hungary that, despite its low population of less than 10 million, accepted around

143.000 refugees, the United Kingdom might be seen as non-committal with its policy.

Based on this analysis, the number of accepted refugees during 2014 and 2015 should have been 240.000 in order to make a “fair share” which is far beyond reality.

(Lambert)

~ 39 ~

As BBC News website recently claimed in one of its articles, the government of the United Kingdom reacted back by stating that it contributed by £1.1 billion in form of humanitarian aid such as food, basic medication or tents for refugees and that Britain is still the second-largest bilateral donor supporting Syrian refugees in their region (the first is the US). Another £10 million also go for help towards vulnerable refugee minors already settled in Europe. (“Migrant Crisis: What Is the UK Doing to Help?”)

On 7 September, 2015, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced a significant extension of the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme that sets the new goal to resettle up to 20.000 refugees from the Syrian region by the end of

2020. This modification is believed to be a response to the accusations already mentioned in the previous paragraph. The resettled refugees will be given five years’

Humanitarian Protection status as well as the permission to work and access public funds. Additionally, those refugees who stay for more than five years will be allowed to apply for a settlement in the country. (Gower, Cromarty, Politowski)

The United Kingdom, as a country with a long-standing experience with flows of immigration, appears to act very carefully if it comes to the acceptance of higher numbers of immigrating foreigners. Despite the fact that the country does not refuse to help financially, the actual providing of refugees with asylum is still considered being rather inadequate. The Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme promises changes that should go in favor of more accepted asylum applications which could be considered as being the first step in taking on more responsibility for the problems that

Europe is currently facing.

~ 40 ~

CHAPTER 3: The Social Aspects of Migration

3.1 Introduction

The key social aspects of migration belong among the main objectives of this particular chapter. These elements are required for a comprehensive understanding of the current problems as well as the problems of migration in general.

Firstly, the reasons for migrating are mentioned and explained through the theory of “push and pull factors”. Secondly, the social impacts of migration on the country of origin and on the country that experiences the inflow of migrants are to be a subject of deeper analysis. Thirdly, the chapter deals with the matters of xenophobia, discrimination and fear of terrorism that belongs among the major characteristics of the current migrant crisis. All these social factors are consequently put into context with the situation that prevails in the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

3.2 Push and Pull factors

It seems, that according to a certain variety of historical and current events previously mentioned, there are many reasons for migration of people from their countries of origin. What we can observe today, is that these reasons generally fall into two categories known as “push and pull factors”.

The push factors are the effects of a poor domestic situation that forces people to leave their homes in order to find a place with more suitable living conditions. According to the information provided by the scholar project of Levin Institute – “Globalization

101”, we can divide the push and pull factors into four areas:

~ 41 ~

1. Environmental reasons:

Push factors - Great environmental disasters or inhabitable weather

conditions that force people to leave their land either voluntarily or forcibly.

Pull factors - Pleasant and mild weather conditions can work as a pull factor, attracting people from areas with unbearable climate conditions.

2. Economic reasons:

Push factors - Poor economic conditions of countries, economic disasters

or crises also work as an effective push factor triggering an outflow of inhabitants.

These economic breakdowns can be caused by wars or bad policy decisions that

sometimes have a completely devastating effect on the economy.

Pull factors - The advanced economies of the western world appear to

have a certain attracting force. Whether it is for better job opportunities, education

or overall living conditions, the well-established western economies work as a

powerful pull factor.

3. Cultural and Socio-political reasons:

Push factors - Religious reasons work as an efficient push factor in

situations of civil or religious wars. People discriminated for their religious beliefs

fall into this category along with those inhabitants, who are not in conformity with

the political regimes. Furthermore, race discrimination and persecution also fall

into this particular category of push factors.

Pull factors - Those seeking a place, where they would not be pursued for

their religious or political beliefs, can be attracted by the western democratic

countries that provide this particular kind of freedom. The most effective pull

~ 42 ~

factor in the context of the western countries is the ability to present themselves

as promising better living opportunities on all the possible levels.

There is a large number of reasons for migration. The theory of “push and

pull factors” achieves to deliver their comprehensive formulation that sets bounds

to this phenomenon and helps to gain insight into its problems. (“Migration”)

3.3 The Social Impacts of Migration on the Target and Source Countries

If we consider the effects on the countries that experience inflows of migration from the cultural and social point of view, there seem to be many areas that are affected.

According to Goldin, Cameron and Balarajan, “The short-run impact of migrants on receiving country societies depends on how they are treated by native residents, their opportunities for social mobility, and access to social and political rights.” (Goldin,

Cameron, Balarajan 262) It is claimed, that those settlers who face social marginalization often form specific ethnic minority groups and gather in particular neighborhoods, excluded from the wider society. (Goldin, Cameron, Balarajan 263) The effect of this exclusion makes their integration into a normal society very hard and sometimes even impossible. In cases where the integration of newcomers is not sufficient and effective, we experience certain forms of racism, xenophobia, and distrust towards the settling immigrants. These effects worsen the whole situation and create even a bigger gap between immigrants and the local community.

To mention the positive effects of immigration on the target country, the immigration of various types of peoples creates cultural diversity from which everybody, both immigrants, and a local community, can benefit from. The booklet from the Berlin

Institute for Comparative Social Research states, that the variety of cousins and “foreign” foods to which the local population adapts their eating habits and benefits from such

~ 43 ~ diversity, belongs among many positive impacts of cultural immigration. (The Berlin

Institute for Comparative Social Research 10)

Another positive influence of immigration can be seen in the world of fashion.

