The latest study MIPEX 2015 was released in Slovakia last week, via the MIPEX partner in Slovakia, the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), showing how Slovakia is neglecting the integration of immigrants.
To mark the release, a specific press conference was given together with an open public forum to discuss the kind of problems facing immigrants to the country. During the press conference MIPEX findings for Slovakia were presented by Thomas Huddleston (Migration Policy Group, Brussels) and Martina Sekulová and Oľga Gyárfášová (both Institute for Public Affairs). MIPEX 2015 Slovakia – press release (pdf, in Slovak).
The public discussion, which took place in the Polish cultural institute as part of the [fjúžn] festival, had the title „What conditions does Slovakia create for migrants?“ Discussants were: Thomas Huddleston, Migration Policy Group; Zuzana Vatráľová, director of the IOM Slovakia, Martin Kahanec, expert on labor migration, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI), CEU a IZA; Miroslava Hlinčíková, analyst, Institute of ethnology SAV/Institute for Public Affairs and Huong Gašparovská from the Union of Vietnamese women. Discussion was moderated by Laco Oravec, Milan Šimečka Foundation.
The integration of migrants in Slovakia lags behind even that of its neighbours, Poland and the Czech Republic, with Slovakia occupying 34 th spot from 38 countries in the MIPEX 2015 report, which focuses on immigration policies. Slovakia has had disappointing results in this area for some time, denoting that it has basically made no progress in this area in the past decade.
Moving to Slovakia, especially from outside the European Union (EU) can be complicated, both in terms of qualifying to work here and overall social integration. Employment can be particularly difficult to get, with foreigners not able to take jobs in the public sector, for instance. Slovakia is second last (37th) in the survey in terms of access to the labour market.