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RESEARCH PAPER
Is Czechia an immigration country? Evidence from civic integration policies
 
 
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Department of European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic
 
 
Submission date: 2022-08-26
 
 
Final revision date: 2022-12-30
 
 
Acceptance date: 2023-01-04
 
 
Online publication date: 2023-04-13
 
 
Publication date: 2023-04-13
 
 
Corresponding author
Anna Lukešová   

Department of European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Pekařská 10, 15800, Prague, Czech Republic
 
 
Problemy Polityki Społecznej 2022;59(4):267-287
 
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ABSTRACT
In Western Europe, the first integration policies emerged in the 1980’s as a reaction to the long-term settlement of foreign workers, originally perceived as temporary migration, transforming these countries into immigration ones. Based on this West-European experience, the article claims that Czechia has evolved into an immigration country in the last two decades, providing evidence from its integration policies. It shows how Czechia implements so-called “civic integration policies”, a novel form of integration approach promoted by West-European countries since the end of the 1990’s, inquiring in what aspects Czech civic integration policies resemble and differ from the West-European examples. For this purpose, the research offers a qualitative comparison with Austria as a representative of such a West-European experience. As a result, it brings new knowledge on immigrant integration policies in a region neglected in migration studies, while supporting the argument that immigration to Czechia has turned into a constant trend, requiring a complex set of integration policies in order to tackle successfully this new reality.
 
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