The Berlin Institute sees this example as being the most evident manifestation of the cultural expression in European societies. The fashion as such has become more diverse which led to a certain trend of “exoticism” in styles created by the fashion industry. (The

Berlin Institute for Comparative Social Research 10)

If we consider the situation in the countries of origin, the impact on their societies is rather economic which is to be a subject of the analysis provided later in this work.

What should be mentioned, however, is in terms of the social impacts, the outflow of young men from these countries. These movements change the proportion of men and women in society and weaken the dominance of males. In the countries of the Near East, where the status of women is low, these ethnographic changes are rather beneficial.

Furthermore, the density of population is reduced and since mostly young adults tend to migrate, the birth rate decreases which eases the problems with overpopulation. (“Effects of Migration”)

However, the outflows of mostly young men have negative effects on the families they leave behind. These families, existing without the element of man, are left disturbed and unbalanced. Frequently, they also tend to be brought to the target countries by young adults which multiplies the outflow of people from the country.

3.4 Xenophobia, Islamophobia and the Fear of Terrorism

Xenophobia can be described as the fear of that which appears to be strange or foreign. In terms of the current migrant crisis, we can observe many situations which include xenophobic elements. People are afraid of newcomers who they think will steal

~ 44 ~ their jobs, endanger the safety of their land or bring their own culture that is not in compliance with the European traditions and values.

Alfred Sauvy in his working paper “Socio-psychological Aspects of Migration” sees the problems of xenophobia rather as the fear of changes than the fear of the unknown which of course plays its part as well. “Foreigners bring change, for good or evil, but the latter variety is uppermost in people’s minds.” (Sauvy 2) People are afraid that the immigrants are going to take something that the native citizens already lack such as job opportunities or social welfare benefits. Sauvy explains that sometimes the fear appears unrelated to anything specific and only genuine elements of xenophobia appear simultaneously with discrimination and racial prejudice. (Sauvy 3)

It can be claimed that the fear of terrorism has never been so present and strong in Europe as it is today. Terrorist attacks have been very frequent during the last 7 years but year 2016 officially brought them to Europe with the terrorist attacks happening on

November 13 in Paris. These attacks reestablished the approach towards the questions of terrorism and reinforced the fear that now prevails among the peoples of Europe.

It is this reality that worsens the whole situation in its social context and expands the effects of xenophobia and racial discrimination towards incoming foreigners as well as towards those who already live in the European countries. The term “islamophobia” is used more and more frequently, especially in the countries of former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. These have little or no experience with ethnic diversity and multiculturalism that the Western countries experienced in the course of time.

~ 45 ~

3.5 The Social Impacts of Migration Put into Context with the Czech Republic

If we put the Czech Republic into context with all the social elements of migration, as mentioned above, there is not so much to analyze in terms of pull factors.

According to Jiří Štický and his report in Mladá Fronta Dnes, the interest of refugees in asylum is very low in comparison with other European countries. Furthermore, he claims that the country itself will have to attract immigrants in the near future in order to soften the negative effects of its ageing population. (Štický)

The Czech Statistical Office is said to have reported only 1.600 applicants in

2015 which is a significant drop, if put in contrast with the situation in 2000, when up to

18.000 asylum applications had arrived. Štický claims further, that the Czech Republic

“has been the 10th-least attractive country in the absolute number of asylum applications and the fifth-least appealing if calculated per capita.” (Štický)

Even though the actual immigration of asylum seekers is not very intense under the new conditions of current migrant crisis, the impact on the society of the Czech

Republic is observable in terms of increased radicalism and xenophobia. As we could see in the chapter dealing with the historical aspects of migration, the Czech Republic experienced very long periods of occupation either by the Nazi regime or lately by

Soviet Russia that lasted for 40 years. As a consequence of these historical events, the

Czech Republic is rather a homogeneous state maintaining its level of ethnic and cultural purity. The idea of multiculturalism is something not generally accepted and the fear of having foreigners and ethnic minorities seems to be ubiquitous in the country.

Furthermore, Dušan Drbohlav claims in his report on “Migration Trends in

Selected Applicant Countries” that, if compared with other Central and Eastern

European countries, xenophobia in the Czech Republic is even more apparent.

According to the former Centre for Opinion Polls, only 55% of the respondents would

~ 46 ~ permit all foreigners whose lives are in danger. Drbohlav claims further, that rather negative attitudes towards foreigners were more typical of those society members with a basic or lower education, also among unemployed persons, pensioners, those with bad living conditions or sympathizers with the communist ideology and the right-wing extremists. Conversely, the inhabitants of the Czech Republic, whose levels of education and living conditions are good, those having well-paid jobs, working businesses or being the voters of right-wing political parties, generally have a rather positive or neutral attitude towards the foreigners and immigration. (Drbohlav,

“Migration Trends in Selected“ 70)

To make a conclusion, in the case of the Czech Republic and the impacts that immigration has on its society, it is rather a question of what long-term isolation caused to its citizens and their attitude towards global problems. From a historical perspective, the Czech Republic is deeply affected by the fact that it was not part of any significant streams of migration to which it might have adapted and socially adjusted. Despite the fact that the country consists of a few ethnic groups that, generally speaking, managed to integrate itself into society, the Czech Republic stays aversive towards the migrant crisis along with its current President Miloš Zeman, who tends to support the xenophobic mood with his populistic pronouncements.

3.6 The Social Impacts of Migration Put into Context with the United Kingdom

If we analyze the United Kingdom in the context of push and pull factors, it is possible to base our conclusions on the research “Global Talent Competitiveness Index” which was produced thanks to the cooperation of the research groups Adecco Group,

INSEAD and the Human Capital Leadership Institute. According to its results, the

~ 47 ~

United Kingdom has been ranked seventh in attractiveness driving the international movement of migrants. (“The Online Recruitment Resource”)

Moreover, the pull factors of this country are said to be effective especially in attraction of high-skilled workers. The research mentions, that by virtue of the incoming high-skilled workforce, the United Kingdom keeps its position of a world leader in research, innovation and entrepreneurship. However, the Index demonstrates that there is a certain lack of people with vocational training and skills which, despite good labor productivity, creates the skill imbalance in the country. (“The Online Recruitment

Resource”)

To consider the impact of immigration on the society in the UK, an immigration and asylum research organization Migration Watch UK sees a great impact of immigration flows on the demand for housing. The research claims that “Nearly two- thirds of the households formed in the United Kingdom since 1997 have had a foreign- born (immigrant) head of household: that is 1.8 million out of 2.7 million.” (“Huge

Impact of Immigration on the Demand for Housing“) This reality shows how big the impact of migration inflows can be in the long-run, overtaking the major part of the demand for housing and changing the market.

Despite the fact that the social effects of immigration are very hard to measure,

The Telegraph tried to do so by a collection of data which states that if a country experiences a sudden influx of large numbers of immigrants, the foreign communities tend not to mix effectively with the rest of society already settled or living in the country. The result of this, as observable in the United Kingdom, is that very small ethnic groups form smaller or bigger ghettos where they live separated from the rest of the society. (Palmer) This effect is not considered to be a proper process of integration

~ 48 ~ and has a negative effect on the relationship between the minority groups and the natives of the United Kingdom.

By examining the reactions of the citizens of the United Kingdom on the current situation, we can observe the data from recent surveys collected by Dr. Scott Blinder which show that almost 60% of respondents think that the migration should be reduced and fewer migrants should be let into the country. (Blinder) Another data revealed in the

31st NatCen Social Research British Social Attitudes survey state, that nearly a quarter of British people thinks that the main reason behind incoming immigrants is to only claim benefits and social welfare. (“Explore over 30 Years of Changing Views on

Society, Politics and Morality.“ 31) Despite the fact that the country has a long-standing experience with foreigners settling and working in the country, helping to boost the economy and the wellbeing, the idea of multiculturalism as such is still not accepted by a significant portion of the population.

3.7 Conclusion

To bring this chapter to a conclusion, it seems that the social aspects of migration are rather negative if considering the reactions of the population in the target countries. The size of the problem depends on the abilities of the target countries to integrate foreigners and provide them with conditions for wanted assimilation. In cases of insufficient integration, foreigners are prone to gather in particular neighborhoods, form ghettos and live excluded from the mainstream society which creates opportunities for raising of distrust and xenophobia among the native inhabitants.

Immigration brings a number of cultural benefits in many different areas of consumption. Despite the fact that the British population uses these benefits almost on a daily basis, the results of the public surveys show, that the major part of the population

~ 49 ~ has a rather negative approach towards immigration. The native population of the Czech

Republic is affected by immigration rather indirectly since the current immigration policy of the country does not allow significant inflows of foreigners. Moreover, as mentioned in this chapter, the Czech Republic was not part of significant streams of migration that would mentally prepare the native population for the problems that

Europe is currently facing. As terrorist attacks happen more frequently and the actions of ISIL become more effective and perilous, we might observe that the trend of a rather negative attitude towards immigrants will continue and become even more serious and extreme among the citizens of the target countries.

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CHAPTER 4 - The Economic Aspects of Migration

4.1 Introduction

The migration of people affects a number of different areas when it comes to the effects on the countries that are involved in the process. The economies of these countries are shaped under the pressure of flows of migration that play a significant part in their further development. This chapter will analyze the major economic impacts that the countries are dealing with while encountering significant inflows or outflows of migrants. Firstly, the economic effects of migration on the target countries are deeply analyzed in terms of their changes in economic growth, labor market, wages and social benefits. Secondly, the economic effects of migration on the source countries will be taken into account. It will be analyzed in terms of the effects on economic growth, labor market, wages and the outflow of high-skilled workers and so-called “brain drain” effect will be mentioned. The last two sections of this chapter will put these economic elements and effects into context with the two countries that this bachelor thesis is dealing with – the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

4.2 The Economic Impacts of Migration on the Target Countries

It is not an easy task to find clear evidence that would show the effects that immigration has on the economic growth of a country. Many various elements play its part in the process and the reasons behind the economic growth can be sometimes very hard to define. In their work, Goldin, Cameron, Meera and Balarajan claim that immigration stimulates economic growth because low-skilled foreign workers are willing to take the less desirable jobs that natives do not want to do. This consequently frees the native workers to take on a higher education, get better jobs and be more

~ 51 ~ productive which leads to a positive economic growth.

