According to official statistics of the Czech Government from 31.12.2005, the biggest group of migrants from Central Asia have been citizens of Kazakhstan. These numbers only include legal residents (with long-term visas or with a permanent residence permit): Kazakhstan - 2.247, Kyrgyzstan - 293, Tajikistan - 52, Turkmenistan - 18, and Uzbekistan - 363 people (1). While many Kazakhstanis are represented by the local student community in English-language universities, some of them come to the country illegally and are not represented in the official statistics. In Prague, you often stumble across Central Asian looking people distributing leaflets or cleaning the streets, each of them have a similar story to tell, no jobs at home, no proper education, and the hope that their children will have a better future here.

In the Centre for the Integration of Foreigners in the Czech Republic I met a young Central Asian girl. I tried to guess whether she was Kyrgyz or Kazakh, and after the language class we spoke about her long trip from Kazakhstan, enjoying a walk in the cold evening air back to the metro station.

Aiman, as I will call her, is from Taraz, a city in the South of Kazakhstan, with the population of a little over 330 thousand. As many smaller cities in the country, Taraz experienced a rough time after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when most industries came to a halt. Massive migration of Germans, Jews, and Russians followed. 72% of people who migrated in 2001 were of working age.

Aiman’s family came to the Czech Republic on a tourist visa. After two weeks, they applied for asylum, and after spending a month in a refugee camp, they moved to Prague. They are extending their visas every month, and since their chances of getting a “refugee” status are quite slim, their best prospects are to find jobs, enroll in universities, and try to integrate until they can receive permanent residence permits. So far, they are working without any legal arrangements, in the service industry.

So far, there are only about 3% - 300.000 foreigners in the 10.000.000 Czech Republic, since the country has opened its borders in the 1990s. Applicants from CIS recognised as refugees come from Belarus and Chechnya, while migrant workers are represented by citizens of Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine (2). There are integration programmes provided by NGOs and financed by the Czech Government and the European Union, which offer language courses, computer education, employment and legal consultations, and variety of socialising activities. The number of Central Asians, these Asian-looking people, who speak Russian and sometimes practice Islam is growing each year in this largely Atheist and still homogenous country.

I am interested in how Aiman’s family will do in the future, and it is sad seeing that for many Kazakhs, who should have benefited from the economy growth, being illegal in a foreign country is still better than being legal in their own.

1. Slovo. Bulletin pro Cizince a o Cizincích. 1/2006, 3 (A Word. Bulletin for Foreigners and about Foreigners).
2. The UN Refugee Agency, Country Operation Plan, Czech Republic 2006.