• What is the dialogue "Getting a flat is pretty cool" about?

Jami’s family was registered on the State Integration Programme, which assists successful asylum seekers in the process of integration. This is a surprise for the other kids, and so Jami attempts to explain things. We offer a slightly more detailed description.

• Topic

The State Integration Programme, which began its operations in 1996, is the only comprehensive, state-run integration policy in the CR. It is intended only for recognised asylum seekers, i.e. it relates to approximately 100 to 200 people a year, which is a marginal figure within the framework of all immigrants. The Ministries of the Interior, Education, Labour and Social Affairs and other authorities, along with NGOs and local authorities, building owners, and the regional authorities play a decisive role in its implementation. Similar programmes are up-and-running in practically all of Western Europe. It differs from these in that sometimes it is a national policy and sometimes regional. However, most of all it differs by virtue of the fact that, while in the Western European programmes the main emphasis is placed on language and work, with accommodation a marginal matter, in the CR the opposite is the case.

The state integration programme (SIP) focuses on three main spheres: the provision of accommodation, free Czech lessons, and assistance in finding a job.

Accommodation
The basic purpose of the SIP in the sphere of accommodation is to overcome the problems with the as yet not-completely-functional market for apartments in the CR. Under the existing conditions, the vast majority of recognised refugees would be practically excluded from traditional rented accommodation in the municipalities. Either they would not meet the requisite duration of permanent residence in the municipality (usually between 3 and 5 years), or they would not be able to meet certain financial demands (e.g. a public tender using the envelope method, high rent in apartments with non-regulated rent, the high prices of new apartments, etc.). It must be realised that the vast majority of recognised refugees live on the borderline of poverty, they have no savings and they are lacking what for Czechs are the regular social networks thanks to which it is possible to receive reasonable offers, contact friends in times of need, etc. The creators of the SIP based the programme on a simple idea: if we do not want recognised refugees to be put into long-term, usually very isolated “care” facilities, which resemble ghettos and are operated by the Ministry of the Interior (which are also very expensive to run), and at the same time we do not want recognised refugees to be incorporated into new parallel structures (or for them to create them), which, while providing at least the security of accommodation, will concentrate them in socially excluded localities with a risk of criminality and an overall negative impact on the social cohesion of Czech society, so we have to do something to prevent this. Since 1996, the state makes a contribution to the town or municipality, which then provides an apartment of suitable quality to the recognised refugee or their family, along with a grant to the municipality’s infrastructure depending on the number of people in a household. In the case of households containing several recognised refugees, the state grant may be several hundred thousand crowns. This fact is often the sole motivation for the local authorities to provide accommodation to refugees. A disadvantage of this method is the fact that not every town is willing to register with the programme, despite these grants, and many refugees wait for an integration apartment for a long time (sometimes several years), often finally receiving an apartment in a locality where there is no work, or in which they feel isolated. For this reason, in the last two years a second possibility has been available. A successful asylum seeker can reach an agreement with the private owner of an apartment and the state will make a certain contribution to the rent over a certain period (of up to approximately 50%), which allows socially weak refugees to begin normal life despite prices of rent which otherwise would be out of reach. Again, there is the problem of acquiring the consent of the municipality, because it is the municipality which must pay and administrate the contribution to the rent.

However, because accommodation on its own is insufficient to meet the needs of recognised refugees and there is plenty of proof of this in practice, the SIP had to be supplemented by other activities which allow those who have received asylum to be equal and valid members within the framework of the community in which they live.

Czech
Under the Act on asylum, a refugee must be offered a free course in Czech within 1 month of being awarded asylum. In practice, this does not always apply and, moreover, courses in Czech have hitherto been too short. People from a non-Slavic environment, and even from Slavic environments, find that 150 hours is sufficient only to learn the most basic things. One reason is that there is no further practice associated with these courses in the form of work or study, etc., and so refugees soon forget what they have learned. This situation should soon change – courses are being tested and should be provided which last up to 470 hours. For the sake of comparison, in Sweden not only refugees but immigrants in general receive up to 700 hours of Swedish.

Work and unemployment
Unemployment and job opportunities were the last issue to be included a few short years ago in the SIP. The level of unemployment amongst active refugees is alarming (up to 60%), even though statistics show that the educational average of these people is higher than that of Czech society as a whole. Special attention should be paid to refugees at labour offices. The effect of such attention is not yet, however, much in evidence. If in both of the preceding spheres of assistance, the role of the NGOs has been important, in the sphere of work and unemployment it is crucial. Not only is it often the only assistance which refugees receive, in many regards it completely supplants the sphere of work and unemployment within the SIP, though it does not operate within its framework.

