Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Interaction, migration and change
Migration from the former Soviet Union 213 age for the labour force. Frontiers were easily penetrable, offers for labour were numerous, and competition in the labour market was only emerging. Many people from Subcarpathian Ukraine took only their passports, as they could stay legally in the Czech Lands for three months, and looked for temporary illegal work with minimal risks. Some of them subsequently found accommodation and legal work offers and so began arranging long term, and ultimately permanent, residence for themselves and for their families. Data indicate that the Czech Republic was most open to aliens in both long-term and permanent migration between 1995 and 1998. At that time, we noticed the largest increase of immigrants on the basis of permanent and long-term migration (see table 1), while the number of work permits issued for people from abroad culminated in 1996. In a comparison of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia, “by far the largest number of work permits were granted in the Czech Republic” (Wallace and Stola 2001: 30). Table 1. Numbers of aliens with long-term sojourns Year Permanent sojourns Long-term sojourns Total figures 199» 27204 7695 35198 1991 28457 9204 38002 1992 29145 20428 49957 1993 31072 46070 77668 1994 32468 71230 104352 1995 38557 120060 159207 1996 45837 152767 199152 1997 56281 153516 210311 1998 63919 155836 220187 1999 66754 162108 228862 2000 66891 134060 200951 Subsequently, a decrease in the number of legal workers from Ukraine in 1996 -1997 was caused by economic problems in the Czech Republic and by the gradual changes in its