Various studies have been made to find and measure the empirical evidence of this theory. A government-sponsored study in the UK found that in 2006 immigration contributed to the UK economy by £6 billion. (Goldin, Ian, Cameron, Balarajan 246)

Another calculations from George J. Borjas, an American economist, showed that immigration to the U.S created an additional value of $10 billion between the years

1995 and 2005. Moreover, 16 million jobs were created in the United States, and 9 million of them were filled with foreigners. (Borjas, “Immigration”)

When it comes to impact of immigration on wages and jobs in the native labor market, the results vary according to the sector that immigrant workers enter. As George

J. Borjas thoroughly describes in Labor Economics, the effects also depend on their level of human capital which includes their skills, experiences and job qualifications. To fully understand the relationship between immigration and the native labor market we have to start with his economic analysis of fundamental factors that influence the functions of it. (Borjas 165)

Economic theory distinguishes a relationship between wages and employment.

Based on a model of supply and demand, these two factors, when graphically put together, create an interface that can help us understand what happens inside of labor markets while being under the pressure of migrant inflows.

Referring Graph 1 with wages placed on the vertical axis and employment on the horizontal axis, we can draw the relationship between them through the medium of supply and demand curves as seen below. The left supply curve represents the situation before the foreign labor had come, the right supply curve is shifted to the right to express an increase in the supply of available workers. This situation describes the short-run effects of immigration on the native labor market. The short-run period of

~ 52 ~ time is described in economic theory as a conceptual time period where at least one input is fixed and cannot be changed. The long-run is a segment of time when all the factors can be varied which is possible only after a longer period of time.

Graph 1 (Source: Borjas page 165)

Furthermore, it is important to differentiate between low-skilled and high-skilled workers who are entering native labor markets. Low-skilled workers work as substitutes with the native low-skilled workers in the labor market, they increase the supply curve because they are being part of the same labor market. In this situation, the increased supply depresses the wages of all the employed workers from the value of w0 to w1 and increases the number of employed workers from N0 to E1.

The short-term reaction of the native labor market is different in situations when immigrants and native workers are complements and they do not meet in the same section of the labor market. The situation in Graph 1 describes the relationship between foreign low-skilled workers and high-skilled native workers who are affected in a

~ 53 ~ completely different way in comparison with low-skilled workers and natives whose wages are lowered.

Graph 2 (Source: Borjas 166)

In this situation, the supply curve is not affected since the low-skilled foreign workers and high-skilled native workers are not competing in the same labor market.

This graph describes the situation of the high-skilled workers and their reaction on the inflow of low-skilled workers. As long as low-skilled foreigner workers fulfill the needs of the low-skilled sectors, the native workers can move on and be more productive in other jobs which is expressed with the demand curve moving rightwards. This time, we experience an increase in wages from w0 to w1 as the employment increases from N0 to

N1.

These effects, however, are only applicable in the short-run and economic theory offers a different scenario for the long-term effects of immigration. Considering the situation where foreigner workers and native workers are substitutes, these two groups

~ 54 ~ are competing in the same labor market. As depicted on Graph 3, the supply curve shifts rightwards as the foreign workers increase the labor supply. This time, however, the demand for labor increases too because firms have time to react to these supply changes and they expand their levels of capital and take advantage of the cheaper workforce provided by foreign workers. Wages stay constant as they are balanced by the increase in demand for labor and they are not affected by immigration in the long-run.

Graph 3 (Source: Borjas 168)

To sum up the outcomes of this economic theory, we can argue that the effects of immigration vary according to the section of the labor market migrants enter and to the level of skills they bring. In cases of low-skilled immigrants and their encounters with native low-skilled workers, it is possible to state that, in the short-run, the wages of both the working groups will be reduced. However, the immigration of low-skilled workers does not affect the high-skilled participants of the labor market in the same

~ 55 ~ way. Conversely, their wages are increased as the overall production and motivation to work increases.

Lastly, in the long-run, effects on wages are zero since the firms are able to deal with the surplus of labor supply by expanding their abilities to employ, thus increasing their demand for labor. The economy as a whole grows since its productivity increases and immigrants contribute by their taxes and consumption of goods and services which consequently creates another need for economic expansion.

Another common assumption, when it comes to immigration and its effects on a target country, is that inflows of immigrants drain the public purse and exploit the system of social welfare and benefits. However, the migrants are actually said to contribute more in taxes and social contributions than they take from individual benefits. According to recent economic estimations, the fiscal impact of the recent migration waves, that arrived over the past 50 years in OECD countries, is rarely exceeding 0.5% of GDP in either positive or negative terms. These results, published by

OECD authorities in the report “Migration Policy Debates”, further show that in some countries, such as Switzerland and Luxembourg, the positive contribution is even higher, estimated to be about 2% of GDP to the public purse. (Migration Policy Debates

2)

Despite the fact that migrants give more than they take, their contributions to the financing of public infrastructure are still smaller than those of the native-born workers.

