Internal Defense of Doctoral Thesis

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Internal Defense of Doctoral Thesis

• Selma Muhic Dizdarevic M.A.
• Faculty of Social Sciences
• Department of Public and Social Policy
• In Prague, 14 January 2009

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Basic information

• Title Immigration and Integration Policies of
  the European Union and the Czech Republic and
  their Relation to the Civil Society Organizations
  and Other Relevant Stakeholders in the Czech
  Republic
• Supervisor Prof. PhDr. Martin Potucek, CSc.,
  MSc.

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Structure of presentation

• Goals of the thesis
• Methodology
• Results

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Goals

• The main goal of this dissertation is to find out
  if civil society organizations (CSOs) are able to
  influence interpretation of the problem of
  position of immigrants1 in the Czech society
  concerning relevant policies. In order to answer
  this question I structured the work into four
  subfields and I will explain their relation to
  the main issue of this work 1 See further in
  the text for more sophisticated classification of
  the term immigrant.

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Goals

• 1. to describe and evaluate current theories of
  minority rights, where the major issue is how to
  reconcile values of individual rights with
  demands of collective rights.
• This objective should be primarily seen as
  normative framework implicitly used by the CSOs
  as criterion for shaping and evaluation of the
  relevant public policy in this matter.
• The other aspects of the dissertation should then
  show if they are successful or not in promoting
  the defined normative framework in their relation
  to decision-makers in political arena.

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Goals

• 2. to describe the current structure of relevant
  European Union (EU) and Czech Republic (CR)
  policies in the field of immigration and
  integration. In the latter case I will also
  analyze space given to civil society
  organizations (CSOs) in the defined field, namely
  which CSOs are seen as desirable partners for the
  Czech governmental bodies dealing with issues of
  immigration and integration and which project
  objectives are set for them in order to qualify
  for allocation of financial means.
• This aspect of the work should display the
  mindset of the decision-makers concerning the
  given policies i.e. how they set up the rules of
  the game in relation to particular minorities I
  am dealing with in this work.

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Goals

• 3. to explore through qualitative empirical
  research the role of the selected CSOs in the
  process of integration and to set the role into
  the perspectives of the selected governmental
  representatives and selected refugees.
• The main issue here is how integration process is
  defined by governmental bodies, how this concept
  is perceived or changed by the CSOs and what is
  the feedback of the subjects of the policy,
  namely of refugees.
• The three set of stakeholders (governmental
  representatives, CSO representatives and
  refugees) form a certain agenda related to
  integration which is set into wider political
  arena.

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Goals

• 4. to explore through qualitative empirical
  research potential for political participation of
  refugees and asylum-seekers in the CR from the
  perspective of the CSO representatives and de
  facto or de iure refugees.
• Although number of refugees and asylum-seekers in
  the Czech society is currently low, the question
  of their empowerment and integration through
  political participation will no doubt increase in
  importance considering the similar processes
  throughout the EU.
• In both researches the question is how
  governmental policies are perceived and if CSOs
  think they can influence their shaping or change.

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Goals

• The four objectives therefore answer the
  questions why do we need minority rights and how
  do we justify them in order to expose normative
  framework the CSOs work with
• how concrete structure of policy related to
  specific minority group (i.e. immigrants,
  refugees, asylum-seekers and irregular migrants)
  looks like (levels of power, strategic and
  conceptual documents, allocation of financial
  means, cooperation and role given to the civil
  sector) i.e. what are the key features of the
  political establishments mindset
• how concept of integration works for the relevant
  stakeholders and can they influence it
• and is there potential in political participation
  in the future as mode to increase level of
  empowerment of the minority groups and CSOs which
  represent them.
• In terms of the definition of the problem these
  four objectives are combined on macro and micro
  levels (EU and the Czech national policies and
  setting of the Czech civil society scene) the
  overall model of the main problems is conceptual
  (verbal) in theoretical part the model is
  normative and in practical perspective
  descriptive and it bears signs of the dynamic
  model. (Veselý, A., Nekola, M. eds. 2007214)

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Public policy methodology

• Model A-A-A understands public policy as
  interactive process of combining various
  stakeholders in creating partial stakes and
  influencing public policy. (Potucek et al. 2005
  47) Arenas are defined as a space in which
  individual stakeholders enter relations of
  cooperation/consensus and/or competition/conflict.
  
• Therefore political agenda is created in
  communication of the stakeholders. This model
  sees creation of political agenda as dynamic or
  liquid process in which reactions of
  stakeholders and their different perspectives and
  arenas in which they meet constantly change,
  influence and define the agenda.

