Annual Overview of International Migration in Central and Eastern Europe - 2009

Seven overviews from seven different countries on the important events and changes which took place in the field of migration in 2009

For the fourth time now, MigrationOnline.cz presents brief overviews of developments in the field of migration that have taken place across selected Central and Eastern European states in 2009. Contributions from experts from seven countries help to provide a picture of events in the field of labour migration and asylum in 2009. Each contribution considers the topic of the financial crisis and the extent to which the various prognoses of its effects came true, including the anticipated mass return of migrants or the decrease in remittances. Another prominent theme across the reports is the emergence of important legislative changes (concerning readmission agreements, migrants' access to public education etc.) and changes in the structure of state administrative institutions. Although individual contributions do not provide an exhaustive overview, as a whole they provide the reader with an interesting perspective on the reality of migration in Central and Eastern European countries over this period.


Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Ukraine


Annual Overview 2008 can be found here.
Annual Overview 2007 can be found here.
Annual Overview 2006 can be found here.

Bulgaria

Over the last three years there has been a new rise in young Bulgarians planning to emigrate, with over one quarter of those aged between 20 and 29 planning to emigrate temporarily in the near future, according to a survey by the National Statistics Institute published in 2009. However, there has been a change in the social structure of migration flows. While until a few years ago it was mostly highly-skilled young people that were inclined to emigrate, there is now an increase in low-skilled or unskilled migration among young people.

The recession in Western Europe has led to many Bulgarian emigrants losing their jobs. The official yearly contracts for agricultural, cleaning and driving jobs, which used to be offered through the Employment Agency, were also discontinued in 2009. In addition to this, the decrease in high-skilled emigration was also attributed to the decision of some EU countries (namely Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Malta and the UK) to extend restrictions on access to their labour markets. At the same time, countries like Spain and Greece chose to lift restrictions completely.

There was no substantial return migration observed from the country with the fastest growing unemployment rate - Spain: a country with a very large Bulgarian migrant community. Some migrants that lost their jobs chose to stay, either awaiting the recession's end, or enjoying some social benefits there. Others returned to Bulgaria temporarily, but went back to Spain again claiming the crisis was still more acute in Bulgaria. At the same time, many of the more long-term migrants who settled and worked with regular contracts did not suffer this wave of unemployment.

After the latest elections in summer 2009 a new government position was created - a minister for Bulgarians living abroad. Nevertheless, there are still no clear policies or strategies regarding migration. The main line and preoccupation of the new minister, a highly nationalistic, controversial historian and former head of the National Museum of History, is the transformation of the system for acquiring Bulgarian citizenship for people living outside Bulgaria. He has in mind especially Macedonian citizens, whom he targets, and who, he claims, want to "re-bulgarize". This results in constant diplomatic turbulence between the two countries.

The newly elected government announced that Bulgaria would be ready to enter the Schengen area by March 2011, asking for just a two month extension of the previously agreed deadline. By that time Bulgaria must set up common rules on external border controls, enhance police and judicial co-operation with other member states, and establish the Schengen Information System, which will start by issuing biometric passports to all Bulgarian citizens from March 2010.

Neda Deneva
PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (Central European University, Budapest).

The Czech Republic

The situation of labour migrants, with the effects of the economic recession, remained the most pressing problem in the migration field in 2009. Insufficient legislative frameworks, unclear state policy vision, and the rigid system of foreigners' integration in the labour market enabled some employers, especially employment agencies, to benefit from the dependent situation of employees/foreigners. In this context the nontransparent use of cheap labour developed into a juggernaut.

The government has not managed to handle the situation, although it did adopt some legislative changes that were more favourable to foreigners. The procedure of issuing permits to obtain employees abroad was eliminated, the maximum duration of work permit validity was prolonged and the range of persons exempt from the permit requirement was extended. Nevertheless, these measures did not have a significant impact on foreigners , due to the dramatic decrease in job vacancies as a result of the economic crisis and due to the apparent strategy of employment agencies to prefer foreigners already residing in the country to those newly arriving. The green card system for labour migrants wishing to come to the Czech Republic was put into practice, but it proved to be practically non-functional for similar reasons.