The reason behind this is a different fiscal position of immigrants since they mostly take part in low-paying jobs hence their wages are low, thus they contribute less by their income tax payments. (Migration Policy Debates 3)

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4.3 The Economic Impacts of Migration on the Source Countries

The countries that migrating people leave behind face specific problems and challenges. “International Migration: Recent Trends, Economic Impact, and Policy

Implications” is a working paper published by International Monetary Fund that analyzes the economic effects on the source countries and helps to shed some light on the problem. According to this publication, brain drain of high-skilled workers still remains the biggest issue among many other features that change the economic situation in the source country. (“International Migration: Recent Trends…” 17)

High-skilled workers and well-educated people understand that their skills and knowledge can be utilized in much better way if they migrate to more developed countries with a better level of living standards. These people are called economic migrants and they form a significant part of the brain drain phenomenon. The rest of the brain drain group consists of those high-skilled migrants that are forced to leave their country and can afford the transport. For this reason, we can observe that the majority of today’s refugees are people from the higher ranks of society who have a proper education and who are already financially secured. As long as all these migrants are mostly young men, the effect of such a brain drain slows down the economic growth and overall performance of the source country.

Emigration from the source countries is also said to have a significant impact on the labor market it leaves behind. The working paper from International Monetary Fund mentions the reduction of labor force in the market that simultaneously leads to a decrease in performance of the whole economy as its size shrinks. (“International

Migration: Recent Trends…” 17)

As the wages decrease in the labor market of the target country, the opposite reaction takes place in the labor markets of the source countries. As we can observe on

~ 57 ~

Graph 4, the wages go up as the workers leave the market and decrease the supply of labor.

Graph 4 (Source: Borjas 165)

By reduce in supply of labor from the position E1 to the position N1, we observe an increase in wages from w0 to w1 which in reality improves the conditions of the workers that are staying in the labor market. The case study done by Prachi Mishra for

Journal of Development Economics suggests that a 10% drop in the labor supply leads to a 2-5% increase in wages. (Mishra 181) Despite the fact that the decrease in labor force is considered to have a rather negative effect on the overall function of the economy, it is possible to state that in some countries, where overpopulation is a big problem, these outflows of labor can ease the economic situation and increase the level of wages which can consequently lead to a productivity boost.

~ 58 ~

4.4 The Economic Effects of Migration Put in Context with the Czech Republic

Unfortunately, in the case of the Czech Republic, the economic impacts of immigration are very hard to define due to the fact that only very limited data is available. Important statistical sources or analytical studies are missing. The only data available are salaries of foreigners, remittances, savings, taxes, social-security payments or investment strategies which does not tell us much about the effects of the actual immigration.

Despite this unfortunate lack of information, there are still some areas left that can be properly analyzed and mentioned in this section. As Drbohlav claims, there is no doubt about the positive effects of immigration that the import of foreign labor has on the economy of the Czech Republic. He describes the immigration in the Czech

Republic as helping to propel the motors of the Czech economy in the most important regions such as Prague and other highly urbanized sectors. These areas are, according to

Drbohlav, in need of a foreign labor force because there is a certain lack of the domestic labor force that would fulfill the needs of the local labor market. (Drbohlav 57, “The

Czech Republic: From Liberal Policy”)

When analyzing the economic impacts of immigration on the Czech labor market, it seems that the foreign labor force does not compete with the native labor force, therefore there is not a significant downward pressure on wages. Rather, as

Milada Horáková claims in her work “Zahraniční pracovní migrace v České republice dva roky po vstupu ČR do EU” (Foreign Labor Migration in the Czech Republic Two

Years after the Accession of the Czech Republic to the EU), the foreign labor force has a tendency to fill the gaps in the Czech labor market and take the unattractive jobs that native workers try to avoid. (Horáková 13)

~ 59 ~

As mentioned in the chapter dealing with the social aspects of the problem, the

Czech Republic is ageing quickly due to its low birthrate which has a negative impact on the labor market since the percentage of young labor is declining. Additionally, some high-skilled workers also leave the country to find a better use of their skills which creates the brain drain effect and slows down the economy. For example, doctors leave the Czech Republic to seek better opportunities in Austria or Germany where their work is better paid under the strong economic conditions that these countries have to offer.

Drbohlav and Eva Janská comment on the position of the highly qualified immigrants in the collective report “Policy Choices to Address Demographic Decline and Labor Shortages in Europe”. It seems, that the number of immigrants who are entering the country from the rich western world is much lower if compared to immigrants coming from the East who also rather work in the low-skilled jobs. In addition to that, only around one-quarter of foreigners starts businesses in the Czech

Republic. The rest of the foreign workers is mostly employed in manufacturing or construction. (Drbohlav, Janská 39)

If we look into the future, it is highly probable, that the economic problems of the Czech Republic will prevail. Despite the fact that the Czech Republic currently experiences an exquisite rate of economic growth, the problems with its ageing population and overloaded pension system still remain. The country seems to refuse to take advantage of the current refugee crisis to fulfill the needs of the labor market which would maintain the functionality of the pension system. Only time will tell how these decisions will affect the economy and the Czech Republic in general. In the context of this chapter, however, the resentment towards the current situation can be seen as a missed opportunity to grow.

