Pavel Barsa
        Project Title:
        Managing Immigration and Integration of New Minorities in Central Europe:
        The Case of the Czech Republic
      
         Final Activity Report. Period: March 2003 – March 2004

          The main task of this project has been to use the experiences of western countries for the construction of a framework for immigration and integration policies in the Czech Republic and to promote the ideas of this framework both with Czech government agencies and the general public.
       
      1. Work on the Research Paper
      To fulfil the task I have had to combine the work with secondary literature, which covers and evaluates western experiences (Chapters 1 – 2), with the work with primary sources regarding recent developments in the EU (Chapter 3). As far as the Czech policies over the last four years have been concerned (Chapter 4), the “first hand” analysis of recent official documents has been complemented by consultations with experts and government officials (both from the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Social Affairs). Due to a lack of secondary literature and policy analyses of current developments, I have had to rely only on myself in the evaluations of the Czech immigration and integration policies.

       2. Conferences
      (a) I gave a paper "Immigration and Integration in Contemporary Europe" at the Sixth International Seminar: "Democracy and Human Rights in Multiethnic Societies", organized by Institute for Strengthening Democracy in Bosnia, July 7-11, 2003, Konjic, Bosnia.
      (b) I participated in a plenary discussion panel "The Impact of Migration on National Identities – comparing ideas about membership and minority rights in receiving countries" at the 8th International Metropolis Conference, held in Vienna from 16 - 19 September 2003.
      On both occasions, I used the comparative framework of various types of immigration and integration policies worked out in Chapter 1.
  
     3. Work with Non-governmental Organizations
     I have been collaborating with the Multicultural Centre Prague (I am a member of its Program Council) and the People in Need Foundation in Prague: I have written two press articles (see Publications) within their joint  "Migration Project", which started in October 2002 with the help of the Open Society Fund.

    4. Consultations with Foreign Experts
    February 28 – March 2, 2004 I made a research trip to Paris. Besides research in libraries and book purchase, I met and consulted with two experts on immigration and integration policies in France:
Yves Sintomer, Professor at Université Paris VIII, Saint-Denis,
Patrick Simon, Research Fellow at Institut National d Etudes Demographiques, Paris.  
    
    5. Publications
    Within the Migration project (see the previous section) I published two articles, one about the implementation of a recent British White Paper on Migration (a), the other about the need to transform a Czech nationhood from an ethnic to civic type so that the Czech Republic may become a multicultural country and open itself towards immigrants.
    (a) Brany ostrovni pevnosti se pootevrely (The Gates of the Island Fortress Half Opened), co-authored by Andrea Barsova, Hospodarske noviny, December 6 – 8, 2002,
    (b) Od kmene k obcanstvi. Budoucnost Evropy patri multikulturnim narodum (From Tribesmen to Citizens. The Future of Europe Lies with Multicultural Nations), Respekt, June 23, 2003, http://mkc.cz/clanky.shtml?x=139650
 
        6. Promoting and Disseminating the Results
         In June 2003, I  was commissioned a policy paper on Czech immigration and integration policies with regard to western European experiences by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I have submitted the paper by the end of December 2003. The paper summarizes the results of the IPF research in the Czech language and will become a resource for senior officials of the ministry. At present, I am reworking the paper so that it may be published in the series of Working Papers of the Institute of International Relations (a research institute affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Once it is published, I will send copies to both governmental and non-governmental institutions that are involved in the process of policy making and/or policy influencing. I also plan to write one or two newspaper articles in which I will state the main conclusions and recommendations of my research in the form suitable for the general public. The last but not the least important fact regarding the promotion of  my results is that one of my mentors is the head of the Department for Integration and Immigration at the Ministry of Social Affairs. As of January 1, 2004, this department got virtually the whole field of immigration and integration policies under its responsibility. My mentor  has positively evaluated both the general perspective and concrete recommendations of my policy paper. Thus, I may have a reasonable hope that he will use at least some ideas of my work in his policy making activities.  

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