Government efforts to combat the breaking or circumventing of laws on employing foreigners did not lead to the desired results. Although the legislation related to the regulation and functioning of employment agencies became stricter, actual state control was insufficient.

The trend of migrants changing their purpose of residence from employment to business became evident, but the benefits thereof proved to be illusory. These residence permits are likely to be cancelled by the Czech Alien Police, as in fact most of these migrants' working activity falls under the definition of regular employment.

Experts and representatives of non-governmental organisations expressed concerns about the approach of the Czech Interior Ministry presented in the document Addressing the security situation in the Czech Republic in connection with crisis-driven foreign worker lay-offs, published at the beginning of 2009. This material influenced subsequent developments in the field of migration at the official level and provided the basis for the proposal of measures directly affecting foreigners living in the Czech Republic. One of the measures proposed was the introduction of the so-called assisted voluntary returns whose first phase enabled legally residing migrants to leave the country with the state's support and whose second phase also made this possible for irregular migrants. However, this programme was not particularly successful either. This was, in part, due to the inherent problems of the return programme, but more importantly foreigners were unwilling to leave the country as they became highly indebted in their countries of origin and were determined to stay even at the cost of illegal residence.

Some problems persisted, namely those related to the expulsion of foreigners (especially based on readmission agreements), to the detention of foreign minors or to health insurance. The downward trend in the number of applications for international protection has continued (1,258 applications per year).

The Department for asylum and migration policy of the Czech Interior Ministry extended its agenda to include parts of the migrant integration agenda, and the agenda of granting permanent residence status or green cards - agendas earlier administered by other ministries. Concerns were expressed about an extreme concentration of power in the hands of a single unit of the state administation.

Radical statements by government representatives, including the then interior minister and the president of the Czech police force, have stirred the situation in the country, raising concerns within communities of foreigners (the statements about strict sanctions for illegal residents) and majority society (fear of growing criminality). These statements have resulted in debates on the arrogance of state power and could support the criminalisation of migration in the eyes of majority society.

Significant developments have occured at the European level. The government finished preparations for the transposition of the return and the sanction directives, and supported the adoption of the blue card directive.

In the course of the year, work on a crucial amendment to the Foreigners Act and related provisions proceeded. The results remain unknown and despite all expectations, no change to the regulation was adopted in 2009.

Pavla Burdová Hradečná
The programme director of the Association for Integration and Migration (SIMI).

Hungary

The migration situation in Hungary continues to be shaped by European integration, although the government's inability to provide reliable statistics makes a satisfactory assessment difficult. The foreign population stands at 2 per cent of the national population, showing no marked change, though the proportion of asylum seekers and visa applicants increased slightly. Two thirds of foreign nationals are from neighbouring countries and most of these are ethnic Hungarians. While the latter were targetted by the national settlement programme, many applications came from China and Vietnam, with twice as many Chinese and Vietnamese facing expulsion this year, compared to 2008. The proportion of Europeans among those seeking asylum doubled in 2009, with applicants from Kosovo and Serbia accounting for much of this increase. Illegal migration is still majoritarily transit migration, and Hungary's attraction to migrants seems to have changed little this year.

Hungary finally ratified the Revised European Social Charter (1996) in 2009. However it exempted itself from those optional articles concerning the protection of migrants and their families. Likewise, a new government policy paper regarding Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) is little more than a gesture, as both the AFSJ elements of the Lisbon Treaty and Stockholm Programme will render it irrelevant. The paper made no mention of a supported integration policy or of cultural, social and human rights. Instead, the government intends to force Parliament to derogate the existing constitutional protection of fundamental rights, including the protection of personal data, in the name of Hungarians' "right to security". With the enlargement of the Schengen Area, and expansion of border control technologies, migration data exchange will be stepped up, possibly even with non-EU states. This may have positive results in facilitating and managing lawful migration, within the limitations of labour force demands and demographic balance. But it will probably also mean a weakening of already insufficient protection for asylum seekers, 'tolerated' migrants (those temporarily residing legally) and cases of non-refoulement.