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4.5 The Economic Effects of Migration Put in Context with the United Kingdom

The data collected by Markaki Yvonni for The Migration Observatory at the

University of Oxford show, that there are now about 8 million foreign-born people in the United Kingdom. Just under half of these immigrants are from the European Union and the rest is said to have come from the countries of the Eastern world. Most immigrants from the European Union work in the United Kingdom, whereas those who come from outside the European Union want to study in the country. (Markaki)

The United Kingdom has been experiencing a steady flow of net migration for over two decades. The population of the country has been boosted by around 1.000.000 only in the past 5 years, which is said to be a significant rise in comparison with the previous ones. As mentioned earlier, net immigration leads to an increase in the labor force which increases the potential output capacity of the economy. The inflows of people boost aggregate demand and real GDP as there are new buyers and consumers of goods and services. However, it is also claimed that the net migration makes economic growth look stronger than it really is. Theresa May, a British Conservative Party politician, makes a statement that immigration has only little economic benefit since it increases real GDP faster than GDP per head. This was the case in the period 2005-

2015 when the real GDP increased significantly faster than GDP per head in the United

Kingdom. (Tejvan)

As for welfare benefits and the situation in the United Kingdom, a report by the

University College of London suggests that the overall effect of immigration was positive especially thanks to more recent immigrants who arrived after year 2000 and were from the countries of European Economic Area (EEA). These are the 28 countries provided with the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the internal market of the European Union. However, in the case of non-EEA countries,

~ 61 ~ their immigrants were believed to take more benefits from the social system than they paid in taxes. According to the research, this happened mainly because they tended to have more children than native Britons. (Dustmann, Frattini 21)

There is a belief that immigration only benefits London because of its opportunities and a long history of immigration. Currently up to 40% of all the United

Kingdom’s immigrants live in London which brings benefits as well as creates costs.

According to the research made by the National Institute of Economic and Social

Research with help of Heather Rolfe, Jonathan Portes and Nathan Hudson-Sharp, the impacts of immigration on London are strongly positive. Immigrants consume goods and services, pay taxes and create new jobs. It is said that London makes a major £34 billion positive net contribution to the United Kingdom finances thanks to both native and foreign working and consuming population. (Rolfe, Portes, Hudson-Sharp 19)

As for negative impacts of immigrants on London, the lack of affordable housing in the city seems to be a big problem. The report claims that immigrants create a significant additional demand on already limited housing resources which drives their prices even higher. However, not everybody blames immigration for London’s housing problem. There are arguments suggesting that the problems have been caused by the housing market and insufficient investment in social housing. These economic effects are still a matter of debate among economists and politicians whose views vary greatly throughout the political spectrum in the United Kingdom. (Rolfe, Portes, Hudson-Sharp

19)

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4.6 Conclusion

The economic background to the current migrant crisis seems to offer rather positive predictions and explanations that try to depict the situation as an opportunity rather than a threat. However, as mentioned a few times in this chapter, there are winners and losers and the positive impacts of immigration do not affect everyone equally. In the short run, native low-skilled workers experience a decrease in wages while they have to compete with incoming foreign labor. High-skilled workers are motivated to be more productive as they experience an increase in wages and they can take an advantage of new job opportunities that become available. The long-run situation is quite different and offers benefits to all the members of society. The source countries seem to rather lose but there can be still found some positive outcomes in situations when countries suffer from overpopulation or low-wage jobs.

In general, the inflow of immigration has positive effects on the economy of the target countries. Especially in cases of the countries of Western Europe where the ageing population threatens the function and the idea of a welfare state. The Czech

Republic and the United Kingdom are both countries falling into this category but their approach towards the problem differs. The Czech Republic refuses to accept the immigration as an opportunity which will leave the country economically unaffected either in a positive or negative sense. The United Kingdom includes immigrants from a wide range of countries and has a long experience with this phenomenon which creates much better conditions for dealing with the problem while simultaneously considering its benefits and costs.

~ 63 ~

Chapter 5 – The Comparison and the Final Conclusion

The aim of this final chapter is to compare and contrast the attitudes and responses to the current immigration crisis in the two chosen countries – the Czech

Republic and the United Kingdom. The comparison will follow the order of the chapters as presented in this bachelor thesis. Firstly, the historical background of these two countries will be compared along with the current situation that prevails in the countries. Secondly, the social background will be analyzed, both compared and contrasted in terms of these two countries. Thirdly, the economic background as presented in Chapter Four will provide a contrast between these two countries while being compared from an economic point of view. The last part of this chapter will draw a conclusion from the collected information, closing the chapter and providing the reader with the final results and findings of this bachelor thesis.

5.2 The Comparison from the Historical Point of View

If we compare the early movements of migration within these two countries, it seems that they went in completely opposite directions during the 19th century. While the Czech Republic experienced the outflows of people mostly to the US or Canada, the

United Kingdom was dealing with a constant inflow of foreigners from various places such as Europe and Ireland. Additionally, the inflows from Russia, Poland and the

Hapsburg Empire also took place in the United Kingdom when the Jewish population sought refuge in order to get away from the persecution and economic hardship.

The period between 1914 and 1945 was the period of two World Wars when the migration flows slowed down in both countries as they had to deal with the problems of the wars. The post-war period in the Czech Republic was characterized by the expulsion

~ 64 ~ of the Sudeten Germans who had been driven out from the border regions of the country and created a massive migrant outflow of approximately 2.5 million Germans. While comparing the post-war situation in these two countries, the United Kingdom was destroyed by World War II much more since the Czech Republic fell into hands of the

Nazi regime and stayed “protected” during the war. The United Kingdom, however, defended the island until the very end and suffered a great economic and demographic loss. In order to reconstruct the country after the war, Britain was in need for labor and attracted workers from Europe, mostly Poles and Italians who would be the first post- war immigrants into the country. The Czech Republic also experienced the inflows of people after the war but these were the people of the Czech nationality coming back to their own country which was a completely different situation in comparison with the

United Kingdom.

