Position of migrants in the Czech labour market

Notes: Foreigners registered at labour offices by CZ-ISCO: top 20 countries (Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Viet Nam, Mongolia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Romania, Russia, Germany, UK, France, USA, Belarus, China, Japan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kazakhstan, India) for 2009; top 10 countries for 2008.

CZK 100 = €4.09 (as of 28 June 2011)

Source: Czech Statistical Office (Labour Force Survey and distribution of gross monthly earnings of employees by CZ-ISCO)

The findings confirm that the socioeconomic level of the country of origin of immigrants determines their labour market position in the Czech Republic. Workers from developed countries (EU15, Japan, USA) migrate primarily to the top categories of ISCO-88, whereas migrants from less developed countries – including other new EU Member States (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), Moldova, Ukraine and Vietnam – occupy particularly marginal and precarious posts in the bottom categories of ISCO-88. Jobs in these categories tend not to be taken by native Czech employees due to the low wages, poor working conditions and low social status.

Factors influencing the employment of migrants

The qualitative part of the research identified the following factors as influencing the position of foreign workers in the Czech labour market:

• economic and structural factors;

• the strategies of employers and job seekers;

• the life strategies of individual migrants.

These factors create mechanisms driving the integration of migrants into the Czech labour market and are discussed in turn below.

Economic and structural factors

Significant structural factors include:

• the economic cycle;

• workforce demand;

• development of job vacancies;

• legislation governing the employment of foreigners.

Trends in these areas are reflected in the development and nature of employment of migrant workers in the Czech Republic. Between 2005 and 2008, a period of economic growth, there was:

• a marked increase in the number of foreigners working in the Czech Republic;

• an increase in the number of job vacancies;

• a fall in the unemployment rate.

As a consequence of economic recession towards the end of 2008 and more markedly in 2009, a large number of foreign ‘flexi-workers’ were dismissed and the employment of foreigners (as registered at labour offices) slumped from 285,000 in 2008 to 231,000 in 2009.

Employer and job seeker strategies

The working conditions and quality of the jobs offered to foreigners reflect the recruitment strategies of employers who focus primarily on having a cheap and flexible workforce. As shown in the table, the majority of migrant workers are hired for elementary occupations and other manual jobs. The interviews with foreigners confirmed that the labour market position of such workers is manifested in a lower quality of labour relations and lower employee benefits.

Due to the demand for increasing flexibility, foreign ‘flexi-workers’ tend to be employed through non-standard and disadvantageous forms of employment such as temporary agency work, membership of cooperative trading companies or in bogus self-employment.

The social contacts of foreigners are usually limited to the foreigner community. This impacts on their integration into the labour market and affects the process of searching for a job. The interviews revealed that those foreigners whose work in the Czech Republic was arranged via an agency or a native Czech acting for a charge as an intermediary are particularly at a disadvantage. Such entities collect a part of their clients’ wages as a ‘fee’ for their services.

Strategy of temporary economic migration

The marginal labour market position of foreign workers is usually also a consequence of the life strategy adopted by migrants.

Temporary economic migrants are generally more willing to accept low-quality jobs in marginal labour market positions. Interviewed migrants were often willing to work for a lower agreed wage than most of the native population because the wage is significantly higher than their potential earnings in their country of origin. Earnings from abroad increase their social status and boost their living standards when they return home.

However, labour office statistics show that the recession had a significant influence on the availability of the kind of jobs normally taken by temporary economic migrants. While there was a significant increase in the proportion of foreigners employed for more than 12 months from 62% in 2008 to 79% in 2009, the number of short-term employed foreigners fell during this period. At the end of 2008, 36% of foreign workers were employed for 7–12 months; by the end of 2009, it was only 18%. These figures mean that, during the recession, foreign workers on long-term contracts were generally able to keep their jobs but that significant numbers of those on short-term contracts were forced to return home. It is possible, however, that some may just have disappeared from the national register and been absorbed into the informal economy.

References

Horáková, M., Vývoj pracovních migrací v České republice v období hospodářské recese (1.02Mb PDF) [The development of labour migration in the Czech Republic during the economic recession], RILSA, Prague, 2010.

Pořízková, H., ‘Segmentace trhu práce jako faktor integrace cizinců na trhu práce’ [Labour market segmentation as a factor of foreigners’ integration in the labour market], in Trbola, R. and Rákoczyová, M. (eds.), Vybrané aspekty života cizinců v České republice (965Kb PDF) [Selected aspects of foreigners’ life in the Czech Republic], RILSA, Prague, 2010, pp. 13–32.

Hana Pořízková, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs