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
214 Zdenëk Uherek - Katerina Plochová policy versus the CIS countries. During the second half of the 1990s, a prevailing view among the Czech public was that criminality had increased in the country due to, first, the presence of foreign nationals and, second, people from the former Soviet Union. The tendency to regulate strictly the migration flow to the Czech Republic culminated in 2000, when visas requirements were introduced for citizens of CIS countries. In 2000, a new law was also passed concerning residence permits for aliens (326/1999 Sb.). Nevertheless, in the Czech Republic in December 2000, there were 201,000 aliens who had migration permits for visas longer then three months. This figure was six times more than in 1990 (Populační' vývoj...2001: 69).4 Nevertheless, the number of aliens in the Czech Republic was caused not only by the situation in the Czech labour market, but also by developments in the transmitting countries. For instance, in Ukraine, many people chose migration as a way of solving their economic problems. Thus migration increased considerably. Labour migration from Ukraine has a strong tradition, in particular in Western Ukraine, where the temporary migration of male workers, primarily to Russia, for various types of casual manual work was already a well-established pattern before 1990 (Bedzir 2001: 208). In 1994, for the first time, emigration exceeded immigration with migration losses amounting to 143,200 persons (CIS Migration Report 1996: 126). An increasing tendency to migrate from Ukraine to other states, as well as increasing obstacles erected by receiving states (such as the introduction of visas), has modified Ukrainians' forms of migration. For instance the years 2000 and 2001 were characterized by numerous abuses of asylum procedures in the Czech Republic by members of the CIS labour force. The reason for this was that asylum seekers could receive work permits without any obstacles. Consequently, while the number of foreign workers showed a slight decrease, the number of refugees and asylum seekers
