Labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees. Czech Republic

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1 Labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees Czech Republic Written by Daniel Müunich Štěpán Jurajda April 2016

2 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Unit A1 Employment and Social Aspects of the European Semester European Commission B-1049 Brussels

3 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees Czech Republic April, 2016 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion European Employment Policy Observatory

4 Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union. Freephone number (*): (*) The information given is free, as are most calls (though some operators, phone boxes or hotels may charge you). LEGAL NOTICE This document has been prepared for the European Commission however it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet ( Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016 ISBN ABC DOI European Union, 2016 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

5 Abbreviations used (Czech) ALMP Active Labour Market Policy CR (ČR) Czech Republic CSO (ČSÚ) Czech Statistical Office DLO District Labour Offices EC European Commission ESF European Social Fund EU European Union MoL (MPSV) Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs OP Operation Programme PES Public Employment Services (network of labour offices) April,

6 Summary table on support available to (a) asylum seekers; (b) refugees; and (c) third country nationals (TCN) in the Czech Republic (underlining of the answer denotes that the provision is problematic) Refugees Asylum Seekers Third Country Nationals Recipients of Subsidiary Protection Is the PES involved in the labour market integration of (a) asylum seekers (b) refugees (c) third country nationals (TCN)? Are (a) asylum seekers, (b) refugees and (c) TCN have access to: Hiring subsidies YES NO YES YES YES NO YES YES Start-up (self-employment) support YES NO YES YES On-the-job training YES NO YES YES Other labour market integration support? YES NO YES YES Is there a systematic mentorship scheme in place for (a) asylum seekers (b) refugees and (c) TCN? Are (a) refugees, (b) asylum seekers and (c) TCN eligible to receive unemployment benefits or unemployment assistance? Are benefits that are generally received by (a) refugees, (b) by asylum seekers (if applicable) and (c) TCN, conditional on job search requirements/activation? Does the support 1 provided to (a) asylum seekers, (b) refugees (c) TCN end as soon as they get a job? NO NO NO NO YES NO YES YES YES n.a. YES YES YES n.a. YES YES Please specify which services asylum seekers or refugees have access to that other TCN do not have access to. Not possible to obtain information for this report Czech language courses N/A Not possible to obtain information for this report 1 The responses provided in the table refer to support provided by the DLO April,

7 Introduction and Basic Facts In this report, we map the available information on the labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees. 2 The Czech Republic grants full asylum to only a small fraction of asylum seekers 3 and typically awards a temporary asylum status, the socalled subsidiary protection, which can be extended for up to two years depending on the external forces affecting the asylum rationale. In short, the country has not experienced any major inflow of asylum seekers during 2015, hosts a negligible number of refugees and has no special programmes targeted to deal with the labour market integration of refugees. Since December 2015, the asylum decision process in the Czech Republic takes up to six months from the submission of the initial asylum application. Until the recent legislative change, the evaluation period was 12 months. This is a key policy parameter as (a) a typical application is processed towards the end of the allowed evaluation period, and (b) during the asylum evaluation period, an asylum seeker is not granted a work permit and may not use the PES. 4 Work is permitted and access to DLO services including ALMP tools is granted after the expiration of the evaluation period, even if the asylum decision has not yet been issued. 5 In principle, the PES should be accessible to refugees without a job (including those with only subsidiary protection status) to the same extent as the Czech unemployed. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoL) thus recently argued that there is no need for a targeted PES programme for refugees. 6 This statement appears to capture well the policy attention devoted to the issue. For example, the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (RILSA) of the MoL offers several reports on related issues but none of these deals with the issue of labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees. 7 Asylum seekers who are not residing in asylum seeker centres 8 are eligible for social benefits (the subsistence minimum of roughly EUR 125 a month), potentially for housing subsidies, i.e. to the same extent as Czech households with no labour income, for free Czech language courses (400 hours), and for assistance with housing and job search. But the language training of refugee seekers and its quality is not closely monitored. The quality varies a lot depending on local conditions, situation and in particular on the quality of particular teachers. Some of those who teach Czech language courses for refugees and asylum seekers manage their own language. According to NGOs, higher incidence of knowledge of both languages appears among Vietnamese. 2 Asylum seekers are those who have applied for international humanitarian protection but have not been granted it yet. Refugees are those who have already obtained asylum status or subsidiary protection. 3 Asylum award allows one to apply for citizenship after 5 to 10 years in the country. There are about refugees with full asylum status in the country at the moment who could eventually obtain citizenship. In 2014, the country granted citizenship to almost applicants, of whom 80 held asylum status. During 2015, the Czech Ministry of Interior awarded asylum status to 71 asylum seekers and awarded the subsidiary protection status to 399 asylum seekers. Less than 500 applications were declined and a similar number of applications were discontinued. 4 In the legislative process, several NGOs were pushing for a three-month waiting period. 5 The asylum decision is often issued after the expiration of the evaluation period. In special cases, the evaluation period can be officially extended up to 18 months. The evaluation can also be interrupted. In no case should the asylum award decision be reached after more than 21 months since the asylum application submission. 6 While award of the asylum status does make one eligible for unemployment insurance benefits in principle, actual eligibility only arises after having contributed a sufficient number of months of insurance-contributing employment to the UI system There are also detention centres for those foreign nationals who have been detained by the Czech police (typically on their way to Germany) and who do not wish to apply for asylum in the Czech Republic. These foreign nationals are expected to cover the costs of their temporary detention. April,

