About three months ago, in reaction to criticism that Slovakia's migration and integration policy is about 10 years old and does not reflect the reality in the field, the Interior Ministry announced that it was working on a new document that should be valid until 2025. The draft "Migration policy of the Slovak Republic until 2025" was released and submitted to a so-called interdepartmental review - a process in which various stakeholders and the public could submit comments to it. Then it will be discussed by the Government, and if adopted it should serve as a kind of guidelines on dealing with migrants, especially in the area of integration.
But before we take a look at that 16 page-long draft with an expert, I asked our listeners who are foreigners living in Slovakia to send us proposals of measures they would take in order to improve the integration of foreigners in Slovakia. Yes, improving the activity of the Foreign Police was on everybody's lips, or better said keyboards. But other interesting ideas were mentioned too, so I'll quote some:
"End the assumption that everyone can adapt 100% to Slovakia from the first day they arrive. Obviously, nobody wants to end the paramount role of the Slovak language as the symbol of the autonomy of the Slovak nation but you don't look like a self-confident, sovereign nation by refusing to speak English at the foreign police office -- it comes off as if there's a massive chip on the shoulder."
"Ask for opinions from foreigners and be open to change."
"Make life easier for the foreigners who would like to integrate and live in Slovakia: free Slovak language courses; translation services; remove barriers to access key services (doctors, governmental organisations - incl. their websites); positive cross media promotion of foreigners living in Slovakia."
"Appreciate our role in the country economy as investors."
"Criminalize and punish those involved in extreme-right wing organizations, make an example of those who attack foreigners in the streets, and assist foreigners in getting the legal assistance they need when necessary. Also, retrain local law enforcement so they know how to act in such cases."
"Recognize same-sex relationships under law so that such couples can live together in Slovakia if one of them is a third-country national. Encourage more non-native citizens and permanent residents to work in the state sector, for example, in a new immigration service."
Now back to the draft migration policy up to 2025. It deals with combating illegal migration and human trafficking, as well as with legal migration. I will focus on the legal migration in this report. The first surprise: the document contains no statistics. It defines a foreigner as somebody who is not a Slovak citizen, and deals with various aspects of migration without a single mention of how many migrants have been living in Slovakia, either since the last time a similar document was approved or at the end of last year at least. Statistics are available, even publicly on the website of the Interior Ministry. For example, at the end of June this year there were 145,940 foreigners with residence in Slovakia, be it temporary or permanent. There were also 220 applications for asylum and 10 people who got asylum in Slovakia.
Social psychologist Alena Holka Chudžíková from the non-governmental organisation the Center for Research of Ethnicity and Culture (CVEK), who has been analysing attitudes towards migrants in Slovakia for years, was also surprised by this lack of data.
Migration policy until 2025
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