Přehled o publikaci

Since the early 1990s, when the Czech Republic has transformed into the main immigration destination among the V4 countries, can be identified several periods and milestones, which not only influenced the patterns of the international migration, but also the formation of the Czech migration policy. The aim of the chapter is to summarise and discuss recent developments in migration trends on general level, the demographic and socio-economic situation and migration governance in the period of 1989-2018. The chapter finds, that the trends characterising the current Czech migration policy, in contrast to high demand for labour force, is an increased effort to manage migration through stricter and more selective access to opportunities for foreigners. The restrictive trends in migration policies have been accompanied by explicit attempts to securitise migration in both, bureaucratic and political fields. This trend got most flagrant during the so-called migration crisis of 2015. Despite heated political debates, irregular migration flows affected the Czech Republic rather marginally, as the country was not a destination, but primarily a transit area for migrants and asylum seekers heading to Western and Northern Europe.