The state integration programme within the context of the integration policies of the EU and the CR
There is more and more talk (and in certain EU countries, application) of the necessity of requiring, along with the provision of certain advantages, an undertaking on the part of the refugee themselves, i.e. a kind of integration contract. The current written consent of the refugee to being registered on the SIP is a form of such a contract, setting forth several conditions, though these relate only to doing the course in Czech and consent to the conditions under which it is possible to receive or reject the integration apartment offered, or, as the case may be, the conditions of continuing or terminating participation on the SIP. However, the basis of a real integration contract would be the precisely-defined obligations of an immigrant and the provision of a fair and non-discriminatory environment, the offer of services which the immigrant can use, in short, a whole complex of activities and corresponding services. Several European countries are moving to a situation in which the entire burden of meeting obligations lies only with the migrant. However, in the opinion of NGOs, it is crucial that the obligations of the first and second party should correspond. It is not possible, they argue, to require of an immigrant that within two years they learn fluent Czech if there do not exist sufficient good-quality and accessible Czech courses, or it is not possible to request the longest period of employment for the provision of certain advantages, e.g. subsidised accommodation, while not doing anything to combat discrimination and not providing social and legal aid, etc. If the mutual obligations are not equal, the risk that immigrants will not register on such a programme will increase, with all the negative consequences ensuing therefrom. The level and contents of these conditions should be the sovereign right of each society, but they should also be the topic of national discussions. Whatever the form and contents of the assistance provided and requirements made of immigrants in an effort to integrate them, the main point should always be the recognition that it is above all in the interests of our society and its social stability. And it is always a good thing to monitor what has worked and what has not, both in this country and in other countries of Western Europe and further afield.

Conclusion
The SIP is a measure which is intended to assist refugees with integrating into Czech society and to prevent them from being socially excluded and creating foreign enclaves, which might operate as a flashpoint between the majority and immigrants. Its limiting factor is its focus on a small group of immigrants – refugees, and it can only be hoped that this or a similar programme will in time be aimed at a broader group of immigrants.

• Stories and examples

As we have seen, Jami’s family was lucky and received a nice apartment. But most probably they had to make every effort – they had to do a course in Czech, show that they had enough money to pay the rent, demonstrate that they had been actively looking for a flat, etc. Now the whole family lives in the town with a great number of opportunities in terms of work, language and social integration in general. However, we shall use the following case to demonstrate the opposite. It should be emphasised that, although this is a classic example, it is not widespread. Similar fates repeat from time to time, with different details and above all with various endings, and it is good to show that the SIP does not always represent salvation, that sometimes an advantage does not always have to be a real advantage, etc. For the sake of illustration, we have chosen one story with a worse ending from the point of view of the efficiency of the SIP, and potentially from the point of view of the integration of a family into Czech society.

Mr. Khan’s family received asylum in 2002. Previously, they had lived in a refugee camp in Kostelec nad Orlicí. The family waited for three years for asylum and had begun to lose hope – they were thinking of following the example of others and heading for the West, if they had the money. But all their savings were gone. In addition, their two children were going to school, had learned perfect Czech, and were used to life here. And so the parents were reluctant to drag them away from an environment which they had become accustomed to. They felt safe here. Asylum gave them a greater sense of optimism. They hoped that now they could live a normal life, especially if they were offered participation on the State Integration Programme, with its promise of Czech lessons and their own accommodation. However, with the allocation of asylum they could not remain in the refugee centre, and with nowhere to go they were moved to an integration asylum centre (also run by the Ministry of the Interior), i.e. facilities for asylum seekers in Hoštka u Roudnice nad Labem. While Kostelec is small, but still a town, Hoštka is really just a village, and what’s more the integration asylum centre is 2 km away. This was unpleasant, especially for the children, who had to get to school every day during winter (both children were 10 years old),. The family felt very isolated, the promised Czech course was always being postponed (the location was apparently too far away for any of the tutors), their asylum-seeking neighbours were mostly Russian speakers whose Czech was much better and who didn’t speak much with the Khans. However, worst of all was the employment situation. There was no work in the place itself, and whenever a job became available, it was either a problem getting to work or getting home after work. Local transport was slow and infrequent. The Khans, with the help of an NGO, applied for an integration apartment in various parts of the CR, always where they expected better access to Czech courses and, above all, to work. After two years of effort, there were no concrete results, simply a few promises. And one day, about three years after being granted asylum and six years after arriving in the CR, the family received a letter from the Ministry of the Interior, in which they were offered an apartment in a small village some 30 kilometres from Litoměřice, with the proviso that if they did not accept it the family would be expelled from the integration asylum centre, since their participation on the SIP would be terminated. What was the family to do? It accepted the flat. However, the small village was similar to Hoštka: there was no work and many of the locals had never seen a foreigner in their lives, let alone from Afghanistan. If the Khans had exchanged a few words with the neighbours in the past, now they were completely dependent, above all on their children. The children brought them news and communicated with the locals. One day, the family moved. They stopped believing in the assistance of the SIP and the possibility of becoming normal citizens. Mr. Khan negotiated with one of his compatriots, a man in whom for many years he had placed no trust since the transportation from Afghanistan to Europe. He now works in a carpet shop in the centre of Prague, and the family lives in a rented flat in the suburbs, in a quarter where foreigners are beginning to outnumber Czechs.

• Sources

References:

Baršová, A. & Barša, P. (2006). Přistěhovalectví a liberální stát: imigrační a integrační politiky USA, západní Evropě a Česku (Immigration and the liberal state: the immigration and integration policy of the USA, Western Europe and the CR). Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Mezinárodní politologický ústav.

Uherek, Z. (2006). Analýza efektivnosti Státního integračního programu (An analysis of the effectiveness of the State Integration Programme).

Internet:

Centre for the Integration of Foreigners – www.cicpraha.org

The conception of the integration of foreigners in the CR. http://www.czso.cz/ciz/cizinci.nsf/i/koncepce_integrace_cizincu

The State Integration Programme of the Ministry of Interior of the CR – www.mvcr.cz