Climbing the paperwork mountain

Prior to the Czech Republic joining the European Union, media reports stated that the country needed an influx of qualified foreign workers, due to its aging population and declining birth rate. However, many foreigners who are university educated are struggling to find work that corresponds to their level of education and background, according to a survey by the Sociological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Czech Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

The study shows that foreigners who come from outside the EU have difficulty finding appropriate work. More than half of the foreigners in the Czech Republic work as unqualified labor at assembly lines, construction sites and in mines, while in their home countries 20 percent of them had better jobs, including leadership positions and professional work.

Going home?

As a result, only 48 percent of foreigners are convinced they will be living in the Czech Republic in five years. Another 11 percent of foreigners think they will most probably leave the Czech Republic and six percent are sure they will leave. According to the survey, the main problem is the complicated administration in the Czech Republic.

Vladimír Benáček, a senior fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Academy of Sciences, emphasized that in his experience of working in both academic and business- oriented international environments, he had not known of a single case in which a job applicant from an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country - non-OECD applicants are rare - had been discriminated against by the employers themselves, except when Czech language proficiency was a condition for admission. "At the same time Czech bureaucracy ... is exuberant and hardly imaginable to people with a standard approach to livelihood. But this is not a prejudice or discrimination from the side of employers. It is the state bureaucracy that discriminates," he added

Proving qualifications

Patrick Taran, senior migration specialist for specialized UN agency the International Labor Organization (ILO), said that one of the biggest problems for educated and skilled migrant workers universally is the frequent lack of equivalency tests and recognition of their qualifications in the host country.

"There is a need for some state intervention across Europe for common procedures for people coming from other areas so that they have access to equivalency and proficiency tests. The EU and the Council of Europe have been looking into common procedures," he said.

Taran said that across Europe there were industries that could benefit from introducing procedures to allow foreign workers to fill skills shortages. These included the IT industry, since it had expanded largely without national education systems in Europe keeping pace, while other countries like India have expanded their training.

According to Taran, countries such as the Czech Republic have no alternative to relying on foreign-born workers.

However, he added that only approximately three percent of EU members are living and working outside their country of origin. Thus, there is a need to provide more openings.

"The provision of opportunities to use the skills of people is extremely important to the Czech Republic if it wants to remain competitive not only in the broader European sense but also in the increasingly competitive global economy," he said.

A waste of human capital

Mans Martensson, a press officer for the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), an EU body, added that its research has also shown that migrant workers in EU countries tend to be segregated in unskilled occupations, are more likely to perform undeclared work and are poorly represented by trade unions.

"[Migrant workers] face higher unemployment rates and, when employed, are more likely to be overqualified for the job they do, representing a significant waste of human capital and considerable inequality. Moreover, they are exposed to considerable job insecurity," he said. Martensson added that migrant workers' poor working conditions can be linked to difficulties in obtaining a work permit, even in countries where there are labor supply shortages. They also face obstacles in acquiring citizenship and can thereby be excluded from access to such skilled occupations as public-sector employment and business activity.

Benefits of mobility

A 2005 Eurobarometer survey found that while too much geographical mobility could distort national labor markets, it was also found that too little could lead to a reduction in adaptability and competitiveness.

According to Martensson, Eurofound has seen some positive results from countries that have taken in a lot of foreign workers. He said that Ireland, Sweden and the UK have experienced a large influx of new workers, primarily from the 10 new EU member states, following EU enlargement in 2004 and the open door policy adopted by the three countries. "This large influx of workers has been good for all three economies," he said.

Eurofound's research has also found that six in 10 people in the EU consider geographical mobility to be a positive thing, as they believe it is healthy for the labor market and the economy generally, as well as for the individual. "I am sure that Czech industries in general would stand to benefit from foreign specialists, absolutely. The question is, however, if it is Czech or international businesses located in the Czech Republic that would be attractive for foreign experts, and hence, who stands to benefit," Martensson added.

Carrie Briffett

This is an edited version of an article originally published in Czech Business Weekly