The 60’s and 70’s can be considered as another dark time in the history of these two countries. The Czech Republic suffered from the established communist regime that drove more than 550.000 highly-skilled and educated people out of the country and the United Kingdom dealt with the first significant race riots and protests against the black population and immigration. In addition to that, the United Kingdom experienced an economic downturn in the early 1970s and restricted the immigration under the new political and social pressures.

The 80’s and 90’s were times of big change in Europe. With the fall of the

Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Eastern bloc, the Czech Republic celebrated the freedom of its people and many Czechs re-entered the country. However, Great Britain, along with many other countries of Western Europe, felt threatened by the new immigrants that could have come from the Eastern countries and overrun the labor

~ 65 ~ market. As the inflows of foreigners increased, the country adjusted the immigration laws and applied new restrictions in order to get the situation under control.

When the Czech Republic became a member of European Union along with many other countries in 2004, the cycle of increased migration flows and fears repeated.

The Czech Republic experienced an increase in the migrant mobility and the United

Kingdom tried to come up with the solution how to cope with the inflows of foreigners from these countries.

To compare the situation of the two countries in times when the financial crisis of 2008 took place, it is possible to claim that both countries experienced a very similar sharp decrease in migration inflows as the crisis went on. According to the data provided in Chapter One, the overall decrease in migration mobility was also distinctive in both countries.

To link the comparison with the current situation of these two countries, it seems that the Czech Republic has been experiencing a steady trend of migration inflows in the last 3 years which is very similar to the situation prevailing in the United Kingdom where the number of refused applications has been decreasing over time. Despite this fact, the overall attitude towards the immigration is rather negative in both countries as mentioned and analyzed in the other chapters of this bachelor thesis.

5.3 The Comparison from the Current Point of View

If we compare the current situation of these two countries and their attitudes towards the migrant crisis, they can both be classified as having a rather dismissive approach to the current problems. The Czech Republic plays the role of the most radical example as its government and majority of people would rather stay completely untouched by the inflows of foreigners.

~ 66 ~

Furthermore, the country also rejects the quotas directed by the European

Commission and does not want to accept 4.306 refugees which is a negligible amount of people in comparison with the inflows of foreigners that take place in Britain. President

Miloš Zeman supports this particular negative atmosphere that prevails in the country and also suppresses the fights against racism and xenophobia that are becoming a bigger problem as the crisis goes on.

When compared with the United Kingdom, it seems that both countries are trying to avoid a bigger influx of refugees but their methods in doing so are very different. The United Kingdom does not refuse to accept the refugees in the country but rather tries to reduce the number of them and focuses its attention on the financial support in the countries that refugees are coming from. This method, however, gets criticism from many people which might result in a different approach in the future.

Currently, the United Kingdom is about to resettle up to 20.000 refugees by the end of

2020 which might be considered as a first step in changing the way the country deals with the crisis.

However, as the current situation might foreshadow, not much is going to change in the Czech Republic in terms of the attitude towards the European migrant crisis. The country still refuses to help and share the burden of refugees with the other

European countries. Moreover, it also struggles with the European Union while questioning its ability to deal with the crisis. When compared to the other countries of the former Eastern Bloc, we can observe the very same patterns of behavior, especially in the countries of the Visegrád Group.

~ 67 ~

5.4 The Comparison from the Social Point of View

The social impacts of immigration are very hard to measure and even harder to compare. Despite the fact that these two countries have very different social and historical background, the responses of their societies appear to be very similar if considering the current inflow of refugees to Europe.

The data from the last surveys show that only 55% of Czech people would allow the acceptance of the foreigners whose lives are in danger. Other surveys made in the

United Kingdom show that almost 60% of respondents think that the current streams of immigration should be reduced. Moreover, nearly a quarter of British people sees the reasons behind incoming immigrants as to only claim benefits and social welfare. Even though the data from these surveys are not directly comparable, they show certain similarities between these two countries and their societies.

When we compare the attractiveness of the two countries and the way they are seen by the incoming refugees, the difference might be considered as striking. Whereas the United Kingdom has been ranked as the seventh most attractive country in terms of migration, the Czech Republic experiences a gradual decrease in asylum applications and is considered to be the 10th-least attractive country when it comes to the number of asylum applications. As the country is ageing quickly, the predictions foreshadow that the Czech Republic might be having many problems in the social care sector and the labor market in the future. As long as the United Kingdom approaches foreigners differently, it should not theoretically follow the same path.

If we go back to the impacts and reactions of the societies, it is important to understand that, despite their similar dismissive attitude, the way they approach the idea of multiculturalism is not the same. The society of the Czech Republic is not used to interaction within a multi-ethnic society because it was not exposed to such massive

~ 68 ~ inflows of foreigners the way the United Kingdom was in the past. From this point of view, it is not a surprise that the Czech society is becoming more defensive and radical as its long-standing ethnic “purity” is endangered.

5.5 The Comparison from the Economic Point of View

The economic impact of immigration on the source countries is mostly considered as positive and beneficial. As many scholars and economists confirm, the

Czech Republic and the United Kingdom also follow this general condition. Especially in their capital cities, both countries benefit from the foreign labor force that fulfills the needs of their local labor markets. Prague, along with many other highly urbanized sectors, lacks the domestic labor force in many areas and the foreigner labor helps to fill these gaps in. As long as London covers up to 40% of all the immigrants living in the country and makes a major £34 billion positive net contribution to the whole economy, it is believed that foreign workers are key participants in this process.

