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
224 Zdenëk Uherek - Kateňna Plochová After the introduction of the visa duty, spontaneous work migrations have become so expensive and complicated that very few families can do it. Working migration has become the domain of specialised firms that feed the labour market with unqualified working force. In addition, the protection of Czech workers in the labour market has prompted changes in which individual workers from abroad appear like traders (holders of trade licence) (for more information see: Horáková 2001). Whereas in the first half of the 1990s kinship ties played an important role in the process of selecting work possibilities, in the late 1990s, contacts were developed according to professional, dehumanised connections and on a purely economic basis. The institutionalisation of migration produced powerful organisations that could be more dangerous than the otherwise loosely controlled spontaneous migration of individuals. The CIS countries’ workforces in the Czech labour market will not enjoy the same conditions as those enjoyed by native residents, for a long time. Nevertheless, the case of re-settlers from the Chernobyl area and from Kazakhstan shows us that the government’s active politics can protect immigrants from people who prey on migration. Labour migrants lack information, language ability, and sufficient networking; and in fact, neither guest workers nor their counterparts in the Czech Republic have invented suitable tools for gradual improvements. This is difficult because of the rapid exchange of people. Nevertheless, the challenge for the work of NGOs in the Czech Lands and in Ukraine is explicit. References Bedzir, V. (2001), ‘Migration from Ukraine to Central and Eastern Europe’. In C. Wallace and D. Stola (eds.) Patterns of Migration in Central Europe. New York: Basingstoke, Palgrave Publishers. CIS Migration Report 1996. Geneva: International Organisation for Migration.