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Public policy method

• Therefore in terms of analysis and definition of
  the problem I selected the stakeholder analysis
  which strives to identify relevant groups and
  organizations that are affected by the given
  policies in order to understand their acting,
  intentions, mutual relations in order to define
  their influence, resources and interest in
  implementation of the given policy.
• The stakeholder analysis is used in this work to
  define positions and attitudes of the relevant
  stakeholders towards the issue of integration and
  political participation and their mutual
  relations.
• The stakeholders are chosen according to the
  given criteria the problem concerns them, they
  have interest in the problem and they have active
  or passive influence on solving the problem. The
  stakeholder analysis should be seen as research
  stakeholder analysis (see Veselý, Nekola
  2005226).

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Methodology

• In theoretical part
• analysis of different approaches to the questions
  of public policy analysis, theories of
  multiculturalism and related issues of
  recognition, redistribution and representation.
• the power opportunity structures (POS analysis)
  to define the field of analysis for the synergy
  and clashes between governing bodies and the
  civil society. This method defines what is and
  what is not possible within the given societal
  framework, not only from the legal point of view,
  which is basic, but also from the point of view
  of various practices of inclusion and exclusion.
• Analysis of the different authors
  interpretations of civil society provides clues
  and guidelines for practical analysis of the
  given policies and developments in the field of
  immigration and integration.

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Methodology

• In empirical policy analysis part
• In the case of empirical research of the team of
  researchers I managed, we used qualitative
  analysis of the NGOs active in the field of
  migration of selected minorities in the CR as
  well as semi-structured interviews and analysis
  of their programs according to given parameters
  and indicators of our analysis.
• The second empirical research based on
  qualitative analysis and structured interviews
  with the respondents.
• In the this part of my work I used primary and
  secondary analysis, statistical data
  interpretation, semi-structured interviews with
  parties involved and qualitative analysis of
  programs, proclamations, policy documents, legal
  framework, civil society organizations statutes
  as well as historical analysis.

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Results of the normative framework analysis

• The theoretical framework pointed me in the
  direction of finding balance between individual
  and collective rights i.e. incorporation of
  liberal and communitarian concerns and requests.
  In my view, the analysis of the theoretical
  framework showed that individual rights at least
  in the EU framework remain the crucial tool for
  assessment of justified claims of the various
  groups in the societies. But it also pointed out
  that collective rights are not necessarily
  limitations to the individual rights. On the
  contrary, collective rights properly formulated
  may lead to strengthening of individual rights.
  This also means that we cannot a priori reject
  the concept of collective rights or interpret
  them as detrimental for the concept of individual
  rights.
• In terms of polity I proposed the framework of
  balance between the individual and collective
  rights with addition that where those clash, we
  follow the path of individual rights.

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Results of the EU policy analysis

• Through the analysis of the EU and the Czech
  policies set to tackle the issues of immigration
  and integration I came to the conclusion that the
  agendas are still easier to manage at the
  national than at the EU level.
• In terms of immigration, the EU policy seems to
  be focused predominantly on restrictions, curbing
  the asylum migration and promoting context of
  security while the immigration policy for job
  migration seems to be much less worked out. The
  EU cooperation in this matter as well as the
  attempts to formulate a unified political formula
  are guided by the idea of finding a common path
  to restricting immigration not to managing it.
  The immigration is perceived in the principles of
  the common policy as a process which has to be
  restricted and in some cases even stopped. That
  is why the strongest elements of the EU
  cooperation can be found in the common asylum
  policy, which is the most structured part of the
  common policy.
• The other elements are then related to combat
  against the irregular migration, restrictions on
  family migration, etc.
• In case of asylum policy, its restrictiveness
  resulting in some cases to equalizing the
  position of an asylum seeker to potential
  criminal, I think it is necessary to reexamine
  the institution of asylum in the current EU
  formation and subsequent policies for integration
  of successful asylums seekers i.e. the refugees.
  The research carried out in the CR among the
  civil society organizations showed repeatedly
  that initial passiveness concerning integration
  may lead to permanent exclusion from the society.

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Results of the EU policy analysis

• Job migration The EU currently profits from the
  presence of migrants in this sense because they
  cover certain gaps on the job markets but it
  seems that it is a random effect of the
  immigration policy rather than the goal of the
  long-term job migration policy
• The question to what degree a common immigration
  and integration policy is possible based on the
  analysis of the policies at the EU and Czech
  level and given the different immigration history
  of the individual Member States.
• As we have seen, the EU is perceived by the
  selected CSOs as major player in the field of
  financing but not in contributing to the adequate
  policies. The question of asylum, integration of
  refugees, undocumented migrants but also social
  stratification, urban ghettoization or challenges
  for secularism do not play an equally significant
  role in all the Member States. On the contrary in
  the CR we saw that both some state administration
  representatives and the CSO saw some of these
  issues (like asylum and refugee issues) as not
  having such an important role in the Czech public
  space.
• I may add that here we arrive at the point where
  it is necessary to state that national minorities
  (i.e. the Roma) represent a bigger challenge in
  the CR than the asylum policy with very low
  recognition rates.