8 A basic overview of the magnitude of the asylum seeker and refugee flows can be obtained from monthly reports of the Ministry of Interior. 9 As a point of reference, it is useful to note that in 2001 (2003) the Czech Republic processed over (11 000) applications for international protection. During , however, there were fewer than new applications submitted annually. During 2015, the monthly number of new applications never exceeded 200, which means that the inflow of new applications during 2015 did not exceed 1 300, of which about one sixth were children. Furthermore, roughly half of the applications were submitted by Ukrainian citizens (similar to the situation in 2014) and only about 130 applications received during 2015 correspond to Syrian citizens. During 2015, the Czech Ministry of Interior awarded asylum status to 71 asylum seekers and awarded subsidiary protection status to 399 seekers. Less than 500 applications were declined and a similar number of applications were discontinued. According to anecdotal evidence, a typical asylum seeker aims to leave the asylum seeker centre as soon as he or she can and finds informal employment (given that official work permits are only issued after the lengthy evaluation period expires) and housing in privately operated hostels for low-income, often socially excluded, foreign as well as Czech workers. In 2014, fewer than 300 asylum seekers participated in Czech language courses provided for this group. In sum, the integration policies are at least formaly targetting refugees and holders of subsidiary protection, but do not deal with asylum seekers. After a year (since 2016 newly six months), if an asylum seeker gets refugee status, the integration becomes much more difficult because a larger share of refugees disappear from the radar of public administration and NGOs and a great deal of them are already integrated in the shadow economy and/or have irregular housing arrangements. 1 What is the role of PES in integrating (a) (some 10 ) asylum seekers 11 and (b) refugees 12? The role of the PES is quite small because asylum seekers are not eligible for PES registration and services during the waiting period and they learn ways to operate on the shadow or regular labour and housing market. Only a negligible proportion of refugees is registered with the PES and only a few are accessing some sort of active assistance. No information on this is sustematically monitored. As explained in the introduction, the PES can play no role in integrating asylum seekers in the country. On the basis of the research carried out for this report, it appears that there is little organised support for integration of asylum seekers offered outside of the PES. Moreover, there is no government agency devoted specifically to this purpose. Again, this may primarily be driven by the very low number of asylum seekers. Asylum seekers, not eligible for assistance by the PSE, are non-systematicaly treated and assisted by various NGOs. NGOs solicit funding from the government via various and frequently changing and administratively demanding funding support schemes. The treatment of asylum seekers by NGOs is not systematicaly monitored and varies a lot across regions, types of asylum seekers, and the period time depending heavily on actual availability of funding from the state and actual restrictions (crtiteria) imposed on their use. The efficiency of support by NGOs is not systematically monitored The reasoning for including (some) is that there is no requirement by the EU that asylum seekers are included in integration policies. 11 Persons who have applied for international humanitarian protection but have not been granted it yet. 12 Covers all beneficiaries of international humanitarian protection both refugees and subsidiary protection. April,