When analyzing the overall effects on the labor markets and welfare benefits in these two countries, the wages in the Czech Republic do not seem to be reduced by inflows of foreign workers since they tend not to compete with the native labor force.

The effects on the welfare benefits in the United Kingdom seem to be positive in overall but if analyzed in detail, non-EEA countries seem to take more benefits than they pay in taxes.

However, from about 8 million foreign-born people in the United Kingdom, only under half of them are from the European Union and migrate for work-related reasons

The majority of foreigners is said to be from outside of the European Union and their wish is to study which provides the country with potential future high-skilled workers as many students later stay in the country and decide to settle. Unfortunately, in the case of

~ 69 ~ the Czech Republic, we observe rather the opposite as the economic and political situation drives high-skilled workers out of the country to seek opportunities in the bordering countries.

In closing, the positive impact on the overall economic growth in the United

Kingdom seems to remain debatable because of the difference between the growth in the real GDP and GDP per head, as Theresa May points out. The economic effects of immigration are not only a matter of debate in the United Kingdom. The very same discussions can be seen in the Czech Republic as well as in the other countries of the world. However, in most cases, the economic effects are considered to be positive and beneficial as Chapter Four explains.

5.6 The Final Conclusion

Taking all the information into account, the results of this bachelor thesis show that the two chosen countries – the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom – are neither completely the same nor different in any aspect when it comes to their attitudes towards the current European migrant crisis and immigration in general. The countries, however, share some similarities in a few areas, whilst they seem to be completely different in the others.

As the analysis of this bachelor thesis suggests, the countries have a very different historical background in terms of migration which is reflected upon their approach to the idea of multiculturalism. The Czech Republic is still a rather new to these ideas in comparison with the experience the United Kingdom has with different cultures and their blending influences.

The chosen countries, as the results of this bachelor thesis state, show very similar reactions of their societies to the current situation. Both societies act with

~ 70 ~ disapproval as the crisis goes on. Nevertheless, the radicalization of the society in the

Czech Republic seems to be more apparent as the current political situation also supports the trend towards negative perception and the assumed threat of migration.

The research of this bachelor thesis further concludes that the United Kingdom is interested in solving European migrant problem rather through financial support in the source countries than by means of bigger inflows of refugees into the country. As the thesis states, the Czech Republic is completely different in this matter as it refuses to offer refuge or a bigger financial support.

The results of the economic section of this bachelor thesis indicate that both countries can benefit from the current inflow of refugees the same way they were benefiting from the foreigners who came in the past. However, their approach to this opportunity is not the same as the Czech Republic feels rather threatened now. The results of this chapter also show that, despite the fact immigration is mostly considered economically beneficial, these economic theories are still a matter of debate and not all the economists support their implications.

All things considered, the gathered information, and the results driven out of them, clearly shape the conclusion while also summarizing the key findings of this work: putting the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom into context of current

Migrant Crisis, it seems, that both countries, despite their different historical development and political attitude towards the immigration, response very similarly in social terms and share a few effects that the influx of foreign labor has on their economies.

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Resumé

The primary aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyze the responses of the two

European countries to the current migrant crisis. The chosen countries are the Czech

Republic and the United Kingdom and this work provides the reader with the information regarding their attitudes towards the crisis as well as with the effects that the current inflow of refugees has on the functionality of these countries.

Firstly, the thesis introduces the historical context of the Czech Republic and the

United Kingdom which is very helpful and important in understanding of the current problems. Secondly, the thesis presents the information about the current situation in order to help the reader to fathom the general background of the problem. Thirdly, the reader learns the effects of migration on the source and target countries from the socio- political view, either from a negative or positive side. The fourth chapter works with the economic background of the problem and analyzes many possible implications that can occur if considering the phenomenon of migration and the economic impacts on the

Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. The last part of this work deals with the actual comparison of these two countries while trying to put all the gathered information together and come up with a conclusion that can present the results of this thesis in a satisfactory manner.

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Résumé

Hlavním cílem této bakalářské práce je analyzovat reakce dvou Evropských zemí na současnou migrační krizi. Česká Republika a Velká Británie jsou zvolenými zeměmi a tato práce nabízí čtenáři informace, které zohledňují přístupy těchto dvou zemí k současné krizi stejně tak, jako jsou zmíněny i její dopady na tyto vybrané země, které jsou pak předmětem porovnání v poslední části práce.

Nejdříve je představen historický kontext České Republiky a Velké Británie, který je velice užitečný a také důležitý pro pochopení současných problémů migrace.

Bakalářská práce dále informuje o současné situaci migrační krize za účelem obeznámení čtenáře s jejími obecnými zákonitostmi. Třetí kapitola pojednává o sociopolitických aspektech problému migrace jak v kontextu cílových zemí, tak zemí původu. Čtvrtá část této práce zahrnuje ekonomickou oblast této problematiky, analyzuje možné dopady migračního fenoménu na zúčastněné země, a to včetně spojitosti s Českou Republikou a Velkou Británií. V poslední části této práce dochází k analýze získaných informací, následnému vyhodnocení a kompletnímu porovnání přístupů a reakcí České Republiky a Velké Británie na všech výše zmíněných úrovních.

Z výsledků zvolené porovnávací metody jsou vyvozeny závěry, které následně plní roli výsledného výstupu této bakalářské práce.

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