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Results of the CZ policy analysis

• The Czech immigration and integration policies,
  as should be obvious from my analysis, are much
  more detailed and worked out than the
  corresponding policies of the EU.
• If we make conclusions about the Czech policies
  from the point of view of strategic documents
  that the Czech government adopted, we might say
  that the field of the relevant policies is well
  covered. All the relevant aspects of the policies
  i.e. asylum, irregular, legal migration and
  refugee are covered by the corresponding policy
  documents.
• Asylum, irregular and refugee migration/integratio
  n are more under the EU influence than the legal
  migration and integration. However, we do not
  always find concrete supporting policies in
  place. The whole direction of the development of
  the policies follows the general restrictive line
  of the EU policies, but we must stress the
  autonomous efforts to establish the programs for
  labor migration.
• Lack of efficient policy in the field of
  education.

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Results of empirical researches

• All the respondents stressed the low number of
  refugees and a relatively low number of asylum
  seekers as relevant for invisibility and
  sometimes indifference in the given field. The
  CSOs in the field are focused mostly on the
  provision of legal or social help both in the
  cases when the state does not provide this and as
  supportive activities where the state does
  provide such help.
• It is important to understand that the CSO sector
  is predominantly financed by the Czech ministries
  or from the EU funds administered by the relevant
  Czech governmental bodies or (less frequently)
  foundations. This and the indifference towards
  the subject of immigration and integration both
  in public and political discourse lead to the
  situation in which the relevant governmental
  bodies and the CSOs are much interconnected
  forming almost a closed group as stated by all
  sets of stakeholders. Within this group they
  sometimes have similar problems (as in the case
  of lack of independence of refugees) but
  sometimes they stand on the opposite sides
  (mainly in the case of introduction of new
  restrictive legislation). To some degree, this
  also brings about the question of independent
  position of the CSOs towards the governmental
  sector. The independence is problematic because
  of financial sources but on the other hand we
  should not forget that in many aspects the CS
  sector became indispensable for the governmental
  sector in the integration process.
• Therefore we may say that CSOs do not have power
  but their influence is undisputable.

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Results of empirical researches

• The CSOs have to follow the general framework of
  the policies. However they try to influence them
  mainly through initiatives of the legal nature.
  There is a strong presence of legal experts in
  the field followed by the social workers. It
  seems that provision of the feed back to the
  governmental policies is crucial for the
  governmental bodies. Due to the close contact
  with clients and the trust the clients have in
  the CSOs, their role is crucial. They do provide
  a perspective, which cannot be obtained through
  the instruments of the governmental policies.

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Results of empirical researches

• The EU policy is seen mainly in the context of
  its reflection in the national policies. The CSOs
  have no direct access to the EU policies or civil
  society structures mainly due to the lack of
  financial means and staff to develop such
  activities.
• They tend to see efforts for the single policy in
  the field of integration as unnecessary since
  they see the local conditions for the policy as
  the most important. In terms of the influence
  upon the national policy they tend to see their
  own work as a very slow and gradual process of
  developing pressure and surveillance over
  policies and their possible change. This applies
  both to the EU and the national level.
• The CSOs monitor the transmission of the EU
  legislation into the Czech legislation but fail
  to influence such policies at the EU level when
  they see them as unfair. On the other hand, when
  the EU policies are seen as positive for the
  migrants, the CSOs tend to develop pressure for
  their implementation.

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Results of empirical researches

• Both researches showed that the CSOs fail to
  include into their activities migrants as
  activists and tend to see them as clients. As one
  of the respondent of the research on political
  participation stated, the NGOs are currently for
  the refugees not by the refugees. This is the
  space for future development of the third sector
  in this field.
• Civil society participation can be used as a
  channel for the future political participation,
  which would increase both rights but also
  responsibilities of the refugees once they reach
  the status of citizens. But currently, as the
  research showed, the potential of political
  participation is not used.

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General conclusion

• In terms of public policy analysis discourse the
  most fundamental answer to the basic question of
  the thesis namely if CSOs can influence shaping
  and implementation of the relevant public
  policies in the field of immigration and
  integration can be in my opinion best described
  through Lindbloms concept of incremental
  variation (Veselý, Nekola eds. 2007257).
• The CSOs are unable to put through their
  differences from the political establishment view
  in shaping and implementing policies,
  nevertheless since they are de facto
  indispensable in implementation of some aspects
  of the policies they do apply method of
  step-by-step minor changes and pressures in the
  given field.