A specific change in public education was effected in 2009. Education services may now financially support the adaptation of curricula in schools with migrant children aged between 5 and 18, paying yearly contributions to affected schools. While there is hope that this will encourage schools to welcome migrant pupils, there remains no sanction or consequence if schools refuse entry to non-natives. There is considerable exclusion in the decentralised school system, often necessitating the intervention of Hungary's minorities ombudsman.

In January 2009, Hungary liberalised the accession to the labour market of EEA nationals, ending temporary restrictions and complicated legal provisions. That said, the context of economic crisis saw the dismissal of migrants working in heavy industry and manual jobs, particularly Romanian and Slovakian nationals. Hungarian MEP Csaba Őry has said that 'reasonable protectionism' was to be expected given the crisis, but that this would be short term only.

The Hungarian tax office issued a Directive regarding the exemption of asylum seekers, and migrants seeking protection, from fees for certain state administrative procedures, including legal aid and refugee social benefit. These will not have to prove their income to be granted exemption. However this will not stand for migrants who have attested to their self-sufficiency in Hungary.

In summary, 2009 felt like wasted time for migrants and their advocates. Few prospective changes will be in a positive direction, leading to an atmosphere of frustration heading into 2010.

Judit Tóth
Hungarian Association for Migrants
Summary by James Matthews

Poland

Despite the current trend of decreasing emigration from Poland and increasing numbers of returning Polish emigrants, 2009 was another year of high levels of labour migration from Poland to EEA countries. As before, while the Polish media discussed the anticipated return of many Polish migrants, the reality of this was far more modest. Experts seem to agree that, although we know that the number of Poles working abroad has decreased, there is still insufficient data on the real scale of these migrations. What is known is that a great number of Poles (estimated at 2 million) continue to work abroad, and that a significant number of them appear in more and more countries (Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands).

The worrying side of this is that a growing number of Polish migrants are seeking social help in their respective countries of destination. Field studies show that in some communities across the UK, Poles, along with citizens of other newly acceded countries (the so called A-8 Countries), constitute over 50 percent of social services clients. Together with the Polish National Bank's data showing the decreasing value of remittances sent to Poland, this may suggest that migration is a less attractive prospect than a year or two ago, possibly leading some prospective migrants to reconsider.

With regard to immigration to Poland, legislation regulating the legal employment of foreigners was introduced with the Promotion of Employment and Labour Market Institutions Act. This new law changes the previous two-step procedure into a simpler one-step process and reduces the number of documents that employers must provide to accompany work permit applications. This change follows the success of regulations, established in 2008, allowing Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians and Moldovans to work in Poland without a permit for up to 180 days per year. Overall, these initiatives simplifying employment procedures for foreigners seem to facilitate current labour migrations to Poland. However, there is still uncertainty regarding the future of more than 200 thousand seasonal workers from Ukraine, when the existing law on seasonal work ceases to function at the end of 2010.

An important development in education was the change in provision for non-natives under the Act on the System of Education. This enables the free education of foreign minors in public schools and introduces the position of the migrant students' assistant to be employed by schools attended by non-Polish pupils.

The composition of asylum seekers changed significantly. For the previous 10 years approximately 90% of asylum seekers were Russian citizens of Chechen nationality. In 2009 almost 40% were Georgian citizens, with Chechens comprising 'only' 54%. Poland maintains that Georgia is a safe country and, therefore, no Georgians were granted refugee status or subsidiary help. Chechens are still the dominant group among those granted refugee status and subsidiary protection.

Mirosław Bieniecki
Assistant professor at Warsaw School of Social Psychology. Leading expert at Caritas Polska. Analyst and researcher at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Mikołaj Pawlak
PhD Candidate at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences. Head of Research Team at Caritas Polska.