9 As concerns refugees, there are no PES programmes targeted to them. The only relevant source of information on the role of the PES in integrating refugees identified for this report consists of annual reports by the Ministry of Interior on the integration of foreigners. The 2014 report 13 notes that DLOs are offering Czech language courses to interested foreign nationals registered as unemployed. During 2014, over foreigners (including refugees) were registered as unemployed. Of these, only 71 were apparently refugees and only two of these refugees participated in such DLO-provided language courses. According to the report, foreign workers are primarily interested in participating in retraining programmes, which, however indirectly, also improve their command of the Czech language. But this translates to four refugees participating in retraining programmes organised by the DLOs in the 12-month period covered by the report. The DLOs are charged with offering individual action plans to all refugees, but again, the number of plans is limited by the number of registered refugees. In short, until 2014 PES played effectively no relevant role in integrating (the very small number of DLO-registered) refugees in the Czech Republic. More recent data are not available. 14 Some NGOs opperating tin the field highlight low level of language skills as the main barier in the provission of vocational training to refugees. Until recently, NGOs provided labour market integration support for refugees. The current policy prescription is that ESF funds should be used by DLOs for refugee integration but no systematic information is available to date on how this prescription has been fullfilled during How does the support provided to (a) (some) asylum seekers and (b) refugees compare to other categories of migrants (third country nationals)? Nominally, the assistance provided to refugees by the DLO is the same as that provided to third country nationals. Effectively, DLOs register and serve a negligible number of refugees. Moreover, refugees registered at DLOs do not represent a group regularly covered by statistics. As noted in the previous section, there are about 100 times as many non-refugee foreign nationals registered at DLOs than there are registered refugees. No systematic information on their participation in ALMP or other programmes was identified for this report. In principle, their access to PES should be equal to that of native registered unemployed. No analysis asking whether they face particular obstacles in their access to ALMP or other labour market policy measures was identified for this report. The Ministry of Interior funds regional Centres for the integration of third country nationals. During , these Centres were project-funded from the EIF. As of 2015, their funding comes from the AMIF (the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund). The available Ministry of Interior reports do not provide much detail on the labour market integration efforts carried out by these Centres or on their coordination with the DLOs. Currently, the course in Czech language provided to refugees out of detention centres has been discontinued due to administrative, coordination, and funding problems on the side of ministries. The courses still continue in asylum integration centres but they host a very small share of refugees (less than a hundred). Similar problems caused by discontinued funding have appeared on the side of NGOs and their provision of advisory services It is not possible to statistically analyse this very small number - four cases - of ALMP participation mentioned in the report. We thus can not comment on whether the integration support provided wtihin PES varies by Czech language skills, source country, or any other characteristics of the DLO-registered refugees. April,

10 3 Do (a) asylum seekers, (b) refugees and (c) other thirdcountry migrants have access to other ALMPs, such as Hiring subsidies Start-up (self-employment) support On-the-job training Other labour market integration support? As explained above, third country migrants with permanent residency, refugees, and asylum seekers whose asylum applications were submitted more than six months ago all have full formal access to standard ALMP tools including hiring subsidies, start-up (self-employment) support, and on-the-job training. As explained in Section 1, the number of DLO-registered refugees is however negligible. Many refugees who are not in contact with NGOs are not well informed about PES services available to them. Moreover, registration at the PES is not a sufficient condition to obtain unemployment benefits (which requires a previous period of payroll contributions). Finally, DLOs struggle to reserve sufficient (frequent and substantial) personal assistance to the native Czech unemployed. It should be noted that a great deal of those who obtain asylum seeker status work in the shadow economy in the preceding period, finding ways to operate without DLO assistance. 4 What are the obstacles faced by (a) asylum seekers and (b) refugees in successfully integrating into the labour market? The key obstacles represent involvement of asylum seekers in the shadow economy from early on, which acts as a trap. The other important obstacles are the language barrier and recognition / nostrification of apprenticeship degrees. According to experience collected by NGO representatives contacted for this report, a typical asylum seeker gets involved in informal employment while waiting for their application to be processed. This might in part be driven by the high taxation of formal employment and the expectation among asylum seekers that they will not be able to benefit from the insurance covered by their formal employment contributions. But the most important driver is likely to be their limited language skills and limited information available to them about the PES as well as job opportunities. Whether such potential information barriers could be overcome by a more active approach of the Ministry of Interior, which is in contact with asylum seekers within the asylum application process, remains to be seen. Another possible barrier may come from the certification conditions that prevent all foreign workers from entering several trade professions. Obtaining nostrifications of apprenticeship degrees and also of college diplomas is very difficult due to both language barriers and complicated and lengthy administrative processes. There are up to 10 NGOs that are actively involved in supporting the labour market integration of asylum seekers and refugees. Some of these are funded from EU sources. NGO representatives report facing some common obstacles when obtaining EU support: a high administrative workload, uncertainty around ex-post funding depending on changing conditions, lack of funding in one area combined with a high level of funding in another, etc. There also appears a lack of evaluation of the impact of the various fragmented projects and lack of efforts to accumulate knowledge of how best to support the integration of asylum seekers and refugees into the Czech labour market. 15 This is 15 Here is one example of such a project, funded from EU EQUAL sources: There are other projects (for all migrants) also focusing on Prague: Another third-country origin integration project can be found at the following link: April,

