The arrival of Ukrainian refugees as an opportunity to advance migrant integration policy

ABSTRACT

The Czech Republic has received the largest number of Ukrainian refugees per capita. An underdeveloped migrant integration policy and limited experience with large numbers of refugees hampered the Czechs’ willingness to help. The reception phase relied heavily on crisis teams, volunteers, and civil society organizations. Accommodating structural measures became necessary. This article takes a closer look at these changes and explains how the large number of Ukrainian refugees constitutes an “external shock” that has shaped Czech migrant integration policy in several key aspects. We also examine the role of international organizations in shaping migrant integration policy. We use the research framework of historical institutionalism, applying retrograde analysis, desk research and deep semi-structured interviews. Our results show that migration policy has been skewed in the short-term towards better acceptance of migrants, but we can identify a tendency towards a return to the original trajectory. We also find that international organizations have not had a substantial influence on recent changes in migrant integration policy; domestic actors have had a much greater influence.

KEYWORDS:

• Czech Republic
• Ukrainian refugees
• migrant integration policy
• public policy
• actors
• historical institutionalism
• retrograde analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The MoI understands migration and integration through the prism of securitisation and has deliberately built up its power over most migration and migrant integration issues over decades (cf. Gheorghiev 2023; Zogata-Kusz 2020).

2 The World Health Organization (WHO) also cooperates with the Ministry of Health in relation to Ukrainian forced migrants. The WHO's involvement is limited and concerns, for example, the provision of data or analyses.

Additional information

Funding

The article was supported by the project Migrant Integration Through Education (MINTE), which has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Erasmus + Programme.

Notes on contributors

Marie Jelínková

Marie Jelínková, PhD, works at the Department of Public and Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. Her academic and research interests are in the fields of migrant policies and migrant integration policies.

Michal Plaček

Michal Plaček is an associate professor at the Department of Public and Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. He is also global research affiliate at Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative at Arizona State University.

František Ochrana

Prof. František Ochrana deals with scientific methodology, public finance, decision-making in public administration and public procurement. Recently, he has focused on optimized resource allocation and efficiency in the public sector.