Romania

The way international migration was internally debated changed from previous years. During 2007, with Romania's high economic growth rate, the apparent lack of workforce in particular sectors was frequently perceived to be the result of the large emigration. In this context, immigration and return migration were seen as possible solutions. In 2009, in a Romania affected to its core by the global economic crisis, the direction of evaluations changed, at least regarding one issue - return migration. Driven apparently by economic downturn in destination countries, return migration became a matter of serious concern.

In 2009, Romania continued to be an emigration country, but the rhythm of departures probably continued the deceleration that began in 2006. Estimations based on multiple data sources point to an increase in stock of Romanians working abroad during 2008 (from about 2.2 million in 2006 to about 2.8 million) [1]. For 2009, as a result of both increased return migration and a decreasing departure rate, there was an expected slowdown. In an increasingly stable profile of international migration, Italy and Spain continued to have the highest concentrations of Romanians working abroad.

Return migration, while increasing, did not confirm the prediction of a massive return flow that was based on a simplified economic model of migration. However, no official source registers data on Romanians returning home, either temporarily or permanently, making the knowledge of these phenomena rather imprecise.

Immigration remains at a low level: the number of residence permits for third country nationals rose from 40 000 at the end of 2008 to about 60 000 in the first six months of 2009 (with the same three principal countries of origin: Moldova, Turkey and China) [2].

After several years in the world top 10 of remittance-receiving developing countries (as an absolute sum of money; when considering remittances as share of GDP, Romania is in a far lower place), Romania began to experience the uneasiness of reduced remittance levels [3]. During the first six months of 2009, remittances were diminished to about one half compared to the same period of the previous year. Italy and Spain remain leading source countries responsible for about 60% of the total money received.

Even if trends seem to suggest no serious reasons for expecting a new wave of Romanian emigration, most EU15 members (9 out of 15) reinforced the transitional restriction measures for Romanian citizens, two years after accession. In 2009, 5 European countries opened their labour markets to Romanians, four of them (Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Greece) current or former destinations for Romanian migrants.

Monica Şerban
Principal research fellow, Research Institute for the Quality of Life, Romanian Academy of Sciences

[1] Sandu, D. (2010). Lumile sociale ale migraţiei romîneşti în străinătate. Iaşi : Polirom (in print)
[2] Romanian Office for Immigration (2009). Infostat. http://ori.mai.gov.ro/api/media/userfiles/InfoStat_Octombrie_2009_text.pdf, consulted 25.01.2010
[3] World Bank (2009). Migration and development brief, 11.

Slovakia

Labour migration trends were comparable to those of 2008 when some Slovaks returned home following the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis and related lay-offs. Generally, the number of Slovak workers abroad did not change significantly.

The Slovak government adopted the long-awaited Strategy for the Integration of Foreigners in the Slovak Republic in May 2009 that addresses the issue of third-country nationals' integration. Nevertheless, no funds were earmarked for the support of measures outlined in the document and this field was financed solely from the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals.

As for legislative changes, work on an amendment law on residence of foreigners proceeded throughout 2009. This law is of great importance, above all because it brings into the Slovak legal order transposition of the return directive and changes in visa regimes following the adoption of the Community Code on Visas (Visa Code). Changes were effected also in other areas. In general, the amendment law discusses a change to the procedures of granting visas and individual types of residence permits, as well as administrative expulsion and detention of foreigners. As for labour migration, under the amendment workers already granted visa who are temporarily sent to Slovakia by their employers or who are employed by so-called strategic investors, are granted exemption from the requirement to apply for residence permit for the purposes of employment. Under this regime, such labour migrants may stay on the territory of the Slovak Republic for up to 90 days after entry. If they were granted a work permit, they may start working straight after their arrival.

The number of applications for international protection decreased slightly in 2009 compared to 2008, standing at 822 submitted applications. Of this number, 14 third-country nationals received asylum status and 97 applicants had subsidiary protection either granted or extended.