11 the reason for the speculative nature of the discussion (immediately above) of the barriers and challenges faces by refugees and asylum seekers. 5 Is there a systematic mentorship scheme in place for (a) asylum seekers and (b) refugees integrating into the labour market (and/or society more generally)? The projects organised by NGOs are ad hoc and of fixed duration. None of them have more than a few hundred participants. 16 The National Programme AMIF, which was approved in 2015 for the period does not provide detailed descriptions of envisaged labour market integration support. The target counts of asylum seekers or refugees who are expected to receive professional training within the Programme is in hundreds, i.e. remains largely within the past practice (for example, the programme considers targeting about 150 Syrian refugees in 2015) Are (a) refugees and (b) (if applicable) asylum seekers eligible to receive unemployment benefits or unemployment assistance? As explained in the Introduction, refugees are eligible for unemployment benefits (once they accumulate sufficient number of months of unemployment-insurance contributions through official employment). 7 In what ways are benefits that are generally received by (a) refugees and (b) by asylum seekers (if applicable), conditional on job search requirements/activation? Refugees face identical conditions as native workers. They have to be actively searching for a job and collaborating with the DLO. If they fail to fulfil these conditions they are eligible only for Social Needs benefits which are set at quite low levels. 8 Does the support provided to the (a) asylum seekers, (b) refugees and (c) other migrants end as soon as they get a job or does it continue for a while during the first phase of their employment? If yes, what support continues? Only NGOs (through ad hoc EU-funded projects) potentially provide continuous support to refugees who have already held some official employment. 18 There is no systematic evidence of this type of support and there is no systematic national policy to provide such support. 9 To what extent are social partners systematically involved in (a) labour market integration service provision and/or (b) labour market integration service/policy definition and design? There is only a small degree of involvement of social partners in this policy area. The Chamber of Commerce has been involved in setting up a fund supporting NGOs to assist 16 A recent set of MoL calls for project proposals is available here: An example of the kind of support that NGOs provide is described on p. 74 of the following RILSA report: April,

12 and help refugees and their integration but it is not clear how many refugees the fund was able to support. 19 The fund continues to seek support from employees. 10 To what extent is the labour market integration of refugees well-coordinated within the country? Do employment agencies and asylum authorities coordinate? The spectrum of integration activities is wide but monitoring tools appear minimal, making it difficult to estimate trends in integration or to identify major barriers across different Czech regions, types of careers, or source countries. During 2014, the RILSA institute of the MoL conducted a project that was aimed at establishing monitoring indicators for the integration of foreign workers. It is not clear whether the results of the project are used by employment agencies. In 2014, within the newly approved Foreigners Integration Strategy 20, the government has charged the Ministry of Interior with coordinating integration policies. (This decision is in line with the historically overwhelming focus of Czech immigration policies on the security ramifications of immigration as opposed to the labour market opportunities of immigration.) The Ministry s Asylum and Migration Section is in regular contact with representatives of other involved ministries (during 2014, there were two such meetings) and also organises irregular meetings with NGO representatives to improve the efficiency of the allocation of resources on related projects. It is difficult to quantify the effects of these coordination meetings on the government policy or EU-fund spending efficiency. 21 Ministry representatives also attend presentations of results of concluded NGO-run projects in this policy area. The Ministry of Interior has for a long time supported the notion that much of immigration policy should be transfered to the municipality and regional level, such that there are municipality-level immigration strategies. Quantitative information on the reach of such strategies in terms of refugee or other migrant numbers is not regularly available. Regional Immigrant Integration Centres exist in 13 regions (and are funded from EU sources). 22 References Průzkum veřejného mínění cizinců z třetích zemí o otázkách integrace a jejich náhledů na majoritní společnost a život v ní [Public opinion poll Third Country Nationals on integration issues, their view of the majority society and life in it]. / Danica Schebelle, Jan Kubát, Jaromíra Kotíková, Helena Vychová - Praha: VÚPSV, v.v.i., s. - ISBN Nezaměstnanost cizinců v České republice [Unemployment of foreigners in the Czech Republic]. / Miroslava Rákoczyová, Robert Trbola, Jiří Vyhlídal - Praha: VÚPSV, v.v.i., s. - ISBN Report on immigrants and their integration in the Czech Republic 2014 [Zpráva o situaci v oblasti migrace a integrace cizinců na území České republiky v roce 2014] Monthly statistical reports on immigrants during The following report details the NGO project financing structure: moznosti-financovani 22 April,

13 Formal rules by the Ministry of Interior, MoL, and Czech Statistical Office April,

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