Based on the Agreement between the Government of the Slovak Republic, UNHCR and IOM on humanitarian transfer of refugees in need of international protection through the Slovak Republic, Palestinian refugees arrived in Slovakia in June 2009. These migrants had spent a long time in an over-crowded Iraqi camp, Al Waleed near the Iraqi-Syrian border. They were placed into a new transit centre of the Slovak Interior Ministry (Detention Camp in Humenné) for a period of 6 months, while their resettlement to a third country will be arranged.

The attention of the general public and media was attracted by the case of an Algerian who was given a life sentence in a trial he did not attend. Among the charges he faced was that of participation in a terrorist group. He applied for asylum status in Slovakia. In October 2009, the Regional Court in Bratislava confirmed the decision of the Migration Office of the Slovak Interior Ministry to reject his application and refuse to grant him subsidiary protection. In December 2009, despite police surveillance, he managed to escape from the Migration Office detention centre to Austria.

Miroslava Mittelmannová
Lawyer at the League for Human Rights, lecturer at the Department of the International Law and the European Law, Faculty of Law, Trnava University.

Ukraine

The Ukranian government considers the Eastern Partnership with the EU, begun in 2009, as a step towards EU membership. Ukraine is now required to develop migration policy, introduce migration controls, strengthen the Russian border, control the issuing of passports and introduce biometric data. Some progress has been made in this direction.

In July 2009 the Ukrainian Migration Service was created within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, taking responsibility for citizenship and refugee issues, the issuing of passports, and the monitoring of population statistics and migration. However, activity has been limited by political conflict: the President has vetoed government decisions relating to this office. Despite this, work began on the united electronic database of Ukrainian citizens, immigrants and emigrants. While Parliament has said biometric data will not be demanded from foreigners applying for Ukrainian visas, the government is considering either its voluntary submission or new legislation. Presidential elections in 2010 may change this.

With five neighbouring EU countries, Ukraine remains an important transit country for irregular migrants. These sometimes remain in Ukraine, but their precise numbers are disputable. The UN estimates the number at 7 million, and other experts at several hundred thousand. The Readmission Agreement with the EU, due to enter into force on 1 January 2010, led to the continued construction of centres for migrants deported from the EU. Furthermore, Ukraine is concluding negotiations on readmission with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and beginning talks with others.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs advocates rigorous migration control systems. In August 2009 the government introduced financial demands on foreigners entering Ukraine, justified by the need to limit irregular migration. Those coming from African, Asian and some CIS countries must have around 1000 euros (12 520 UAH) available: a serious obstacle for refugees and labour migrants.

Ukraine has a restrictive asylum procedure and, according to Human Rights Watch, only 3% of asylum seekers receive refugee status. This procedure is limited to "detention-trial-deportation." Ukraine also lacks instruments of migrant integration into society. However, this year some legislative changes were proposed.

There has been an escalation in xenophobic and racist attitudes in Ukraine following the appearance of irregular migrants and the construction of camps for returned migrants. Moreover, far-right presidential candidate Oleh Tiahnybok initiated anti-immigration marches across Ukraine, claiming that migrants are a threat to the labour market, and a source of disease and crime.

In 2009 emigration from Ukraine continued, with Minister Yuriy Lutsenko indicating an annual 2-4 million emigrants. Destination countries have not changed - Poland for seasonal work; the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal for long-term stays. Experts estimate annual remittances at 3.5 billion USD, with an expected decrease of 5-8%, as a result of the economic crisis.

The agreement with Poland on small-border movement came into force in July 2009, resulting in 380 000 such crossings, involving 5000 Ukrainians (12 000 still await decisions on their application). Ukraine wants to extend the border zone from 30km to 50km. Negotiations with Romania on the small-border movement continue.

Myroslava Keryk
Teaching assistant at Lazarski School of Commerce and Law in Warsaw